Panchkula, Aug. 19 -- A software engineer from Sector 21, Panchkula, was duped of Rs.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 Rs.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 Rs.350 into her...