Vegetable vendor turns fraudster, duped people to make Rs 21 crore, detained

Rishabh Sharma, a 27-year-old vegetable vendor, was detained after tricking people into believing he had a work-from-home job and earning Rs 21 crore. He was directly involved in 37 fraud cases that were reported in 10 Indian states, according to the police.

Uttarakhand police officer Ankush Mishra said, “ A few years ago, he would sell vegetables and fruits in Faridabad. Like most other businessmen, he incurred massive losses during the pandemic and had to wind up. For the next few months, he took up various WFH offers to sustain his family.”

He further added, “He then met an old friend who was already involved in orchestrating online frauds. In just six months, since he started committing frauds, he netted Rs 21 crore.”

The most recent victim was a businessman from Dehradun who lost Rs. 20 lakh.

The man is currently under arrest who was arrested on October 28.

Rishabh made a fake website named “Marriot Bonvoy” on marriotwork.com, to scam people. It bore a striking resemblance 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” chain of hotels.

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

The man was initially paid 10,000 rupees. He later received the same sum in credit to his ICICI bank account a second time, though. But the investment soon began to increase rapidly.

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

The businessman was tricked in this way. According to police, the fraudsters would message and converse with people at random, tricking them into making larger and bigger investments.

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