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| Job offer or trap? Police sound cyber fraud alert | | | Muskan Thakur
Early Times Report
Jammu, Aug 26: Jammu and Kashmir Police have issued a fresh public advisory warning residents against a growing wave of part-time and work-from-home job scams, cautioning that fraudsters are luring unsuspecting job seekers with fake offers before fleecing them of their hard-earned money.
According to the advisory, cybercriminals are baiting victims with attractive part-time and remote job postings — often circulated through messaging apps like Telegram and WhatsApp — only to demand "processing fees" or other upfront payments as a precondition for employment. Once the money is transferred, the offers typically vanish, along with the fraudsters.
Police officials note that such scams are no longer isolated incidents but part of a coordinated, technology-driven fraud ecosystem operating across the country. In several documented cases, fraudsters have posed as HR executives of reputed companies, promising lucrative remote assignments and overseas placements in exchange for "document verification" or "registration" charges. Investigators tracking such networks have found that scammers frequently build trust first — crediting small amounts as fake "earnings" after a victim completes simple tasks such as liking videos or sending screenshots, before pushing them to deposit larger sums that are never returned a pattern that recently cost a Karnataka woman more than ₹8.5 lakh after she was lured through a fake part-time job offer on Telegram.
The problem has taken on national proportions. Indians lost an estimated ₹22,495 crore to cyber fraud in 2025, with complaint volumes jumping 24 percent to about 2.81 million cases, and job and task-based frauds remain among the most common entry points for such crimes. Investigators have also flagged a darker dimension to the racket: the same fake-job pipelines used to swindle victims of money are, in some cases, linked to networks that traffic Indians into scam compounds abroad, where they are coerced into running similar frauds on others.
The J&K Police have urged citizens to independently verify the credentials of any employer or recruitment agency before sharing personal information or financial details, stressing that legitimate employers never ask job seekers to pay for a job offer, task, or "registration." Officials also cautioned against clicking on unsolicited job links or joining unknown Telegram/WhatsApp groups promising quick earnings for simple online tasks.
The advisory renewed the call for victims of cyber fraud to report incidents without delay — either by dialling the national cybercrime helpline number 1930 or by filing a complaint on the government's official cybercrime reporting portal, cybercrime.gov.in.
The warning comes amid a broader crackdown by national agencies on job-fraud networks. Authorities have intensified action against mule bank accounts used to launder scam proceeds, with the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) crediting the 1930 helpline and reporting portal for helping recover crores of rupees in blocked fraudulent transactions over the past year.
With online job fraud continuing to rise, the J&K Police advisory serves as a timely reminder — particularly for students, young professionals, and those seeking flexible or remote work — to exercise caution, resist the lure of easy money, and verify before they pay. |
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