Hyderabad: Woman loses Rs 8.75 lakh in fake work-from-home scheme; 4 held

Hyderabad: Cyber Crime Police have arrested four men for allegedly orchestrating a fake work-from-home scheme that conned a local woman of Rs 8.75 lakh.

The accused—identified as Manoj Diwakar, Nagiri Vijay, Sanapathi Kishore Babu, and Thirunagari Santosh Kumar—reportedly posed as representatives of a reputed company and lured the victim with promises of lucrative commissions for completing online tasks.

According to the police, the victim received a message on Telegram on January 2 from a person claiming to be an HR executive from `Accor Advantage Plus Marketing (India) Pvt. Ltd’. She was asked to carry out trial assignments involving hotel bookings and was assured attractive returns.

Initially, she invested Rs 10,000 and received small payouts of Rs 1,000, Rs 17,800, and Rs 45,300, which built her confidence in the scheme. In all, the woman invested a total of Rs 8.75 lakh to the scammers. Later, the scammers introduced high-value tasks such as `Gold Suit Bookings’ and “Anniversary Special Offers,” during which they created fictitious "minus balances" in her account.

To recover these amounts and unlock a promised earning of Rs 15.82 lakh, the woman was tricked into depositing Rs 7.91 lakh as a security amount. The promised payout never materialized. A case has been registered under Sections 66C and 66D of the Information Technology Act and various sections of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita, 2023.

Further investigation is underway, the police said.