Seven women have been arrested for allegedly running a fake placement agency and duping hundreds of people across the country on the pretext of providing lucrative jobs in reputed airline companies

Police raided a building in west Delhi’s Ramesh Nagar on Saturday where the agency was being run through a call centre.

The accused have been identified as Sushmita (26), Chhaya (21), Akansha Sharma (21), Pooja (21), Roshni (24), Rekha (23) and Jyoti (29), police said.

They have been booked under IPC section 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and other relevant section of the Information Technology Act at the Kirti Nagar Police Station, they added.

The police have recovered six phones, fake appointment letters of airlines and data of victims from the accused.

The accused duped job seekers across India in the name of providing them lucrative jobs at airports and reputed government and private airline companies, they said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Urvija Goel said the accused used to send bulk messages which read Job openings in various airlines and interested may call on the given mobile number’, to random people.

“The victims were first made to transfer Rs 2,500 registration charge and were later asked to pay additional amounts in the name of uniform, security and other charges. With the data of victims available with the accused, the police contacted several of them who stated that they were cheated in the name of providing lucrative jobs at airports and were also made to transfer the amount online,” she said.

The police said the matter came to the fore after they received a complaint via e-mail from one of the victims stating that he was cheated of Rs 32,000 by the gang using the same modus operandi.

The fake placement agency has been busted at a time when a large section of the youth population is facing problems in securing jobs. India is currently facing its worst employment rate in the past 45 years.