Mysore/Mysuru: A youth, who had invested Rs. 12.71 lakh believing a WhatsApp message, has lost the money to online fraudsters.

The youth, who lost his money in Manoj (name changed), a resident of Vijayanagar in city.

On Mar. 26, Manoj received a message on his WhatsApp from an unknown number which stated, “Take a screenshot, send it to ‘Rep Aditi’ group on Telegram and collect money” and Manoj’s number was added to ‘B-Nayakaamaal Task – 348’ group on Telegram app.

Manoj was given tasks every day which he used to complete. Later, the fraudsters instructed Manoj to invest money and then complete the given tasks, following which Manoj invested money and began to complete the tasks.

On Mar. 26 itself, Manoj had earned Rs. 1,700. He was being given tasks and Manoj had completed them. When he tried to withdraw the invested amount, he was unable to do so and then log on to saali.com web page and he was instructed to update his bank account. But even after updating his bank account details, Manoj was unable to withdraw the money. From Mar. 26 till Apr. 4, Manoj had invested Rs. 12.17 lakh in phases.

Realising that he had been cheated, Manoj lodged a complaint with the Cyber Crime Police, who have registered a case.