Man Loses Rs. 40 Lakh in YouTube ‘Likes’ Scam
A man residing in Moraiya, Ahmedabad, was recently deceived by an online fraud and suffered a significant loss of Rs. 40 lakh. The scam was executed through a YouTube ‘likes’ scheme, adding to the growing number of individuals falling prey to work-from-home scams and losing substantial amounts of money.
3D designer Devang Chauhan lost ₹40,000 after he was duped by a fake job offer promising easy money. On April 21, Chauhan received a message on Whatsapp from an unknown number. He called the number to find out more and was offered a job “liking” and promoting YouTube videos. The man promised to pay him good money for this.
Chauhan received the first payment of ₹150 in his account and was added to a Telegram group with other people who were also earning. Before starting the assignment, he had to pay an advance payment of ₹1,500. However, he got a refund and an extra ₹400 after completing the first task. In total, he received ₹1,900, which covered the commission and fringe benefits.
Chauhan then paid ₹2,050 for the next task but did not receive any money in return. Then various people who contacted him offered him bigger roles, and he believed it was a legitimate opportunity. He even joined other Telegram groups to get more tasks. He ended up paying around ₹30 lakh to get more assignments, but he never received any money for the work done.
When Chauhan tried to get the money back, the fraudsters blocked him. They claimed that she had given a negative review and used it as an excuse not to pay her. They even forced him to pay 11 lakhs in taxes to release the payment!
Chauhan realized that he had been cheated and lodged a complaint with the police. The case is now being investigated.
The lesson here is that everyone online needs to pay more attention to what’s going on. Whenever someone, especially a stranger, promises something that sounds too good to be true, it probably is and should be ignored. It is very important to be careful with any scheme that promises easy money.
