
BHUBANESWAR: Two fraudsters Balangir police arrested for duping jobseekers not only opened a fake website on a fictitious intelligence agency but also engaged the gullible victims as its ‘secret agents’.
The accused - Matru Prasad Sethi and Gopal Kumar Shaw - opened a fake website on National Intelligence Bureau which mimicked country’s premiere agency Intelligence Bureau. Balangir police said they will request Google to take down the fake website.
Police said the duo assured unemployed youths to provide them jobs in the agency with a monthly salary of Rs 44,000. They reportedly took money ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 2.5 lakh from job aspirants and provided them fake appointment letters. The victims were asked to work as ‘secret agents’ for two years and later promised to be provided with weapons and uniforms, police said.
Matru and Gopal are accused of cheating 45 job aspirants in Odisha, Maharashtra and Telangana to the tune of Rs 2 crore. Maharashtra Police also visited Kolkata to nab Gopal, a native of West Bengal, a few months back but were not able to trace his whereabouts.
The duo used the ill-gotten money to target small business owners to set up fake registered trusts claiming they would receive foreign grants and aid running into crores of rupees. They even opened offices of fake NGOs named Akankhya Trust, Swadhin Sankalp, Atulya Foundation, Kuber Memorial Trust, Kalyani Foundation, Mamatamayee Foundation and Obasa in Balangir and Sonepur districts.
Both showed forged and edited screenshots of Darpan Portal, a platform where non-profit organisations register themselves, to the businessmen claiming the trusts and foundations were opened and they had already received pre-sanctioned foreign aid to the tune of over Rs 1,000 crore.
The fraudsters utilised various technical tools such as website editor, Adobe Photoshop, Get into PC and Text Me, a phone number application, to prepare forged documents such as advance income tax receipts, website links, bank receipts and international financial aid messages to gain the confidence of the victims. They even sent WhatsApp messages to the duped investors via Text Me app using US number.
“So far, 12 persons from Balangir, Bargarh and Sonepur districts have accused Matru and Gopal of cheating them. The duo collected over Rs 2 crore from the victims who were lured to invest in fake NGOs. A case was registered against them by Cyber Crime and Economic Offence police station and further probe is continuing,” said Balangir SP, Khilari Rishikesh.
Northern range IG Himansu Lal said they are giving a top priority to prevent and detect cyber frauds as such offences are impacting the general public. He requested citizens to approach the police if they have queries related to any business or job opportunity being provided to them in lieu of money.