A 43-year-old woman from Hyderabad lost over ₹14 lakh in an online part-time job scam that began with a seemingly harmless offer to post Google reviews and quickly escalated into high-pressure cryptocurrency ‘investment tasks’ through a fake trading platform.
The victim was initially contacted via WhatsApp by an individual identifying herself as ‘Avanti Sneha’, who offered ₹40 per Google review. She was then asked to join a Telegram group named “VIP Diamond Digitl,” run under the handle @Kritisingh4569874. After receiving small payments for a few initial tasks, the woman was introduced to a handler referred to as ‘Teacher’, who began assigning her a series of pre-paid investment tasks.
These tasks required the victim to buy and sell cryptocurrency through a fraudulent website, under the pretext of earning returns. At one point, she was told she had mistakenly clicked a ‘buy more’ option and would need to invest additional funds to rectify the error. Shortly thereafter, her account on the site was ‘frozen’, and she was asked to pay further amounts in the name of tax and service fee to retrieve her earnings.
The situation worsened when she was referred to another handler, a supposed finance agent, who continued to demand additional payments under various pretexts. Despite making multiple transfers totalling ₹14,08,964, the woman was still unable to withdraw her funds. The scammers eventually refused to return any money and insisted she pay an additional 50% of the invested amount to ‘unlock’ her account.
Realising she had been duped, the victim filed an online complaint with the cybercrime wing of the Hyderabad police. Investigation into the case is underway.
Published – June 26, 2025 12:22 am IST
