Ahmedabad: Man loses Rs 22 lakh to Canada job ruse

AHMEDABAD: Nagendra Soni, a resident of Ranip, has lodged a police complaint stating that someone has cheated him of Rs 22.85 lakh by promising to get him and his wife permits to work in Canada.
Cybercrime police on Friday registered a case under IPC Sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for cheating), 471 (using as genuine forged documents), and 120B (criminal conspiracy).
Soni, 47, who is unemployed, told police that in June this year he saw an advertisement for Canada work permits. The contact person identified himself as Sunil Kumar, ostensibly a Canadian immigration lawyer. Soni got in touch with Kumar and was told that for labour market impact assessment and work permits he would have to pay Rs 15 lakh.
Thereafter, Soni sent his and his wife Nandini's details and paid Rs 60,000 to Kumar for registration. A receipt of the payment was given to Soni. Kumar then informed Soni that Nandini was being offered a job at Chicago International Construction company and the salary will be 3,650 Canadian dollars. In July this year, Soni was asked to send the passports to a Delhi address.
Kumar told Soni to transfer Rs 6.25 lakh as fees. In August, Kumar told Soni his procedure had been completed and he should send Rs 16 lakh through an angadia. Soni did so. Soni asked for the passports and got them. On August 21, he got tickets to Canada and the travel date was September 9.
On August 29, he found the tickets had been cancelled. Kumar told Soni that new tickets were being procured. Soni later learnt that wrong work permits were processed, and the documents submitted were fake. No tickets were given to him either.