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As India goes digital, unsuspecting victims lose life savings to social media scams
- Cybercrimes are not new to India but a new wave of such crimes is spreading, in which victims are promised money for liking social media content
- Scammers are also using social media platforms to convince victims of their legitimacy and such crimes are often difficult to detect, say experts
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Ankita Pandey, 28, had been on a maternity break for over 18 months, and was itching to get back to work. Her career had suffered after her company shut just after the pandemic began.
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For weeks, Pandey sent in applications and uploaded her resume to online job portals, but had little luck. When she finally received a message in March, it felt like her prayers had been answered.
It was a work-from-home opportunity, just like she wanted. All she had to do was invest money and get close to 30 per cent returns on it after completing some “tasks” on social media.
Pandey received 2,800 rupees (US$34) within minutes of finishing her first such task – to follow accounts and like some posts on Instagram. A few more likes later, Pandey had invested 10,000 rupees and earned 15,000 rupees.
Buoyed, Pandey kept pouring in money, waiting for higher returns.
In the next 24 hours, she sent in 90,000 rupees, until she had nothing left in her account. But her manager continued asking for more money if she wanted to get her cash back.
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That was when she realised that she had been conned of all her savings.
She isn’t alone.
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