Mumbai A 32-year-old woman was cheated to the tune of ₹3.5 lakh by fraudsters who posed as executives of a media and entertainment company, looking for child models.

Police officials said the accused circulated a link and invited children for modelling projects. After the woman clicked on the link, they took money from her under various pretexts like charges for creating her daughter’s portfolio, costumes deposit etc.

The 32-year-old woman, a resident of J B Nagar in Andheri east, who works with a private firm, informed the police that on July 13, she received a link on WhatsApp, purportedly from Reliance Entertainment, Reliance Models Audition.

“When the woman checked with the WhatsApp number, she was told the sender’s name was Sakshi. The woman immediately shared photos and videos of her five-year-old daughter on the link,” said a police officer.

Sometime after sharing the details, the woman was told that her daughter was selected and she needs to send her audio recording.

“The woman was given a separate number for the same. She came in touch with someone called Ashish Sarkar, who asked her to select a package for the portfolio. The woman selected the package and transferred ₹29,000 to the bank account. The accused later sent the victim a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), asking her to sign the same and send it back to him,” said a police officer from Andheri police station.

When the complainant woman asked him about the time for shooting the portfolio, she was told that he needed further documents.

“After sending the documents, the woman was further asked to pay ₹1,25,000. On July 20, she was asked to pay ₹2 lakh as a refundable deposit for the costumes to be used for the portfolio. The woman went on to pay the same. The accused, however, started demanding ₹3,25,000 more. This time, the woman suspected foul play and approached the Reliance Entertainment office at Andheri, only to learn that somebody had cheated her,” said the police officer.

The woman then approached the police and reported the incident. Based on her complaint, the police registered an offence against the fraudsters.

“They posed as the executives of the media and entertainment company and as I was interested in promoting my daughter as a child model, we fell into the trap. Initially, they demanded smaller amounts and when I paid the smaller amounts, they started asking for more money at every step,” said the complainant, who did not wish to be named.