A 27-year-old vegetable vendor was arrested after making Rs 21 crore by tricking people into believing he was working from home, Times of India reported. Police officials claim that Rishabh Sharma had a direct hand in 37 fraud cases that were reported in 10 states and had a supporting role in an additional 855 instances.
His most recent victim was a businessman from Dehradun who was defrauded of Rs 20 lakh. According to the report, on October 28, Sharma was taken into custody by Uttarakhand Police.
"He used to sell fruits and vegetables in Haryana's Faridabad a few years ago. Just like the majority of businessmen, he had to wind up his business after suffering enormous losses during the COVID-19 pandemic. He accepted a number of work-from-home offers during the ensuing several months in order to support his family.
"After that, he ran into an old friend who was already planning internet scams. Sharma has made Rs 21 crore in just six months," according to top Uttarakhand police officer Ankush Mishra.
Initially, Sharma made a spoof website called "Marriot Bonvoy" (marriotwork.com) that resembled the famous hotel chain's original website, marriot.com.
On August 4, the businessman received a Whatsapp message advertising a work-from-home chance to write reviews for the "Marriot Bonvoy" chain of hotels on a part-time basis.
"I contacted the phone listed with the message because it appeared to be a sincere offer. A man introduced himself as Marriott Bonvoy representative Rishabh Sharma. He introduced me to his colleague Sonia, who, he said, was an associate in one of the hotels of the group," the man said in his complaint.
The man was paid Rs 10,000 initially twice. However, the investment soon began to grow enormously, raising questions about the job's legitimacy.
"They would often convince me to invest more by claiming the earnings may reach a crore, whenever I asked for returns. They turned off the numbers and stopped answering my calls and texts after a while. At that point, I had already invested Rs 20 lakh," the businessman added.
According to Mishra, Sharma would approach people at random, send them messages, and try to trick them into falling for the ruse.
"We traced the bank account details and found he was based in Gurgaon. He would randomly call up people and send them messages. Those who responded to them were tricked into the investment scam," he said.
"In Rishabh’s case, for instance, we found that the money had been sent to China in the form of crypto. He was an agent of one of the international gangs. Usually, these agents don’t have any information on the actual mastermind. We are trying to find out more in any case," Mishra added.
