You paid Rs 12,000 to a placement agency for a cook. They promised a verified woman within 48 hours. Day 3, no one came. By day 7 the office number is switched off and the WhatsApp display picture has changed. This guide walks you through the exact 30-minute recovery path: written demand under the Consumer Protection Act 2019, a BNS 2024 Section 318 cheating FIR if the operator has vanished, NCH 1915, and an e-Daakhil refund claim. Works for maid, nanny, driver, cook, caretaker and patient-attendant agencies across India.
If a domestic-help or placement agency took your registration or advance fee and did not send the promised staff, you have three parallel rights: (a) a civil refund under the Consumer Protection Act 2019 for deficiency of service, (b) a criminal FIR under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023 Section 318 for cheating where intent to deceive is visible, and © a regulatory complaint through NCH 1915 and e-Daakhil. Act in this order: written demand within 24 hours, NCH ticket within 72 hours, police complaint by day 7 if no refund, e-Daakhil filing by day 30.
A placement or domestic-help agency is any firm, sole proprietorship or “consultancy” that supplies maid, nanny, cook, driver, caretaker, elderly-care attendant, patient-attendant, governess, security guard or housekeeping staff against a one-time registration fee, replacement-period commitment, or monthly retainer. Fraud occurs the moment the agency has taken your money and done one or more of the following:
You do not need every one of these to act. Even a single broken commitment, plus refusal to refund within a reasonable time, is enough to trigger the Consumer Protection Act 2019 route. If the operator has disappeared or used forged documents, the criminal route opens too.
Three drivers have made placement-agency fraud one of the top urban household scams of 2025-2026:
The result: by mid-2026, NCH 1915 and state consumer commissions are seeing a steady rise in “advance taken, staff never arrived” complaints, often clustered around tier-1 metros and IT-corridor suburbs.
Run this checklist the moment you suspect fraud. Each step is timestamped so the paper trail builds itself.
Email and WhatsApp the agency a short, dated demand for refund or service. Do not threaten; just state the facts and the deadline. A template sits in the Sample complaint section below. Mark a copy to your own secondary email so a timestamped record exists.
By the end of 30 minutes you have a paper trail, a regulator ticket, and (if applicable) a cyber-helpline reference. You can now choose the legal route best suited to your case.
Print this and tick as you go. The consumer commission, the police and the bank will all ask for the same bundle.
The same fact pattern can attract more than one statute. Pick the route that matches your goal: refund, prosecution, or both.
Section 2(11) defines “deficiency” to include negligence, omission and willful withholding of service. A placement-agency contract is a “service” under Section 2(42). Section 35 lets you file before the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission for claims up to Rs 50 lakh; the State Commission handles Rs 50 lakh to Rs 2 crore. Filing fee for claims up to Rs 5 lakh is nil since the 2021 amendment. You can claim refund of the fee, compensation for harassment and mental agony, costs of litigation, and (where the commission is convinced of high-handedness) punitive damages. The e-Daakhil portal at edaakhil.nic.in lets you file entirely online.
BNS replaced the IPC on 1 July 2024. The placement-agency fraud patterns map cleanly to:
BNSS replaced CrPC on 1 July 2024. Two sections matter at the police-station stage:
This Act regulates “contractors” who recruit workmen from one state for deployment in another. Many domestic-help agencies operate exactly this model: recruiting in Jharkhand, West Bengal or the Northeast, deploying in Delhi NCR, Bengaluru or Mumbai. The Act requires licensing of the contractor and registration of the principal employer. Where the agency has not bothered with these licences, it is operating in breach of a Central labour statute, and you can attach this to your consumer complaint and FIR.
A few states have their own laws regulating domestic work:
These do not directly handle refund disputes, but they give you a forum to lodge a parallel grievance, and they place a statutory duty on the agency to register.
If your staff was being supplied by an agency claiming to be a registered “unorganised workers' service provider”, the e-Shram database is a quick way to verify whether the workers it sends actually exist on the national register. A missing trace is one more brick in the misrepresentation wall.
Move up the ladder only after the previous rung has been given a fair chance, except where the operator has obviously vanished, in which case skip straight to police and bank.
Email plus WhatsApp plus registered post (Speed Post with delivery proof). Give 24 to 72 hours, depending on whether any partial service was rendered. Cite Section 2(11) of the Consumer Protection Act 2019.
Open a ticket at consumerhelpline.gov.in or the NCH app. The helpline will forward your complaint to the agency for response. If the agency is registered as a “convergence partner”, NCH can mediate a refund in 7 to 15 working days. Even where the agency is not registered, the NCH docket number becomes a paper trail you can cite later.
If you paid by UPI, raise a dispute in your UPI app within 30 days. The dispute will travel through NPCI's Unified Dispute Management System. Outcomes are mixed for service-related disputes, but a “merchant did not deliver service” ticket forces the beneficiary bank to ask the agency for proof. Many fly-by-night agencies cannot respond and the bank then locks down the VPA.
File at the police station whose jurisdiction covers either your residence or the agency's registered address. Carry the evidence checklist plus a typed complaint signed by you. Insist on a copy of the FIR with the FIR number and the date stamp. If the SHO declines, file under BNSS Section 173(4) escalation to the Superintendent of Police, then BNSS Section 175 to the Magistrate.
Where the fraud is UPI-led and the operator vanished within 24 hours of payment, file at cybercrime.gov.in and dial 1930. The “golden hour” framework lets banks freeze the beneficiary account if you reach 1930 quickly enough.
File the formal consumer complaint within two years of the cause of action at edaakhil.nic.in. Filing fee is nil for claims up to Rs 5 lakh. Attach the entire evidence bundle. Pray for refund, compensation under Section 39, and costs.
In Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, lodge a parallel grievance with the state welfare board. This rarely yields cash refund but it can lead to deregistration of the agency, which prevents the next family from being defrauded.
Eight to twelve weeks after your FIR or NCH ticket, file an RTI to the relevant police station, NCH, or consumer commission asking for the action-taken status. RTI is the lever that unsticks dormant complaints. The RTI Wiki AI RTI Drafter at https://righttoinformation.wiki/tools/ai-rti-draft-app.html generates the application in two minutes.
Adapt the placeholders to your facts and send by email plus WhatsApp plus Speed Post.
From: [Your full name]
[Your address]
[Your phone] | [Your email]
To: The Proprietor
[Agency trading name]
[Agency address as printed on receipt or website]
Date: [DD MM YYYY]
Subject: Demand for refund of Rs [amount] paid on [date] for non-delivery of
domestic-help placement service. Notice under Section 2(11) of the Consumer
Protection Act, 2019.
Sir or Madam,
1. On [date], I engaged your agency for placement of a [maid / cook / driver
/ nanny / patient-attendant / caretaker] at my residence at [address].
2. On the same date, I paid your agency Rs [amount] by UPI to VPA
[beneficiary VPA] under UTR [UTR number], a copy of which is annexed
as Annexure A. The agreed delivery window was [48 hours / 72 hours
/ specify].
3. As of the date of this notice, no staff member has reported to my
residence, and your office numbers [list] are either switched off or
unresponsive. WhatsApp messages sent on [dates] remain undelivered or
unread. Screenshots are annexed as Annexure B.
4. The above conduct amounts to "deficiency in service" within the meaning
of Section 2(11) of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, and an "unfair
trade practice" within Section 2(47).
5. You are hereby called upon to refund the entire sum of Rs [amount] to
the same UPI VPA from which it was paid, within 72 hours of receipt of
this notice. Failing such refund, I shall be constrained to:
a. File a complaint before the District Consumer Disputes Redressal
Commission through the e-Daakhil portal under Section 35 of the
Consumer Protection Act, 2019, claiming refund, compensation,
litigation costs and punitive damages;
b. File a First Information Report under Section 318 of the Bharatiya
Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 for cheating, and where applicable Section 336
for forgery, before the jurisdictional police station;
c. Lodge a complaint with the National Consumer Helpline (1915) and,
where the transaction was UPI-led, the Cyber Crime Helpline (1930)
and the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal.
6. This notice is without prejudice to any other right or remedy available
to me in law or equity.
Yours sincerely,
[Signature]
[Your full name]
Carry two printed and signed copies. The SHO keeps one and stamps the other for you.
To: The Station House Officer
[Police Station name]
[District]
Date: [DD MM YYYY]
Subject: Complaint for offences under Section 318 (Cheating) and Section 336
(Forgery) read with Section 340 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023.
Respected Sir or Madam,
I, [Your name], aged [age], resident of [address], holder of Aadhaar number
ending [last four digits], do solemnly state as follows:
1. On [date], I responded to an advertisement placed by [Agency trading
name] on [platform: Instagram / Justdial / Facebook / Google] for the
placement of a [maid / cook / driver / nanny / patient-attendant] at
my residence.
2. The agency, represented over phone and WhatsApp from numbers [list],
promised verified, police-checked staff within [time window] against a
one-time registration fee of Rs [amount], with a free replacement
guarantee for [period] days.
3. On [date], I paid Rs [amount] by UPI to the VPA [beneficiary VPA], UTR
[number]. A WhatsApp confirmation was issued by the agency at [time].
[If applicable: a photograph of a "police verification certificate"
bearing the stamp of [police station name] was also sent.]
4. As of the date of this complaint, no staff member has been deployed.
All phone numbers of the agency are switched off. The Instagram and
Justdial listings have been deleted. The photograph of the "verified"
staff member sent to me earlier matches a stock photo found on a
reverse-image search.
5. The above conduct discloses, prima facie, the commission of the
following offences:
a. Cheating under Section 318 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023,
by dishonestly inducing me to part with Rs [amount] without any
intention of providing the agreed service;
b. [If applicable] Forgery under Section 336 read with use of forged
document under Section 340, in respect of the fabricated police
verification certificate;
c. [If applicable] Criminal breach of trust under Section 316.
6. I respectfully request registration of an FIR under Section 173 of the
Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, freezing of the beneficiary
bank account through the appropriate nodal officer of the concerned
bank, and a thorough investigation including the linkage of the
beneficiary account to other similar complaints, which may disclose an
organised pattern under Section 111 of the BNS.
7. I am annexing herewith the following: (i) my Aadhaar and address proof;
(ii) UPI transaction receipt and bank statement; (iii) full WhatsApp
chat export; (iv) screenshots of the agency's online presence;
(v) [other documents].
I undertake that the facts stated above are true to the best of my
knowledge and belief.
Yours faithfully,
[Signature]
[Your full name]
[Phone]
[Email]
Refund recovery is half the story. Many of these agencies routinely send untrained, undocumented or trafficked workers to households. If the staff did arrive and you have any reason to suspect they themselves are victims of exploitation or trafficking, two parallel helplines apply:
Reporting these does not weaken your refund claim. On the contrary, it often accelerates investigation against the agency because trafficking adds a heavier statutory layer.
A household in a Bengaluru gated community paid Rs 18,000 in March 2026 to an agency that advertised a “Kerala-verified Malayali nanny” via Instagram ads. The agency sent a photograph and an Aadhaar number on WhatsApp, promised arrival in 72 hours, and went silent on day 4. The complainant ran the action plan: WhatsApp demand letter on day 5, NCH 1915 ticket on day 6, FIR under BNS Section 318 on day 9. The beneficiary VPA, run through the UPI name-verify feature, returned a name unrelated to the agency. The bank, on the police's request under BNSS Section 94, locked the beneficiary account, recovered Rs 11,400 of the original sum, and remitted it to the complainant under court orders. The full Rs 18,000 was eventually recovered through an e-Daakhil order eight months later, with Rs 25,000 compensation and Rs 5,000 costs added. Total elapsed time from payment to full recovery: ten months. Total cost to complainant: Rs 0 in filing fees, about Rs 1,800 in printing and Speed Post, and roughly 14 hours spread across nine months.
Yes, in substance. Under Section 2(11) of the Consumer Protection Act 2019, failure to render the service paid for is “deficiency”. The agency owes refund plus compensation. Whether the written contract uses the words “non-refundable” or not is largely irrelevant; an unfair contract term under Section 2(46) cannot override a statutory right.
Yes. There is no minimum value for cheating under BNS Section 318. The offence is the deceit, not the size of the amount. Police stations sometimes deflect small-ticket complaints; if so, escalate under BNSS Section 175 to the Magistrate.
Generally no. A clause that lets the agency hold your money for 30 days while doing nothing is an unfair contract term. The District Commission has held in many cases that the “reasonable time” for a household service starts at the window the agency itself advertised. If they sold “48-hour delivery” and did not deliver in 48 hours, that is the breach.
You still have rights, but the evidentiary burden rises. Gather every WhatsApp message, call log, witness statement and bank ATM withdrawal slip showing you took out the exact amount on the date. The FIR can proceed on these. The consumer commission is more flexible than civil courts on cash transactions; oral testimony plus corroborating circumstantial evidence has succeeded.
Run them in parallel. UPI dispute through your app is fastest (sometimes resolved in 10 to 20 days) but uncertain for service disputes. e-Daakhil is slower (4 to 12 months) but yields a binding order plus compensation. Together they maximise your chance of full recovery.
Legally risky. Defamation under BNS Section 356 can be triggered by naming a person or firm with imputations of crime before due process. Use the legal channels first. Once an FIR is registered or a commission order issued, you may share the FIR number and the order copy factually.
The platform may itself be liable as an intermediary under the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules 2020 where it actively curated or promoted the agency. Add the platform as a co-respondent in the e-Daakhil filing. Also flag the listing through the platform's in-app “report” feature, which builds the platform's record of negligence.
That is a classic two-stage scam: the agency pockets your registration fee, the “staff” pockets the training fee, and both vanish. Treat the staff as a co-conspirator at the FIR stage and include the staff's Aadhaar copy (which the agency sent you) as evidence. Police verification of that Aadhaar often shows it is forged or stolen.
There is no central database of “police-verified placement agencies”. The phrase is marketing. What you can check is whether the agency itself is registered for GST, Shops and Establishments, and (in a few states) the state placement-agency register. Verification of individual staff members is supposed to happen under the local police's “tenant and servant verification” scheme, which is free and household-initiated. Use the local police station's online tenant-verification portal directly; do not outsource it to the agency.
Yes. Cheating committed against a senior citizen, person with disability or other vulnerable group invites enhanced sentencing under BNS sentencing principles and triggers Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act 2007 provisions where applicable. Mention your age and vulnerability prominently in both the FIR and the e-Daakhil complaint. Most state consumer commissions also have a fast-track docket for senior citizens.
A wide cinematic illustration in the style of a 1200×630 banner. Foreground: a worried Indian family at the door of their apartment looking down a long empty corridor. Middle ground: a smartphone in mid-air showing a UPI payment receipt fading into ghostly outline, beside a torn paper “verified” certificate with a question mark. Background: faint silhouettes of a maid, a cook, a nanny and a driver dissolving into pixels. Mood: concerned but determined. Palette: deep navy, warm amber accents, RTI-Wiki green seal in the bottom right corner. No real faces, no logos, no text inside the image, no agency names.