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WhatsApp is used by billions and offers a lot of features but lately it has become a mecca for spam, be it through messages or calls. People have been warned about these scams and they can be used to steal money.

Well, one such victim has come forward recently, who reportedly claims to have been scammed by one of these WhatsApp messages, and losing a whopping Rs 42 lakh to their suspect schemes. According to media reports, the victim is a software engineer who works with a Gurgaon-based IT company.

The police report claims the person had sent money to these scamsters who had reached out to the victim and offered him the chance to earn easy money by liking YouTube videos and more. The complainant fell for the scheme, and decided to see where it takes him and how much money he can earn on the side. After this, the victim was approached by a woman named Divya, asking him to join a Telegram group to start this exercise.

Now, this is where the real scam started. The report mentions that the woman lured the engineer into investing more than Rs 42 lakh in their ponzi scheme, which was supposedly going to give him Rs 69 lakh in return. The funny thing is the victim actually fell for the proposal and ended up transferring the money from his own and wife’s account, which came to Rs 42,31,600, the complaint registered with the police explained.

So when did the person realise this was a scam? He got a message about receiving the money on the Telegram group, where he was told about making Rs 69 lakh out of the money he had invested.

But the victim was not able to withdraw the huge amount, and also was asked to send another Rs 11,000, which got him suspicious. Now, the police seems to have filed an FIR but in cases where the victim sends the money with consent, chances of getting back the money, no matter how big the value, are low.

We have been stressing on the need to be aware of such WhatsApp scams that have become a mass problem so much that the Indian government had to intervene and ask Meta to fix the issue once and for all.

The messaging app says it plans on improving the security setting for unknown callers, but as a user, you also have to be careful of how you operate with random contacts, and definitely not share private details or transfer money.