9 held in Faridabad for duping 100 with fraud offers of job in airlines

Gurugram: Faridabad police on Sunday arrested nine members of a gang for allegedly duping over 100 people across the country on the pretext of providing them with jobs in a private airline

Gurugram: Faridabad police on Sunday arrested nine members of a gang for allegedly duping over 100 people across the country on the pretext of providing them with jobs in a private airline. The accused were arrested from different areas of Delhi and NCR, police said. Police said 18 cases have been identified so far

9 held in Faridabad for duping 100 with fraud offers of job in airlines

Police have recovered ₹3.22 lakh, 13 Sim cards, 12 mobile phones and laptops from their possession. The SIM cards recovered were used for withdrawing cash from different ATMs after defrauding the victims.

According to Basant Kumar, station house officer, NIT cyber crime police station, Faridabad, the arrested men ran a fake call centre in Delhi’s Dwarka area to carry out their operations. “The perpetrators used to collect job seekers’ data from job-related websites and placement agencies. They posed as senior officials of a private airline and conducted online interviews. Later, they asked the victims to deposit fees for medical assessment, registration, and other joining formalities, along with a refundable security amount,” he said.

“The suspects were identified as Deepak Singh, Manvendra Singh and Ajit Singh of Uttar Pradesh. Three of them were partners of the fake call centre while the remaining six are from different districts of UP. Police said there are more members in this gang who are yet to get arrested. Our teams are conducting raids to apprehend them”, said Nitish Kumar Agarwal, deputy commissioner of police (NIT).

Agarwal said the suspect who used to provide forged bank accounts and SIM cards for withdrawal is yet to get arrested but has been identified.

Manvendra Singh used to send emails and fake appointment letters of the company to the call centers employees to share with the victims, said police.

The fraud came to light after a man identified as Avinash Singh from NIT Faridabad complained to the police that he was duped of ₹6.65 lakh on July 12 after he applied for a job through a website. A case was registered against the arrested men on July 27, police said.

Singh said the suspects had duped him on the pretext of registration fees, uniform charges, medical test and other processing fees and had offered him a job at the ticketing counter. “The suspects offered me a lucrative package and perks and after, following the training period. They also sent me fake offer letters after conducting several rounds of online interviews to make things more believable,” he said.

“To ensure that victims trust the recruitment process, they couriered fake offer letters to their residences. After confirming the appointment, victims were asked to pay money under different pretexts. Once the payments were transferred, the fraudsters switched their phones off,” said Kumar.

Sube Singh, spokesperson, Faridabad police, said that the gang was actively involved in duping people for the last two years. “The accused confessed to duping victims from Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Tamil Nādu and Maharashtra. “The main suspects were taken on 10 days police remand and others were sent to judicial custody on Monday,” he said.