BENGALURU: Cases of cheating people on the pretext of finding them lucrative jobs abroad are on the rise in Bengaluru. A 56-year-old company secretary was duped of Rs.2 lakh after he was offered a plum job in Dubai. The victim, Raj Kumar, a resident of Indiranagar, was searching for a job abroad in order to meet the family expenses.
It all began in October 2015 when Kumar received an email of a job offer from now.employment.com, a job portal. He emailed his resume and he was given a lucrative offer of `36 lakh per annum. The salary would be hiked to Rs 48 lakh after one year, the offer stated.
Then came a slew of emails from the portal asking for his educational, residential and experience documents. Kumar sent them all. But then he got a call from a person claiming to be a company representative who asked him to deposit Rs. 2.18 lakh. Kumar did the same and subsequently waited for the reply, but in vain. He waited until March 2016, only to realize he was duped.
Later, he made phone calls to the company and asked for his money back. The accused said they will return the money. They also sent two scanned copies of Rs. 1.9 lakh cheque. He later filed a complaint with Indiranagar police on August 13.
Police said 50 such incidents have been reported in various police stations. The culprits get the contact address of people from job portals like Naukri.com.“Attractive salary offers, jobs in Dubai, Canada, US, UK are the prime factors that these cyber criminals cash in on. Cyber criminals even send fake Visa letter, job offer letter,” a police source said.
Past incidents
June 2017
An engineer paid Rs.1.9 lakh after he found an advertisement on Facebook where they claimed to hire marine engineers. The victim Kumar flew to Istanbul to report to work. He was deported after officials found out he was duped.
May 2016
A 32-year-old job aspirant who worked as an engineer was given a fake offer letter stating he had got a job in the US. The conman also asked for D2 lakh to clear the formalities, to which the engineer promptly transferred the amount.