Cyber fraud arrested for duping Telangana woman of ₹72 lakh

Dhaval Mahendra Shah, the alleged mastermind of a job fraud racket in India, has been arrested for cheating people with fake job offers from top companies. Shah was wanted in several states and handed over to the Telangana police for a case in which he duped a woman of ?72 lakh ($98,000) by promising her a job with Microsoft. Shah was a member of a gang that cheated people online by sending emails about high paying positions, conducting fake interviews, and asking for payment.

MUMBAI: A 46-year-old man from Bhayandar, alleged to be the mastermind of a job fraud racket and wanted in several states for cheating people by luring them with job offers from top companies such as Microsoft, Indian Oil, Zomato etc., has been arrested on Wednesday by Kashimira Police.

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The accused, Dhaval Mahendra Shah, on Thursday was handed over to Telangana police as he was wanted in a case registered by Ranchakoda police station in Telangana for duping a woman, to the tune of ₹72 lakh last year, by luring her with a job offer in Microsoft.

According to Sadip Kadam, senior police inspector of Kashimira police station, their head constable Mohammed Sayyed had last week received information that Telangana police had traced Shah’s location in Bhayandar.

Sayyed tracked down Shah using network of informers and reported his address to superiors. “We informed the Telangana cybercrime unit about it and after laying a trap, arrested Shah from his house on Wednesday,” said Kadam.

The police officer said that Shah, a businessman, was also a member of a gang that cheated people online. M Raju, police inspector attached to Ranchakoda police station who took Shah’s custody, said that the gang led by Shah used to send emails to random people after buying their data and email IDs from the dark web.

The emails sent by Shah and his gang used to be about openings for high paying positions in well-known companies. They then would conduct telephonic or online interviews of the aspirants and ask them to pay for the purportedly high paying jobs.

Raju said that in 2022 he had received a complaint from a 26-year-old woman, who had received an email from the frauds. On replying to the email, the frauds had offered her a position in Microsoft and also conducted several rounds of interviews pretending to be officials of the American technological giant.

He said that the woman made 138 online transactions within a year and transferred a total of ₹72 lakh to the accused. He added that two months back they arrested two of Shah’s associates from Hyderabad and were on the lookout for Shah since January this year.