Online Job Scam: 2 held in Cyberabad for taking money, providing fake offer letters

Hyderabad: Cyber Crime sleuths in Cyberabad arrested two persons named as accused in a job fraud scam. They would collect money from unaware job seekers in the name of WNS Global Services and provide fake offer letters.

The accused have been identified as A1 Mutchu Siva Prasad (32), Dhan Raju, who is absconding, and Battagiri Ranga Pardhudu (26). They have multiple cases against them in police stations across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Case details

This is a case of job fraud, a scam perpetuated online in the name of WNS Global Services. The complainant, who brought the scam to light, became a victim of a deceptive promise resulting in a substantial loss of money.

The fraudulent scheme began when a fraudster contacted the complainant by phone and promised him to provide a job at WNS Global Service. Later, the fraudster conducted the interview and sent a fake offer letter to the victim.

Believing the offer letter was genuine, the victim sent the amount to the accused’s bank account when the latter utilised a diverse range of tactics to convince him to give money to keep the job he was selected for.

The complainant stated that on January 26, he received a call from a person named Ranga Pardhu regarding placements in WNS Global Services Private Ltd company for DevOps associate software engineer Job roles where charges will be applicable.

The complainant provided his Aadhaar and other details and was asked to pay Rs 1 lakh, 70 for the offer letter. He paid an initial amount and an interview was conducted. He was told he was selected. They told him to needed to pay the remaining amount and he paid.

Later, he visited the address mentioned in the offer letter i.e., WNS Global Service, Mind Space at Hitech City, Hyderabad. After he met with WNS Global Service office officials, he came to know that the offer letter and emails he received didn’t pertain to WNS Global Services company. He realised that the offer letter was fake. The accused had switched off his phone.

Modus operandi

A1 previously worked as an employee in Accenture, Infosys Hyderabad and in Bangalore. He lost his job due to the recession. Later, he contacted his previous acquaintance A2, who secured him a job in Infosys in 2017. They together hatched a plan to lure innocent unemployed youth in the name of providing jobs

A3, who was also searching for a job, joined their team. They would post the job vacancies on social media and whoever contacts them they’ll promise them jobs at WNS Global Service. They would conduct interviews and send fake offer letters in exchange for large sums of money. A case has been registered and an investigation is on.

Public advisory

In view of the above, citizens are requested the following:

- Don’t encourage backdoor entry to jobs and do not believe data entry jobs without verification.

- Verify the genuineness of a company and other details of who was offering the data entry jobs.

- Check the emails offering jobs which may be similar to genuine sites like Naukri, Indeed, Linkedin etc.

- Fraudsters are using spoofing applications to call in the name of MNCs

- If you receive any notice or are aware of financial fraud, contact 1930, the designated helpline for reporting financial crimes.