- GANG OF ONLINE FAKE JOB RACKET AND FAKE CALL CENTRE BUSTED.
INTRODUCTION:-
The Crime Branch of South Eastern Range has busted a fake call centre being run by a gang of cheats who were involved in a massive inter-state on line cheating on the pretext of providing jobs to unemployed educated youths. The arrested persons are partners of the firm running a call centre. A fully functional fake call centre with all amenities like laptops, desktops, printers, PRI line phones of Airtel, mobile phones and several incriminating documents has been busted.
INCIDENT & OPERATION:-
On 23.3.2017, a complaint was received in the Crime Branch wherein the complainant Ms. Rachna (name changed), a student of M.Com. (Final year) and R/o Bhubneshwar, Orissa had complained that she had submitted her resume for a job at Monster.com. Thereafter, on 18.2.2017, she received a call from Zeeobs.com regarding a job and they asked her to register herself on their site. They demanded a registration fee of Rs. 2300/- from her. After depositing the required fee for registration, when she contacted the officials of Zeeobs, they further demanded Rs. 6500/- for interview. She refused to pay further and asked them for cancellation of her registration and refund of fee to which they replied that they would refund the same after two months. Suspecting the above site to be a fake site, she lodged a complaint on 06.3.2017. In her complaint, she also stated that the above firm is cheating other innocent unemployed youths and a thorough investigation is required in this matter.
Immediately, on receipt of the complaint, a team comprising of Insp. Ishwar Singh, SI Rajiv Malik, SI Devender Dahiya, ASI Jai Prakash, ASI Deep Chand, ASI Vinod, HC Vinod and Ct. Sandeep was constituted and led by ACP Ishwar Singh under the overall supervision of DCP, Dr. G Ram Gopal Naik. The CDRs of the mobile numbers given in the complaint were analysed. The statement of the account numbers in which the complainant had deposited the registration amount were also analysed. The addresses on which the mobile numbers were issued were found to be fake. From the CDR analysis, it was revealed that the given numbers were being used for calling the prospective victims. Some of the victims were also contacted who also reported to have been cheated by the above firms in the same manner. The analysis of the bank accounts also revealed that small amounts in the form of registration fee, etc. is being deposited in the said account from victims belonging to various parts of the country. An amount of Rs. 30 Lakhs, so far, was found deposited in the last four months in an account of M/s Showvis Live, the account was used by the accused persons for receiving the said registration fee etc. Accordingly, a case vide FIR No. 63/17, dated 03.5.2017, U/s 420/34/120-B IPC was registered at PS Crime Branch and investigation was taken up.
INTERROGATION AND MODUS OPERANDI:-
During the investigation of the case, the address mentioned with the bank account was found to be locked and it surfaced that the address was used only for procuring the bank account. Technical surveillance was also mounted and manual sources were deployed to apprehend the accused persons and the efforts bore fruit when the call centre of the accused was located at Laxmi Nagar, Delhi. A raid was conducted at the alleged call centre on 03/05/17 and the accused persons operating the illegal set up were apprehended.
The arrested accused revealed that they used to purchase the data of unemployed youths from job site Monster.com and the job aspirants were contacted from their call centre. The aspirants were asked to register with the site Zeeobs.com and a registration fee was received from each such aspirant in the account of Showvis Live maintained at SBI, Laxmi Nagar. Further, the prospective victims were asked to deposit the amount in the name of practice interviews, document verification and so on. The accused contacted the job aspirants residing in remote areas, far away from Delhi as they were considered easy targets and further, it was not easy for the poor victims to trace or follow the accused upto Delhi.
Accused Abhimanyu Singh is the mastermind of this racket who has been involved in such activities since 2014. Earlier, he had committed such cheatings in the name of Today Employment at Sec. 3, Noida wherein he had cheated several victims of approx. Rs. 40 Laks. On being identified and when chased by the victims, he had shifted his earlier set up from Noida to Delhi in April, 2016. He had also operated in the name of Zeeconnect but, the account of the said firm were freezed by the PNB bank being found to be of abnormal behaviour. In Dec. 2016, he opened an account in SBI, Laxmi Nagar in the name of Showvis Live and got a website prepared in the name of Zeeobs.com and started running a call center at Laxmi Nagar, Delhi. He had been accepting registration fee through Paytm also.
PROFILE OF THE ARRESTED ACCUSED:-
- Accused Abhimanyu Singh was born in 1993 and is a commerce graduate from Jodhpur. He is unmarried. He has been involved in such job scams since 2014.
- Accused Om Vasudev Sharma was born in 1990 and has done BCA from Agra in 2010 and thereafter, he came to Delhi for MCA. He started working at a call centre in Noida and later came in contact with accused Abhimanyu Singh and got involved in job scam.
- Accused Rohit Kashyap was born in 1993 and is 12th He started working at a call centre in Noida and later came in contact with accused Abhimanyu Singh and got involved in job scam.
RECOVERIES:-
- 6 mobile phones
- 2 laptops
- 2 desktops with printers
- 25 Credit/Debit cards
- 10 Landline phones
- 7 PAN cards
- Incriminating documents like bank accounts, ledgers, etc.
Further investigation of the case is in progress.
Dr. G. Ramgopal Naik,
Dy. Commissioner of Police,
Crime (SER & ST), New Delhi.
Source: Delhi Police (PR Cell)
