Youths held for online fraud

SAMBALPUR: Sambalpur Cyber police on Wednesday arrested two youths including a B Tech engineer for duping several people by creating a fake website of Western Electricity Supply Company of Odisha (WESCO). 

The accused are Tapas Mohapatra (27) from Jalda and Sunil Kumar Mishra (25) of Sales Tax Colony in Rourkela. While Tapas is a BSc degree holder, Sunil graduated from VSSUT, Burla in 2018.

Sambalpur Cyber IIC Tarabati Pradhan said the two had created a fake website of WESCO utility with the URL www.wescoodisha.co.in in June this year. Subsequently, they put up a fake advertisement inviting applications for various jobs in WESCO and promoted it through various mediums.

The fake advertisement drew the attention of several job aspirants who filled in the online job application and also paid the application fees through an online payment gateway created by the duo. The incident came to light around a month later, after the DGM (HRD) of WESCO Utility, Sambalpur, came across the fake website and registered a complaint with the Cyber police station on July 27.

Police found the mobile number registered for creating the fake website and tracked it. The duo was finally arrested from Rourkela. The fee for the application was `500. Though, the police are yet to ascertain the exact number of persons who fell prey to the online fraud, official sources informed, from initial investigation it appears that over a 1,000 persons had applied on the online application and paid the fee through the website. 

The account statements of the youths are being reviewed. The police are also investigating whether more persons are involved in the fraud.