Rs 90,000 a week for online movie review job; Rs 46 lakh swindled; one accused granted bail for marriage

THRISSUR: Three members of the gang arrested in the incident of extorting Rs 46 lakh from Mahesh, a native of Thrissur Kaipamangalam, by promising him huge sums of money for giving star ratings to movies through a mobile app, have been remanded. Abdul Ayub (25), a resident of Kollam Kadakkal, Shinaj (25) and Aslam (21), a resident of Madathara, have been remanded. The court granted bail to Shafir (29), a resident of Anad, Thiruvananthapuram, as he was getting married. His marriage was cancelled when the fraud information came out. Pointing this out, the police have moved to apply to the court to cancel his bail.

The gang swindled people by making them believe that they would be paid Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 for each rating. While searching for online jobs, Mahesh was contacted by the fraudsters and told about film review job. The job was to do the rating through Plex, a movie review application that is delivered through the social media platform Telegram. A review can be done by investing Rs 10,000 per day. Mahesh reviewed and gave ratings for English, Malayalam and Hindi movies. After investing Rs 70,000 in a week, he got back Rs 90,000. With this, Mahesh trusted the fraudsters.

They told Mahesh that there was a special offer on the occasion of the company's anniversary and promised him that if he invested more money, he would get double in return. They also said that they can make Mahesh a partner in online stock trading. Mahesh borrowed money from friends and others and paid the amount in several instalments over a period of 20 days. When Mahesh asked for the money, the fraudsters asked him for another eight lakhs for the insurance amount and other expenses. With that, Mahesh became suspicious of them. Their fraud was exposed when Mahesh complained to the police about them.