Noida and Gurgaon are fast becoming the hubs for job and loan frauds using telemarketing, according to the Hyderabad police which has busted yet another gang within a week of busting a loan fraud operating from Noida on September 7.

A special team from the Cyber Crime Police Station, Detective Department, Hyderabad, on Monday arrested four persons from an office in Mundawali area near Noida who were involved in an organized job fraud and cheated at least 70 unemployed people from Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamilnadu.

Cops arrested, Mukesh Mishra, 23, resident of Yadav Bhavan, Noida; Bhagirath Tyagi, 25, resident of Indra Market, Noida; Sunil Kumar Gupta, 32, resident of Saurikh Road, Kannauj, UP; and Sandeep Singh, of Chilla Village, Mayur Vihar Phase 1, New Delhi, after investigating a complaint lodged by Hyderabad resident C B Yogishwar, 22.

“The complainant stated that in July and August he received several calls on his mobile and also several emails on his personal email id regarding job offers.

Although, he initially ignored, the calls were persistent and since he was unemployed he replied once to an email from hrd@bajajelectricals.com and ashokacharya705@gmail.com offering a job in Bajaj Electricals. He was initially asked to deposit registration fee of Rs 2,500 and then under various pretexts they made him deposit Rs 1.30 lakhs and cut off communication. Realising he had been cheated, he lodged the complaint,’’ Dr T Prabhakar Rao, Joint Commissioner, Detective Department, Crime Central Station, Hyderabad Police, said.

Officials said that after analysing call data records, they were able to pin point that the calls originated from various mobile phone numbers from Mundawali area near Noida and zeroed on a premises owned by Sandeep Singh from where a small call centre was being run to lure gullible unemployed youth to deposit money into accounts provided by the gang members. Mukesh Mishra, 22, a former call centre employee is the kingpin, according to the police.

Mukesh procured 3,000 resumes of fresh graduates from shine.com, a job portal by paying a fee of Rs 6,000.

“He purchased several prepaid SIM cards from an agent by paying Rs 200 per SIM. Then he, Bhagirath and Sunil started calling to the numbers listed in the resumes pretending to be calling on behalf of shine.com, and sent emails too on behalf of reputed companies like Bajaj Electronics, LG, DLF, and ICICI Bank.

When the candidates showed interest, they asked them initially to pay an amount of Rs. 2500 for registration. After that, they conducted telephonic interviews and informed them that they were selected for respective jobs and asked them to deposit an additional amount of Rs. 5600 to get the offer letter. Then Mukesh prepared fake offer letters on the names of respective organizations and sent to the candidates as if it was sent by the original organizations. For this purpose, Mukesh used a website emkei.cz facilitates to send spoof mail ids as if they really originated from the companies.

Then they directed the candidates to deposit amounts ranging from Rs 10000 to Rs 25000 towards training charges, family insurance charges etc. Believing them more than 70 unemployed youth deposited amounts ranging from Rs. 2500 to 25000 in the bank accounts provided by the accused. Once the victims started asking questions or tried to verity, they would simply cut off communication or simply not use that particular mobile number anymore,’’ an official said.

Police recovered Rs 3.50 lakhs in cash from the call centre, 15 mobile phones and laptops. The four accused were produced in a court in New Delhi and were brought on transit remand to Hyderabad.

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