Rajkot: A 45-year-old farmer lodged a complaint with the Cyber Crime police station, Junagadh Range after he was cheated of Rs 24.78 lakh in a cyber fraud, having been lured by a fake work-from-home offer.The victim, Kishor Parmar, a resident of Bodka village in Manavadar taluka, stated that he was cheated over a period of five months.According to the complaint, the fraud began on Nov 27, 2024, when Parmar received a message on WhatsApp from an unknown number. The sender impersonated his friend, Amisha Arora from Chandigarh, and offered him an opportunity to earn money through an online work-from-home assignment.Trusting the message, Parmar was instructed to download a specific application, create an ID, and make an initial deposit of Rs 42,000. Between Dec 2, 2024, and April 22, 2025, he transferred money to multiple bank accounts, cumulativedly depositing Rs 15.78 lakh.When Parmar later attempted to withdraw his principal amount and the promised profits, the fraudsters demanded additional “charges” and “taxes” amounting to over Rs 9 lakh, claiming these were required to process the withdrawal of a larger sum. Believing their claims, Parmar made the payments, taking his total loss to Rs 24.78 lakh. The fraudsters continued demanding more money even after the final transfer, prompting Parmar to realise he had been cheated. A case has been registered under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Information Technology Act.
