The Anti-Bank Fraud Wing of the Central Crime Branch (CCB) on Saturday unearthed a fake job portal and arrested three persons for allegedly duping people in the guise of providing jobs amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The police said the accused had created a fake job portal, which was similar to a leading job portal, and reached out to job-seekers through various modes.
Recently, the CCB received a complaint about the portal duping a person, who lost his job owing to the COVID-19 lockdown.
The police said Sivasankar, 28, of Velachery, is an engineering graduate and had lost his job recently. Searching for a new job, he posted his profile on the website and deposited ₹3,000 initially towards registration. As he did not get any offer, he called up the numbers provided on the website. The person who received his call asked him to pay ₹8,000 so that he could get a job in a foreign country. The scammers made him transfer up to ₹1.45 lakh to their account towards “processing fee”. As he did not get any job, he lodged an online complaint with the CCB.
A special team of the Anti-Bank Fraud Wing took up the investigation that led to a gang operating from New Delhi. The team summoned A. Arif Khan, 31, Wajid Khan, 29, and Sandeep Kumar, 24, to the city and arrested them. They were remanded in judicial custody. A special team is also on the lookout for the suspects behind the fraud.
The police said the gang had cheated several job-seekers during the recent slump in the job market. An officer said the gang would target job-seekers and make them pay a processing fee, running into several lakhs, in their Paytm accounts and then go off the radar.