Beyond Layoff

This week I got a WhatsApp message in a university alumni group about a GoFundMe page created by Aruna, a batchmate that talked about her husband’s suicide after he fell victim of a cryptocurrency scam. In the GoFundMe page, Aruna went on to explain  how her husband was an  “unfortunate victim of a cryptocurrency scam where he was skillfully manipulated into parting with our entire life savings. Through the shameless, methodical and savvy deception of these heartless cyber criminals, they utilized a “pig butchering” scheme and managed to convince him to pull every single penny out of our life savings, including all of our retirement funds. There is nothing left in our accounts, except debt and loans to pay.”   Video viewpoint by Author, Mohan Aruna’s family is the story of a typical middle-class American dream. She migrated to the US with her husband after her masters in India. They then spent the past couple of decades pursuing the American dream – seeking a Gree...

A Hyderabad based Telugu family recently lured a California-based software engineer into a scam and got him to part with Rupees 65 lakh (almost $ 90,000). A family of three from Telangana plotted by creating a fake profile on a matrimonial site and began baiting software engineers living abroad. Malavika's son Gopal created a fake profile on the Bharath Matrimony website for  'Keerthi,'  a wealthy doctor living in the popular suburb of Jubilee Hills. Malavika, pretending to be  Keerthi  would chat with Non Resident Indian (NRI) men who came to the portal in search of a bride. Based on a complaint filed by Varun, a software engineer from California, the Hyderabad police arrested a 44-year-old woman Malavika Devati and her 22-year-old son Venkateswara Gopal Devati and sent them to judicial remand. Malavika’s husband Srinivas Devati is absconding. The modus operandi was simple social engineering. After making initial contact on the website, Malavika began ch...