Bhubaneswar: Cocking a snook on cyber security, the tricksters have duped a general manager (GM) of a big company of more than Rs 20 lakh on the pretext of providing him a better job.
There is a surfeit in cybercrime cases amidst the pandemic which has turned a headache for the Odisha Police. The crooks have been following different tactics like online sale of liquor, expiry of Paytm KYC to trick the gullible netizens into their trap.
Sources said the victim, identified as Pankaj Kumar Das, 52, is a resident of KIIT Square at Patia under Infocity police limits here. The complainant is currently employed as the GM of a big company. Recently, unknown fraudsters have duped him of Rs 20 lakh on the pretext of availing him a high-paying job in a reputed multinational company.
Das was dissatisfied with his job and had started searching for a better opportunity like vice president or chief executive officer (CEO) in a reputed company.
Eventually, he found a website www.reccruitmentzone.in and registered with the site by submitting all the educational and job experiences related documents. Subsequently, the accused persons identified as Uday Shankar, Arav Raghuvansmi, Dinesh Nair, Prakash Mehra and Ayat Quereshi contacted Das claiming themselves as the representatives of the website.
They would regularly contact Das and provide him with fake updates regarding the job he was aspiring for. The accused succeeded in winning the trust of Das with their cordial approach. Das paid the agency the required fees and charges as per their demands and based on their representations. They also assured Das of availing financial assistance from various financial institutions in the form of credit facilities. After receiving Rs 20, 30, 000 from Das, the cyber crooks ignored his phone calls and also stopped making any contact through mail too.
Das sought the help of Infocity police who asked him to approach cyber police station at the police headquarters in Cuttack.
Additional director general (ADG), Crime Branch, Soumendra Priyadarshi said, “I am aware of online job fraud cases during the pandemic. We have been seriously investigating into the cases. The fraudsters have been operating outside the state and country too. Cybercrime cases have increased manifold during the pandemic and we will shortly begin awareness drive to aware people about the issue.”
PNN