Cyber crime cops nab two former techies in connection with job fraud

HYDERABAD: The Cyber Crime sleuths in Cyberabad apprehended two fraudsters for a job fraud scam in the name of WNS Global Services. They collected money from innocent jobseekers by sending them fake offer letters.

The complainant was contacted by the accused via a phone call and was promised a job in WNS Global service located in Mindspace, Hitech City. Later, the fraudsters conducted interviews and sent a fake offer letter to the victim. The accused individuals utilised a range of tactics to defraud him, effectively draining significant sums of money. On believing the offer letter was genuine, the victim sent the amount to the bank account provided by the fraudster.

The complainant stated that on January 26, 2024, he received a call from a mobile phone by the name Ranga Pardhu regarding placements in “WNS Global Services Private Ltd company” for an Associate Software Engineer job. He was told to share his name and study certificates along with Aadhar to the given number.

Later, a person named Shiva called him and asked that a charge of Rs 1,70,000 would be applicable. So he agreed to pay the charges after receiving the offer letter. Then they agreed and requested him to pay Rs. 20,000 as an initial fee and scheduled an initial interview on January 27, 2024, with “WNS Global Services Private Ltd” and informed him of the same through mail.

The victim attended the online interview and was selected. On January 29, 2024, he received an offer letter from WNS company. Later, the accused called the victim and told him that he needed to pay the remaining amount. He believed it was a genuine interview process and paid the balance amount of money as demanded by the fraudsters.

Later, he visited the address that was mentioned in the offer letter. After meeting with WNS Global Service office officials, he came to know that the offer letter and emails he received were not from WNS Global Services company and were fake.

The victim then tried calling Ranga Pardhu, but he did not respond. The victim lost Rs. 1,60,000 and requested Cyber Crime police action against the fraudsters.

Modus Operandi:

The main accused previously worked as an employee in Accenture and Infosys in Hyderabad and Innominds in Bengaluru. He lost his job due to the recession, and later he contacted his previous acquaintance, the accused number two, who secured him a job at Infosys in 2017.

They together hatched a plan to lure innocent unemployed young people in the name of securing them jobs, along with a third accused who was searching for a job. Later, they posted the vacancies on social media and whoever contacted them promised them jobs in WNS Global service.

Later, the fraudsters conducted interviews and sent fake offer letters to the victims. The accused prompted the victims to send huge amounts to their bank accounts. Such amounts were spent by the accused persons for their personal and lavish purposes.

The main accused, Mutchu Siva, and the third accused, Battagiri Ranga Parthulu were arrested, while Dhan Raju was absconding. All three belonged Prakasam district of AP. Both the arrested were presented before the court and were remanded.

Advisory:

Given the above, citizens are requested

 Not to encourage backdoor entry to jobs or do not believe data entry jobs without verification.

 Verify the genuineness of the company name and other details of the persons who were offering the data entry jobs.

 Advised to check the mail offering jobs which may be similar to genuine sites like Naukri, indeed, Linked In, etc.

 Many spoofing applications are used by fraudsters, so candidates can call back that number.

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