Fake offers letters of Cognizant, IBM: Cyberabad cops arrest one for cheating aspirants

Hyderabad: The Cyber Crime Police of Cyberabad arrested a person for cheating people in the name of providing jobs and cheating them.

The accused was identified as Mohammed Ali, a native of Gulbarga, Karnataka. Earlier, the accused was arrested in August 2024 by Govindpur police, Bengaluru, in a job fraud case. The police also seized a mobile phone from the arrested person’s possession.

Case details

DCP (Cyber Crimes), Cyberabad K Narsimha said that on August 1, a case was registered in Cyber Crime police station, Cyberabad, wherein, the victim reported that, she received a call on August 29, 2023, from a person named Reshma who identified themselves as a senior HR manager of ‘CTS Multinational company’ and looking for mass hiring to offer job opportunities at Cognizant (CTS) and IBM.

Victim asked to collect money from students for job opportunities

Reshma asked the victim for students, who were looking for jobs and the victim referred a few students to Reshma and sent 30 resumes.

Upon insisting, the victim collected money from the students and agreed to pay 50 per cent advance for placing candidates and transferred money to multiple accounts provided by the accused.

Students were sent fake offer letters

Subsequently, the students of the victim received fake job offers from CTS and IBM emails. Later, the accused stopped responding and blocked the victim who then realised that it was a scam.

An investigation led by inspector P Narendra Reddy revealed that a team of five persons were involved in the fraud. They tricked job seekers into sending large amounts of money by giving false claims about securing non-existent job placements.

Reshma and Koushik opened a fake consultancy office in Kukatpally in 2023. Reshma called the victims pretending to be a senior HR manager of CTS and provided them with false hope for job placements. Koushik acted as the HR manager and conducted fake interviews.

The DCP further said that Mohammed Nazeeruddin Raza being the account holder to which the fraudulent money was transferred, Mohammed Ali and Fazil Patil acted as interviewers for different rounds. As a part of the case, Reshma and Mohammed Naseeruddin who are associates of Mohammed Ali, were arrested earlier and remanded. Three other suspects, Fazil, Patil and Koushik are absconding, he added.

Public advisory

The DCP advised the public to exercise extreme caution while availing of job opportunities. To prevent job fraud, consider these safety tips:

- Verify the employer’s identity,

- Be cautious of unsolicited job offers

- Reject offers asking for paying for job placements

- Verify the job description and terms thoroughly

- Use trusted job portals

- Report suspicious activity promptly

The police said that the public can report cybercrime on the helpline 1930 or the Cyber Crime website.