Vegetable vendor earns Rs 21 crore in 6 months by scamming people, held

Digital Desk: Rishabh Sharma, a 27-year-old vegetable vendor, was detained after he earned Rs 21 crore by misleading people with fake work-from-home jobs. He was directly involved in 37 fraud instances that were reported in 10 Indian states, according to the police. Not only that but he was involved in 855 other cases as well. Ankush Mishra, a police officer in Uttarakhand, stated, "He used to sell fruits and vegetables in Faridabad a few years ago. Like most other businessmen, he had to shut his business after massive losses during the pandemic. He took up several WFH offers over the next few months to support his family."

He further added, "Then he met an old friend who was already involved in orchestrating online frauds. Since he began committing frauds, he has earned Rs 21 crore in just six months.”

The most recent victim was a businessman from Dehradun who suffered a loss of Rs. 20 lakh.

The man is currently under arrest. The arrest was made on October 28.

Rishabh created a fake website, "Marriot Bonvoy", marriotwork.com, as part of the scam. It looked similar to the original Marriott.com website. On August 4, the businessman received a WhatsApp message. It concerned a part-time job opportunity that could be done from home: writing reviews for the "Marriot Bonvoy" group of hotels.

Explaining what had happened, the man in his complaint stated, “Since the offer seemed genuine, I called up on the number provided with the message. A man identified himself as Rishabh Sharma who is a representative of Marriott Bonvoy. He introduced me to his colleague Sonia, who, he said, was an associate of one of the hotel's group.”

The man initially received a 10,000 rupees payment. He later received a second credit to his ICICI bank account for the same amount. But the investment rapidly started to increase significantly. 

“Every time I would ask for returns, they would persuade me to invest more and more, saying the profits could run into a crore. After a while, they stopped responding to my calls and messages and later switched off the numbers. I had already invested Rs 20 lakh by then,” the businessman said.

The businessman was duped like this. According to the authorities, the fraudsters would randomly speak to others and send them messages, luring them into making larger and bigger investments.