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Odisha Police busted what is said to be India's 'biggest ever job fraud' and arrested its mastermind from Uttar Pradesh. The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) said it unearthed a huge job fraud scam being run from UP's Aligarh, according to the news agency ANI.
The key accused, identified as Zafar Ahmed, is a resident of Civil Lines, Aligarh, UP in connection with the case. The accused is an engineer (B.Tech) by profession and one of the masterminds of this scam. He was produced before a local court in Aligarh.
The court granted five days transit remand. He will be produced before the court at Bhubaneswar, as per ANI reports.
Police informed that the scammers targeted the unemployed youth in at least five states - Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, and Odisha.
JN Pankaj, Deputy Inspector General EOW said, “We are very thankful to Aligarh Police of Uttar Pradesh for assisting us in arresting the accused. The investigation is still going on to unearth the involvement of others and the huge amount amassed by the fraudsters in this process.”
According to the police, early estimates suggest that at least 50,000 job seekers across the country were duped, the amount runs in crores.
“The scam was being run by a group of highly tech-savvy engineers from Uttar Pradesh with the help of some expert website developers. This core group was assisted by around 50 call center employees. These employees were paid ₹15,000 per month and were from Jamalpur and Aligarh areas of Uttar Pradesh. More than 1,000 fake SIMs and 530 handsets and Mobile phones were used for this scam,” police told ANI.
The scammers used WhatsApp voice calls on fake SIM cards in the fraud, and to avoid caller detection, they ensured to save their mobile number related to the scheme name only, the official added.
Around 100 mule bank accounts were used in this scam. They withdrew money only from "Jan Seva Kendra" using the QR code of Jan Seva Kendra and mule account, he said.
Further, they developed a website resembling a government website displaying the government job advertisement mainly targeting Health or skill department jobs, some using "Pradhan-Mantri schemes" to attract and deceive the job seekers, said police.
The fraudsters also gave advertisements in local newspapers but ensured that they would use fake identities and use WhatsApp call or other such systems and transact money through mule bank accounts only, ANI reported.
They would charge candidates for registration, interview training to other kinds of events ranging from ₹3000 to ₹50,000 depending on to what extent candidates trust them, the cops added.
(With ANI inputs)
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