Bengaluru woman falls for bogus WFH offer, loses Rs 19 lakh

Bengaluru: Police have booked unidentified suspects who cheated a woman of Rs 19 lakh by offering a fake work-from-home offer from Flipkart.

The 44-year-old Indiranagar resident, who trusted the accused since they claimed to represent Flipkart, said she first received an offer on November 4 to work from home.

"The offer appeared genuine as it included Flipkart’s name, logo, and professional-looking documents,” the woman alleged.

"The fraudsters contacted me through Telegram and later sent me a link, nexusv6oyage.net, to create an account in my name. After that, they sent another WhatsApp link to join the group. Three other members were added to the group. The product link would be sent. To boost the product, we needed to review and rate the product, and we would earn commissions by completing it,” she added.

She was asked to send Rs 3,000 as deposit to begin the reviewing task with the assurance that the deposit would be returned along with the commission. The woman was convinced after noticing that other members of the WhatsApp group frequently shared screenshots of their earnings.

Until November 22, the woman had wired a total of Rs 19.15 lakh for completing tasks at various levels. When she sought her share of the earnings, the scamsters asked her for a further Rs 11 lakh payment to release it. After waiting for a few days, the woman approached the police.

"I am having sleepless nights for the past three weeks. I now realise that I have been a victim of organised cybercrime impersonating a reputed company. I request you to kindly register my complaint and initiate an investigation to trace these offenders," the woman was quoted as saying in the FIR.

Police said the case was registered on December 4 and a probe has been launched.