A software engineer from Sector 21, Panchkula, was duped of ₹5.29 lakh after falling prey to a work-from-home scam that began with a Facebook advertisement and later shifted to Telegram, where the fraudsters lured the woman with an initial reward of ₹350 before coaxing her into bigger investments on false pretexts.
According to the complaint filed on July 31, the victim, Ira, was browsing Facebook on July 29 when she clicked on a work-from-home job advertisement. A WhatsApp chat window opened, where a fraudster asked her to download Telegram. She did so and was added to a channel where she was assigned simple tasks such as rating restaurants. To build her confidence, the fraudsters first credited ₹350 into her account.
Encouraged by this, Ira was persuaded to invest larger sums. The scammers demanded payments under various pretexts, including fixing errors, improving her credit score and unfreezing her account. Over time, she transferred a total of ₹5,29,878. Matters came to a head when the fraudsters demanded transfer of another ₹4 lakh. Sensing something amiss, Ira refused to transfer the amount after which the scammers blocked her number.
Her husband, Ankur Arya, lodged a complaint with the cyber crime police on July 31. An FIR was registered on August 13 under Sections 316(2) and 318(4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
{{/usCountry}}Her husband, Ankur Arya, lodged a complaint with the cyber crime police on July 31. An FIR was registered on August 13 under Sections 316(2) and 318(4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
{{/usCountry}}The cybercrime police are now investigating the bank accounts used to commit the fraud.