In a shocking incident of cybercrime, fraudsters have taken the whole village for a ride and duped hundreds of job-aspiring youths and villagers of over Rs 1 crore through a mobile app. The incident was reported from Badarampalli village under Khallikote block in Ganjam district.
According to the villagers, a youth named Krushnachandra Mahakud was the first to bite the bait of cyber criminals. He had deposited Rs 4000 in an app. Thereafter, he continued to get Rs 800 daily through his wallet. Subsequently, the money from the wallet was transferred to his bank account.
Seeing Mahakud earning money easily, other youths of the village too got interested and started depositing Rs 8000 to 23,000 in the same app and were earning money daily. Later, some farmers and people from middle-class families too deposited money with the hope to get some daily income.
Later, the fraudsters came with an offer and asked the youths to deposit money between July 14 and 17 to avail more benefits. Subsequently, 12 youths deposited Rs 1.12 lakh each.
But the youths and other villagers are no longer receiving any money in their wallets. They are now in a state of mental stress.
“The people of our village deposited money in an app to earn ten times of their investment. Now the app is not functioning nor are they receiving money in their wallets,” alleged Abhiram Goud, a Badarampalli village resident.
Meanwhile, police could not be contacted over such fraud in the village.