Mumbai: Woman Duped of ₹9.25 Lakh in ‘Work From Home’ Task Scam; One Arrested

In a case of online fraud, the Meghwadi Police have arrested an Accused for allegedly cheating a lady senior logistics Executive of a private company of approximately ₹9.25 lakh by luring her with a “work from home” opportunity. The accused has been identified as Deepak Ramesh More, who is alleged to have provided bank accounts to cyber fraudsters for carrying out the scam.

According to police, a portion of the defrauded money was transferred to More’s bank account. He is currently in police custody, and further investigation is underway.

The complainant, a resident of the Pump House area in Andheri, works as a Senior Logistics Executive at a private firm in Malad. On December 20, while at home, she came across a “work from home” advertisement on Instagram. The advertisement claimed that users could earn money by liking jewellery-related videos.

After clicking on the link, her WhatsApp number was added to a group where she was assigned tasks involving liking jewellery images. Initially, she received payments in her bank account after completing these tasks, which helped the fraudsters gain her trust.

Later, she was asked to invest money to complete higher-value tasks with the promise of double commissions. After investing ₹2,000, she received ₹5,000 in return, encouraging her to invest more. However, during one of the tasks, she reportedly made an error, following which her account was blocked.

The fraudsters then demanded ₹1.5 lakh to reactivate her account. They further claimed that her “credit score” had dropped from 100% to 80% and asked her to deposit ₹2 lakh to restore it. In total, the victim transferred around ₹9.25 lakh across multiple bank accounts for various tasks, account reactivation, and credit score restoration.

The scammers later informed her that she had earned a profit of ₹16 lakh but would need to pay 30% tax to withdraw the amount. Sensing fraud, the victim refused to pay the tax and approached the Meghwadi Police.

Following verification of the complaint, police registered a case against 14 accused persons. The cyber cell of Meghwadi Police Station initiated an investigation and began tracing multiple bank accounts where the money had been transferred.

Based on technical evidence, the police detained Deepak More, whose involvement in the crime was confirmed during interrogation. He was subsequently arrested for allegedly providing bank accounts to cyber fraudsters and facilitating the transfer of defrauded funds.

Further investigation in the case is ongoing.