Surat police arrest man in 5.98 lakh rupee work-from-home cyber fraud

The Surat Cyber Crime Cell in Gujarat has arrested a man following a cyber fraud incident where a 23-year-old victim was defrauded of approximately 5.98 lakh rupees. The scam operated under the guise of a part-time ‘work from home’ opportunity involving star ratings.

According to officials, the victim was contacted via Telegram and promised attractive salaries for completing star-rating tasks. After being registered on a fraudulent website, the victim was initially paid small amounts but was subsequently coerced into paying additional fees to ‘unlock’ more work and higher earnings. This resulted in the victim transferring a total of 5,98,800 rupees into various bank accounts.

Police identified and arrested Ravi Baraiya, a diamond merchant residing in Surat, after tracing 1 lakh rupees from the victim to his IDFC First Bank account. Investigations revealed that Baraiya had allegedly provided his bank account details to a co-accused, Gautam Baraiya, for commission to facilitate the fraud. The National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal also linked the account to five other complaints across different states.