The Delhi Police have dismantled an illegal call centre that was running an online job scam, deceiving job seekers by posing as recruiters and demanding payments for non-existent job processes. Police have arrested 14 individuals, including the kingpin, Fahiq Siddiqui.
The scam came to light following a complaint from a woman who had uploaded her resume on Shine.com and Naukri.com in January while seeking a job in the medical field. On January 27, she received a call from a woman named Priya, who offered her a job and requested a refundable security deposit of Rs500.
After making the payment, the woman was contacted by a man named Atul, who conducted a telephonic interview and demanded an additional Rs3,999 for training. Over the following days, the woman was coerced into paying more money for various fictitious processes: Rs7,500 for document verification, Rs7,250 for dispatching a work kit, and Rs11,000 for salary account processing.
Her suspicions grew when the final demand for Rs11,000 seemed unreasonable, prompting her to stop further payments. Realizing she had been scammed, she approached the cyber cell, leading to the investigation.
The case was registered under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (Indian Penal Code), and police tracked the culprits using technical surveillance, including call detail records and IP logs from Shine.com. The investigation pointed to a building in Sector-3, Noida, where the accused were operating the scam.
A raid conducted on May 14 led to the arrest of Fahiq Siddiqui, along with six men and six women who were running the illegal call centre. During the raid, police seized eight laptops, 47 mobile phones, 57 SIM cards, 15 debit cards, two Wi-Fi dongles, and Rs1,31,500 in cash.
The accused had purchased premium recruiter accounts on job portals to access profiles of job seekers. The scam is believed to have a pan-India reach, and details of the seized SIM cards are being sent to the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) for further analysis.
Further investigation is underway, with more arrests and details expected as the police continue to uncover the full extent of the operation.
