More than 20 cases of work from home fraud have been registered with the city cybercrime police station in Bangalore in the past one month.
Abhinav Kumar
As many people in Bengaluru turn to freelancing, the I-T city sees a surge in the number of ‘work from home’ job fraud cases. City cybercrime police department has registered more than 20 work from home fraud complaints in the past one month.
Vivek Kumar resident of Kengeri said, “ Through LinkedIn a company offered me a work from home job, in November, and asked me to pay Rs 1000 for security purposes. But after I paid the amount, neither did I ever hear from the company nor did I get my money back..
Work from home fraud is an online crime in which the victims are lured by a good paying job offer and are asked to work as a freelancer for the company. Perpetrator sometimes extort money from the applicant, either by charging them a fee as an advance security deposit or by asking them to invest in the company.
The youth of Bengaluru are more prone to fall in the work from home trap as many students while pursuing their studies, prefer to work from home as a freelancer to gain experience and earn money.
Raman Maheshwari, a student, said, “I was asked to pay Rs 2000 before starting my freelancing, and I’ve done many online internships before, so I figured out that something is wrong. I reported the scam to Cybercrime cell.”
Saddam Hussain, another student had a similar experience where he received an email regarding a paid work from home job offer. “After the Skype interview, the interviewer confirmed my job, but I was taken aback when they asked me to pay Rs 2500 as a security deposit. I talked to my friends about it and they suggested me to lodge a complaint at the Cybercrime cell,” he said.
Prashant Babu , Investigative officer at the cybercrime police station, said that cyber crimes are on a rise these days. “It is difficult to track online criminals because of the advancement in the technology. and in work from home scams, the fraudsters ask for less amount of money that is why people don’t think much before paying the money. Carelessness and lack of verification are some reasons why online scams are so common nowadays. Mostly, it takes between 12- 15 days time to solve one case.”
Tech expert Sammer Saurav, said, “Always ask for person to person interview and google the name of the company and if it’s a skype interview don’t forget to ask the name of interviewer, so that you can search his profile. Verification is very necessary when it comes to online job offers, so before paying any fee, proper research should be done to avoid any fraud.”
