Beware of increasing fraudsters while seeking Job and Finance

Job and financial fraudsters are increasing during COVID-19 as the whole World going through lockdown in one way or other since early 2020. This is not happening only in one country or region but round the globe with more complaints about scams for certain business and job-related opportunities have spiked this year amid the coronavirus pandemic.

A five gang of job fraudster were nabbed by Delhi Police’s cyber cell on 5th Nov. 2020. A job racket operating in the name of the Union health ministry cheated at least 27,000 applicants by collecting a registration fee totaling about Rs 1.09 crore in just about a month.

The police said that it was one of the biggest job frauds ever busted by the force. Further, the police said since the masterminds legally operated a centre that conducted online recruitment examinations for government and private agencies, they had access to personal data of job-seekers to whom they sent targeted messages of job offers.

In one month, the gang allegedly sent out 15 lakh SMSs with links to two fraudulent websites for registration for 13,000 vacancies, including posts such as accountants, data entry operators, nursing midwives and ambulance drivers, police said.

“The websites were designed so convincingly that some news and job information portals believed these openings to be genuine. They ended up amplifying the news of these fake jobs,” said Anyesh Roy, deputy commissioner of police (cyber cell).

Roy said the two fake websites operated by the gang to draw their victims were www.sajks.org and www.sajks.com. Both mentioned they were under the Ministry of health and family welfare.

SAJKS stood for Swasthya Avm Jan Kalyan Sansthan. Neither of the two websites were functional anymore when HT tried to access them on Thursday.

The crime came to notice mid last month when an applicant decided to approach Delhi Police with a complaint that he received no response after paying Rs 500 as registration fee. Since the registration fee ranged only between Rs 100 and 500, the fraudsters believed victims wouldn’t approach the police, said Roy.

The police registered a case and began collecting digital footprints of the suspects and their money trail.

The investigation revealed that a bank account was opened in Haryana’s Hisar district in the name of Swasthya Sanstan, a name consistent with the fake website.

“Soon, we got to know that money being deposited into this account by job applicants was being withdrawn from ATMs every day. On Tuesday, we laid a trap at one such ATM in Hisar and caught one suspect red-handed while he was withdrawing the money,” Roy said.

The role of that nabbed suspect, 27-year-old Amandeep Khetkari, was just to withdraw money on a daily basis and distribute it to members of the gang, said the officer.

According to police, the arrested men included two website designers, Sandeep and Joginder Singh, the bank account holder Surender Singh and the mastermind Ramdhari, 50.

Fake website at Delhi airport busted

Delhi police have registered a case after the Delhi international airport operator filed a complaint about a fake website advertising about vacancies at the airport and asking applicants to pay Rs 1,000 as enrolment fee..

DCP (IGI ) Rajeev Ranjan said a case under various sections of the IPC and Information Technology Act was registered on a complaint filed by the chief legal office, Delhi airport. In its complaint on Monday, the airport operator said a lookalike of the GMR website was luring, duping and obtaining money from job seekers.

“The fraudsters published fake advertisement pertaining to various job openings and job offer in GMR Group on their careers page with a provision for collecting Rs 1000 as application fee through online payment mode. A total 2,201 job vacancies are published in the fake website,” the complaint reads.

Fake websites

Duplicate websites of reputed companies, job portals or government departments are created to mislead applicants. They then post fake jobs, conduct tests and upload results, before charging the successful candidates for clearing the interview. Some even go so far as to set up temporary offices, hiring staffers, conducting interviews, allotting appointment letters and charging fees in installments.

Genuine Job Website

Job portals these days are too advanced with one stop destination to find your dream job on the go. There is a good list of helpful and genuine job portals which includes jobs recruitment, search, employment, vacancies etc. In other words, there is no specific job portal which can be stated as fake website however, there are many fraudulent and cheating activities at the hands of many criminal elements. If you suspect the website activities and their job offer, lookout for domain registration and share with other who may have good knowledge of online activities, colleague and check review of the website if any. Best is not to rely on their sweet reply, invitation if you are not confident with their website source or your friend who already applied who might be their victim.

What you need to know while seeking job

Job seekers need to be very careful if any website indulges in any monetary engagement for guaranteed interviews with employers. All these portals may take a genuine approach in helping the candidates to find the right job in their preferred sector but ended up after depositing/ paying them service charge. So, make sure you are using the right website service while searching for your dream job.

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