Job posting on Instagram causes Delhi woman to lose over Rs 8.6 lakh

The 26-year-old cyber criminal disclosed that he tricked several people by saying he could get jobs with private airlines in the past. Here's how the scam panned out.

Instagram job scam

In December, a job posting on Instagram piqued the woman's interest. When she followed the link, she was taken to another Instagram account, @airlinejoballindia. She was instructed to fill out this form with her information, which included her contact details.

After she completed the form, she received a call from a man named Rahul. She was initially requested to pay a pittance of Rs 750 to register. However, as time went on, she was asked to send additional funds for gate pass fees, insurance, security deposits, and other expenses. The woman became concerned when the demand for money continued even after she sent Rs 8.6 lakh.

The woman's husband then reported the incident to Central Delhi police. Following an investigation, authorities revealed that most money withdrawals were conducted in Hisar, Haryana. Rahul's calls to the woman were also traced to the same address. After confirming all data, the police team raided and apprehended the fraudster.

The culprit admitted to investigators that he misled several people by promising them employment with private airlines. He began doing this when the perpetrator was jobless for more than two years due to the pandemic, as per a TOI report.

How to stay away from scams on Instagram, other platforms

In recent times, online scams have been on the rise. Recently, a Delhi-based man was duped of Rs 29 lakh via an Instagram iPhone scam. Meanwhile, a financial consultant in Hong Kong lost over Rs 14 crore via Tinder. In fact, the popular web series "Jamtara: Sabka Number Ayega on Netflix shows how these kinds of scams are done. 

To avoid such scams, you need to keep these points in mind:

• Do not take jobs that come to you from people you don't know and ask for any money.
• Don't tell anyone your passwords, PINs, or bank account numbers, as genuine businesses and financial institutions will never ask for these details by telephone or email.
• Don't click on pop-up messages or posts whose content seems too good to be true.
• Be careful about clicking on shortened URLs that hide the full address of the page.
• Look for spelling or grammatical faults in the message; if it doesn't look professional, it's a dead giveaway that it's an internet fraud.
• Use data from your network provider instead of public Wi-Fi when shopping outside, as some hotspots may be unsafe.