With the arrest of three men, the Lucknow crime branch on Sunday claimed to have busted a fake job racket operating through an illegal call centre in Vibhuti Khand. Those arrested allegedly cheated job seekers across the country by posing as human resource (HR) executives of reputed banks and companies.
According to officials, the accused were identified as Balram Tiwari, 25, of Hardoi, who allegedly managed the operation, Shailesh Kumar alias HR Shikhar Tripathi, 32, of Amethi, and Nitesh Sharma alias HR Ajit Singh, 24, of Deoria. Police said the latter two worked as callers impersonating human resource (HR) officials.
The accused purchased databases of unemployed candidates from job portals and other sources before contacting them with promises of jobs in banks and private firms. They allegedly sent forged joining letters, offer letters, confirmation letters and job seeker agreements through WhatsApp and email to gain the victims’ confidence, an official statement issued by the crime branch said.
The victims were then asked to deposit money under the pretext of registration, interview, verification and placement fees into multiple bank accounts, the statement said.
During the raid at the call centre in Vibhuti Khand, police seized six mobile phones, 14 SIM cards, 10 debit cards, two passbooks, signed cheques, a car, ₹2,060 in cash and over 200 forged documents, including fake joining letters, agreements, client data sheets and email and WhatsApp records.
Additional deputy commissioner of police (crime) Kiran Yadav said the action was initiated after complaints received through the cyber crime cell, IGRS references, technical analysis and cyber intelligence indicated that a fake recruitment network was targeting unemployed youths nationwide.
Investigators said preliminary examination of the mobile numbers and IMEI numbers recovered from the call centre on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP) revealed multiple complaints from different states alleging similar job frauds involving fake recruitment for bank loan recovery agents and data entry posts.
According to police, the accused confessed to purchasing thousands of job seekers’ records every month and using fake identities and multiple mobile numbers while posing as HR executives to avoid detection.
Police said an FIR had been registered at Vibhuti Khand police station under relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Section 66D of the Information Technology Act.
