Three men were arrested on Monday for allegedly cheating a Rajarhat resident of Rs 16 lakh by promising him lucrative returns against investments through a Telegram group.
Rajarhat resident Rajib Goswami, 36, had received a WhatsApp message in September last year offering him a job that paid handsomely for liking videos and posting online reviews of hotels, police said.
Goswami then received a series of texts where he was “assigned to like and share videos as well as share online reviews of hotels,” the officer added.
He was paid small amounts on his mobile wallet.
After a few days, he was added to a Telegram group where he was asked to make investments that offered returns of up to 50-60 per cent as quickly as in two months.
“The fact that Goswami had received payments for his online reviews made him believe in the investment offer. He invested a total of Rs 16 lakh. He neither got the promised returns nor the principal amount that he had invested. He got no response after he tried contacting the numbers from which he had received the messages,” said the officer.
Goswami lodged a complaint with the cyber crime police station in Salt Lake in January.
A police team probing the case tracked down Koushik Bose, 47, a resident of Noapara; Santosh Kumar Shaw, 36, and Chandan Kumar Shaw, 38, from Jagaddal in North 24-Parganas.
All three have been arrested, an officer said.
According to a senior officer of the Bidhannagar Commissionerate, the men would send out bulk text messages on Telegram and WhatsApp offering people money for liking videos on social media sites and posting online reviews of hotels.
“To gain the trust of their victims, the men would send small amounts to their mobile wallets as payments,” said the officer.
Once a person was convinced, the men would send more messages, this time asking them to invest through a Telegram group.
The men would call up people and tell them that they would get 50 to 60 percent as returns on their investment, the officer said.
“Once a person invested a substantial amount, the men would snap all forms of communications with the victim,” the officer said.
