Hyderabad man promised of ₹4.31 lakh for ₹2.80 lakh investment in task-based scheme; loses all

Hyderabad employee loses ₹2.80 lakh after being promised of high returns in online scam: high returns for simple tasks on Telegram group.

A 29-year-old private employee from Hyderabad was duped of over ₹2.80 lakh after being lured with promises of lucrative returns for task-based online work via Telegram group.

The victim was added to a Telegram group managed by two anonymous administrators. One of them introduced him to a series of seemingly simple online tasks such as adding specific products to an online shopping cart and sharing screenshots of the cart page. Assured that successful task completion would lead to monetary rewards, the victim followed the instructions, unaware of the scam gradually unfolding.

Later, he was moved to a smaller group, comprising four other members and a ‘tutor’, each person performed similar tasks. Every participant, including the victim, was assigned a coordinator or ‘receptionist’ who facilitated the scam by providing UPI and bank account details for payments. The victim was asked to register on a task platform and told that certain tasks were prepaid, requiring him to invest money upfront to continue.

Initially the victim proceeded to pay. However, eventually, as he hesitated to make a larger payment midway citing suspicion, the scammers intensified pressure tactics warning that failure to continue would result in forfeiture of the invested amount.

Even after he grew certain that he was being defrauded, the cybercriminals kept manipulating him. They claimed his earlier tasks were done incorrectly, blamed him for delays, and coerced him to invest more to recover the lost amount. The fraudsters even suggested taking out personal loans to make further payments. The scammers extracted a total of ₹2,80,273 from the victim, promising a return of ₹4,31,400. However, when he tried to withdraw the promised amount, he was met with more demands for additional payments.

The victim then lodged a complaint through the online cybercrime portal. A case was booked by the cybercrime unit of the Hyderabad police and investigation is underway.

The police warned against part-time job and investment scams circulating on platforms like Telegram, WhatsApp, Instagram, X, and Facebook. These schemes often operate under the guise of ‘work from home’, ‘clock and rate’, or ‘task-based earning’ offers and victims are tricked into trusting these operations through fake profit screenshots and small initial credits to their bank accounts.