Delhi: Three held as fake job call centre busted in Laxmi Nagar

Three people, including two women, were arrested after Delhi Police busted a sham call centre in Laxmi Nagar allegedly offering airlines company jobs to unsuspecting job seekers in return for money, police said on Monday.

The accused allegedly posed as HR representatives of an airline company and offered ground-duty jobs to prospective victims before inducing them to transfer money through UPI on the pretext of registration and other employment-related charges, they said.

The arrested accused have been identified as Mohammad Zaid (30), and two women — Sadaf (24) and Tanisha (21), both from Delhi, a senior police officer said.

The case came to light after a resident of Chhattisgarh approached the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal, alleging that he was contacted by a person posing as an HR representative who offered him a job for Rs 14,000.

The complainant transferred Rs 14,500 through UPI but later realised that he had been cheated.

“During the inquiry, the money trail was traced to a bank account from which the amount was withdrawn through an ATM in east Delhi. An FIR was subsequently registered on August 20,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (East) Rajeev Kumar said.

During the investigation, the bank account was found to be in the name of Zaid, following which his movements were tracked and he was apprehended from Laxmi Nagar.

His interrogation led teams to Sadaf and Tanisha, following which the police found that the trio was allegedly operating a call centre from Laxmi Nagar to target job seekers.

“The accused used multiple mobile numbers to contact prospective victims, impersonated as HR personnel of the airlines company and offered them ground-duty positions,” the officer said.

The victims were asked to transfer money to different bank accounts through UPI, after which the amounts were withdrawn from nearby ATMs and distributed among the accused, he added.

Sadaf had allegedly been operating the call centre for around three months. A search of the premises led to the recovery of six smartphones, three keypad mobile phones containing multiple SIM cards and cash from Sadaf. The SIM allegedly used in the present case was also recovered. Police have also found two other complaints registered on the NCRP linked to mobile numbers allegedly being used by the accused.

Zaid is a school dropout and was unemployed, while Sadaf had dropped out in the second year of her BA course.

Tanisha is a class 12 passout and had initially started working with Sadaf before becoming involved in the alleged fraudulent activity, police said, adding that further investigation into the matter is underway.