Man held for duping at least 50 people of ₹15L in fake job scam

Inspired by the easy money that came from duping unemployed youth with fake job vacancies, an ex-advertising agency employee quit his job to begin cheating people

Inspired by the easy money that came from duping unemployed youth with fake job vacancies, an ex-advertising agency employee quit his job to begin cheating people using this modus operandi he had observed and learnt at his former workplace, the Delhi Police said after arresting a 29-year-old man and his accomplice on Tuesday.

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To lure in job aspirants, each of whom he would cheat of thousands of rupees, suspect Rohit Mishra designed a fake website resembling that of Doordarshan, deputy commissioner of police (crime branch) Rajesh Deo said. “We know he cheated at least 50 job aspirants whom he would promise employment with Doordarshan and Prasar Bharati,” Deo said, adding that he had duped victims of nearly ₹15 lakh.

The police began probing the job racket after receiving a complaint from a Doordarshan officer about some “fraudsters” cheating people in the public-service broadcaster’s name. “We analysed the phone numbers from which the victims received calls and details of the bank accounts in which the money was deposited,” Deo said, adding that the police made a breakthrough when they scanned the CCTV footage of ATM booths from where the suspects withdrew money.

According to the officer, at the advertising agency, Mishra’s job was to collect documents and payments from clients. “He noticed that many people would advertise fake jobs. He befriended them, learnt the trick and began cheating job aspirants using the same trick,” Deo said.

Mishra began the alleged fraud in association with Ashish Singh, a former security guard at an ATM booth. “Mishra would frequent one of the ATM booths to withdraw money and befriended Singh during those visits,” the DCP said.

Together, the duo allegedly made a fake website using logos and images from the official Doordarshan website and then started offering jobs with the government agency. “He attracted job aspirants by publishing advertisements in Hindi newspapers in many states, but avoided giving such ads in Delhi-NCR,” Deo said.

“Once Mishra would be approached by a job aspirant, he would first ask them to pay ₹15,540 as application charges, a few days later he would make them part with ₹15,000 as medical and insurance costs and finally ask for another ₹5,000 on the pretext of court agreement fee,” the DCP said.

The money would be deposited in bank accounts opened using fake identity and address proofs. Once the victim had parted with the money in three instalments, the suspects would go incommunicado, the officer said.