Editor Mr.Mayank Rawat ( Chief Editor Mr. Rohit Mishra )
New Delhi: Police have busted a job racket and apprehended 14 people, including the kingpin and six women, for running an illegal call centre that defrauded job seekers by posing as recruiters on online platforms.The scam targeted victims through popular job portals, where they were lured with fake job offers and coerced into paying large sums under various pretexts.The scam came to light when a woman, searching for a medical field job, uploaded her credentials on online platforms in late Jan. Within days, she was contacted by a woman, named Priya, who offered her a job in exchange for Rs 500 as refundable security.The payments escalated, with demands for Rs 3,999 for training, Rs 7,500 for document verification, Rs 7,250 for couriering a job kit, including a laptop, and finally Rs 11,000 for salary account opening, DCP (New Delhi) Devesh Mahla said.The woman grew suspicious, stopped paying and filed a complaint on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP), prompting the cyber police to register an FIR and start an investigation.During the inquiry, police discovered that the phone numbers used by the scamsters were inactive. A critical lead emerged when it was revealed that a man, named Mohit Kumar, but also known as Sumit, was facilitating the scam by opening bank accounts using other people’s identities in exchange for Rs 2,000 per account.CCTV footage from a Noida ATM captured a masked person withdrawing money, later identified through technical surveillance and digital data analysis as Fahiq Siddiqui, DCP Mahla added.Police traced the suspect to Laxmi Nagar in Delhi and conducted a raid at a call centre in Noida’s Sector-3 on May 14, apprehending Siddiqui along with seven men and six women. Items seized included laptops, mobile phones, SIM cards, debit cards, Wi-Fi dongles and over Rs 1.31 lakh cash.The accused used job portals’ subscription services to contact victims, posing as recruiters and extracting money for training fees, security deposits and job kits.Investigations are on and evidence has been shared with the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) to identify more victims, police said.New Delhi: Police have busted a job racket and apprehended 14 people, including the kingpin and six women, for running an illegal call centre that defrauded job seekers by posing as recruiters on online platforms.The scam targeted victims through popular job portals, where they were lured with fake job offers and coerced into paying large sums under various pretexts.The scam came to light when a woman, searching for a medical field job, uploaded her credentials on online platforms in late Jan. Within days, she was contacted by a woman, named Priya, who offered her a job in exchange for Rs 500 as refundable security.The payments escalated, with demands for Rs 3,999 for training, Rs 7,500 for document verification, Rs 7,250 for couriering a job kit, including a laptop, and finally Rs 11,000 for salary account opening, DCP (New Delhi) Devesh Mahla said.The woman grew suspicious, stopped paying and filed a complaint on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP), prompting the cyber police to register an FIR and start an investigation.During the inquiry, police discovered that the phone numbers used by the scamsters were inactive. A critical lead emerged when it was revealed that a man, named Mohit Kumar, but also known as Sumit, was facilitating the scam by opening bank accounts using other people’s identities in exchange for Rs 2,000 per account.CCTV footage from a Noida ATM captured a masked person withdrawing money, later identified through technical surveillance and digital data analysis as Fahiq Siddiqui, DCP Mahla added.Police traced the suspect to Laxmi Nagar in Delhi and conducted a raid at a call centre in Noida’s Sector-3 on May 14, apprehending Siddiqui along with seven men and six women. Items seized included laptops, mobile phones, SIM cards, debit cards, Wi-Fi dongles and over Rs 1.31 lakh cash.The accused used job portals’ subscription services to contact victims, posing as recruiters and extracting money for training fees, security deposits and job kits.Investigations are on and evidence has been shared with the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) to identify more victims, police said.
Mayank Rawat
