The next time somebody asks me to join any network that takes a test involving money before taking me in their midst, I will not even think twice before refusing the offer! Why, do you ask? Well, the answer is that you cannot trust any stranger to pay you money without taking due benefit from you And NEVER EVER fill your bank details on ANY website, coz then you are well and truly hooked and booked to be crooked by the perpetrator. In my experience of over 6 years as an FAFP expert, this was the first time I got scammed at another level. I do not mind sharing my experience, just so that you do not fall for the same trap!
So, on 25th of April, I was contacted by a lady who called herself Indira, after I clicked on a link sent to me on SMS, connecting me to a lady on WhatsApp, who identified herself as "Lily" but called herself Indira. She asked me to connect to her using Telegram and after that she took me through two transaction levels of three each in which I 'earned' Rs. 200 and Rs. 440, but only after spending Rs. 350 in two recharges of Rs. 150 and Rs. 200. That was the moment when the first RED FLAG should have been raised in my system, but it failed to happen, due to the natural greed that comes into play, which in my normal frame of mind would NEVER happen! After that she said for the next level of transactions, she will connect me to her supervisor, somebody with the handle of @MR1Indeed168 who was named Chander Singh (username @Chander111). This was not such a bad thing, to connect with someone is okay, but what happened thereafter is what proved to be my undoing.
I should have known that taking my bank details, like bank account number, debit card number and UPI Code, (another set of facts that should have set off a Red Flag), these guys would have known how much money I had in the bank. After four sets of transactions of three each, I ended up paying Rs. 5,972/-, Rs. 17,080/-, Rs. 21,349/- and Rs. 15,700/- that cleaned out my balance of Rs. 60,101/- that I had started with! To show me some cooperation this guy 'helped' me by paying Rs. 5,120/- to support the last transaction in the set of three of Rs. 20,820/-, after which I was faced with a last transaction of more than 42,000-, for which the guy had the nerve to tell me to take a loan!! But I put my foot down, being very much aware of the pitfalls of taking a loan to pay an outstanding, which would have led to far greater problems, namely paying off the loan in case these transactions did not result in a commission sufficiently large to pay off the loan!!
I called up my younger sister, who is very much the smartest person than me, and she checked out the website and informed me that it was very much a scamming website wherein a number of people had already been scammed to larger tunes of money!
Finally, we decided that I should book a cyber complaint against these folks and also have my bank account, debit card and UPI Code frozen for the time being, till these complaints where raised. In any case, by then my bank account was already ZERO, so no loss to me. I know that deep in my heart, I may never see that money again, because these guys are smart and have done things with as much legality as possible, but still, some hope remains alive, because thesedays the Cyber Crime Cell of the bank and of the Police have also become very smart.
Finally, my advice to you is that NEVER click on any link that says it will earn you money, for that is precisely how these guys make their big bucks!! And if ever you do click it, stop the moment you are asked to pay money, whether it is Rs 100/- or more than a thousand!! That is what 'gamble' these people thrive on!!
Cheers !!
CA Vikram Shankar Mathur
30-Apr-2022 | 10:45 Hours IST
