Part-time job and "task" scams

A real employer pays you. A job that asks you to pay, for any reason, is a fraud.

How it works

1. The offer. A WhatsApp or Telegram message from an unknown number offers part-time work from home: like videos, follow pages, rate hotels or products, a few minutes a day for a few hundred or thousand rupees.
2. The first payment. You do two or three small tasks and really are paid a small amount. This is the bait. It builds trust and is paid with earlier victims' money.
3. The group. You are added to a group where "members" post screenshots of large earnings. They are part of the gang or bots.
4. The prepaid task. To earn more you must do a "premium" or "merchant" task: deposit money and get it back with a commission. The first small deposit is returned with profit.
5. The squeeze. The next tasks need larger deposits. A website or app shows your "wallet" growing. When you try to withdraw, there is a rule: complete three tasks in a set, pay tax, pay a fee to fix a "mistake" you made, or raise your credit score. Each needs another deposit.
6. The end. When you stop paying, the group removes you and the numbers go dead. The wallet on the screen was only numbers on their own website.

The signs

• The offer came to you unasked, from a stranger, on a messaging app.
• Pay far above the effort: money for tapping "like".
• You are asked to deposit, recharge or pay a fee to work or to withdraw.
• Earnings are shown on a website or app you have never heard of, and withdrawals keep needing one more step.
• You are moved from WhatsApp to Telegram, and told to tell no one.
• Payments are to personal UPI IDs or changing bank accounts, not to a company.
• There is no interview, no contract, no office.

Get out early

• Stop at the first request for money. Whatever you have already put in is gone; do not send more to rescue it. That hope is exactly what the scam is built on.
• Do not believe a "recovery agent" who later offers to get the money back for a fee. That is the same gang or another one.
• Keep the evidence: screenshots of chats, group names, UPI IDs, account numbers, transaction references, the website address.
• Report it. See "If money has already gone" below.

A second danger: your own bank account

Some "jobs" ask you only to receive money in your account and pass it on, keeping a commission, or to hand over your account, ATM card or SIM for a rent. That makes you a money mule: stolen money moves through your account, and the police trail ends at you. Never lend or rent your account, card, SIM or UPI ID to anyone.

Checking a real job offer

• A real company writes from its own domain email, interviews you, and never charges for registration, training, a laptop or a uniform.
• Look up the company's own website and call it on the number given there.
• Government jobs are announced only on official websites and in the Employment News.

If money has already gone

1. Dial 1930 at once. It is the national helpline for victims of financial cyber fraud. Give the transaction details; the earlier the report, the better the chance that the money can be held before it is moved on.
2. Call your bank or card company on its official number and block the card, UPI or account. Report the transaction as unauthorised and note the complaint number.
3. File the complaint on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal, cybercrime.gov.in, and keep the acknowledgement number.
4. Keep everything: screenshots, numbers, UPI IDs, account numbers, transaction references, links, the app's name. Do not delete chats.

The full checklist, with what to keep ready, is on what to do after a fraud. Helpline and portal checked on 12 November 2026.

Independent guide. This is not a government, bank or police website. Helplines and rules were checked at official sources on 12 November 2026; confirm on the official site before relying on them.