It is a common myth that scammers generally target people from rural areas with weak educational backgrounds. These days, scammers have expanded their scope and started targeting the educated urban population.
Recently, we came across the case of Sharavan (name changed), who is pursuing an MD from one of the colleges in Maharashtra, and ended up losing ₹2.5 lakh in a Telegram Prepaid Scam.
Let’s get into the details to understand this new kind of scam.
ADB: Hello Mr. Sharavan, we received a request for a callback. Please tell me, how can I help you?
Sharavan: Hello Sir, I lost more than ₹2 lakh in a Telegram Prepaid Scam.
ADB: That’s a huge amount. Please provide complete details.
Sharavan: I joined a WhatsApp group on June 20. In that group, they provided a Telegram link where they offered certain prepaid tasks.
I joined that Telegram group too. They initially provided smaller tasks and asked me to make a few transactions of around ₹2000 and ₹3500.
Later, they added me to another VIP group of 500 people. There were multiple payment screenshots in that group. I also got enticed and started taking their tasks.
ADB: What kind of tasks did they assign?
Sharavan: It was generally a prepaid task where we needed to do a transaction and they claimed to provide guaranteed returns on it.
I started these tasks on June 24, 2024, and in one day, I added around ₹2,45,000.
ADB: Did you make the transactions to a single bank account or different accounts?
Sharavan: I did it to one account using my two different bank accounts.
ADB: When did you realize you had been scammed?
Sharavan: They told me that there was some error in one of my tasks and to recover it, I had to add another ₹2,00,000. When I denied, they removed me from the group and blocked my number.
ADB: Did you report this somewhere?
Sharavan: Yes, I reported this case to Cyber Crime on June 26, 2024, and today, after a month on July 26, 2024, I got a response that my amount is on hold. In short, I didn’t get any satisfactory response. Does Cyber Crime refund money?
ADB: It does depending on different factors, like how you have drafted and documented your case. However, if you have not received any response from Cyber Crime then you can proceed with filing a complaint to the higher authorities of your state to escalate this case.
Sharavan: Okay, Sir.
ADB: To get started, please share your details and proof documents such as WhatsApp chat screenshots, Telegram screenshots, call recordings if any, and bank transaction details post registration with us.
Sharavan: Thanks, will do that!
Telegram prepaid scammers generally target professionals who have enough money and sometimes job seekers who are willing to make payments on fake job-seeking platforms to get jobs.
The method may differ, but the approach and objective of scammers are similar, which eventually leads to the loss of significant capital.
It is therefore important to:
- Avoid clicking on any suspicious links.
- Not look for quick and easy ways to earn money.
- Stay away from random WhatsApp and Telegram groups
