Job scam: Telecallers trained to lure victims

HYDERABAD: A day after the international job racket running into crores of rupees was unravelled, cybercrime sleuths zeroed in on eight victims, including two from Hyderabad, who were duped by Wisdom IT Services India Private Ltd which promised them ‘cushy jobs’ in the Gulf and other foreign countries after collecting huge sums. Police are now hoping that more victims would come out and spill the beans on the fake firm, run by Ajay Kolla, who passed himself as CEO and director of Wisdom.

“Eight job aspirants from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have approached police. As of now, only one FIR has been filed with the Cyberabad cybercrime police,” cybercrime inspector Ramaiah said. The cybercrime team is looking into emails and WhatsApp complaints of the victims so that they could build a proper case against Ajay and 13 of his employees. The accused have been arrested and booked under various sections.

“We received 10 emails from the Gulf and other countries on the job fraud. We are expecting more victims to come forward and file complaints in the coming days,” said assistant commissioner of police (ACP), cybercrime (Cyberabad), Y Srinivas Kumar.

Cops have found that the company began cheating job aspirants since 2012 and it didn’t have any tie-ups with MNCs.

“As the company began growing, telecallers employed by Ajay and his team started charging more money from people approaching them for jobs,” a cop said. Ramaiah said the company, however, got bad reviews on the social media about its functioning.

Initially, most of the senior staffers employed with Wisdom were recruited as trainees.

“Within six months, they joined the sales department of the company. One of the accused, Mazhar, trained the new employees on how to lure victims to shell out more money to get a job,” said the police officer.

The staffers were paid Rs 15,000 to Rs 25,000 towards salary and incentives were extended on the basis of the number of people they ‘trapped’, cops said.