Fake job racket busted, 9 held

The Delhi Police on Saturday arrested nine persons, including a telecom employee and seven women telecallers, for allegedly running a fake job racket that duped several job-seekers by posing as recruiters for reputed airlines, officials said.

According to the police, the accused were operating a fraudulent call centre from Tilak Nagar, West Delhi and targeted unemployed youth through online job advertisements. The mastermind of the racket has been identified as Vikash Kumar (38), a resident of Subhash Nagar. His associates, Baljeet Singh (31), a telecom service provider employee, and seven women including Charanjit (29), Shalini Bharadwaj (33), Aarti Kaur (19), Palveen Kaur (19), Nandini (24), Pooja Gupta (21) and Shweta (21) were also arrested.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Ankit Chauhan said the gang lured victims by promising jobs in IndiGo Airlines and demanded money at various stages of the fake recruitment process.

“The victims were made to pay between Rs 2,500 and Rs 15,000 on the pretext of deposits, uniforms and salary account formalities,” he said.

To appear legitimate, the fraudsters even created UPI IDs resembling IndiGo’s name to receive payments. The gang primarily targeted young job-seekers who had uploaded their profiles on employment websites.

The police said the mastermind was arrested after a technical investigation traced fraudulent transactions to Subhash Nagar and Tilak Nagar. During interrogation, Kumar revealed details about the fake call centre and the involvement of his associates. Subsequent raids led to the arrest of the seven women telecallers who were working at the setup.

Investigations also revealed that Baljeet Singh, who worked with a telecom company, played a crucial role by illegally issuing SIM cards using the biometric data of genuine customers. These pre-activated SIM cards were used to run the racket and evade detection.

During the raid, the police recovered 22 mobile phones, a desktop computer, 19 SIM cards, call registers and a Wi-Fi router. Eight UPI IDs and a QR code linked to different bank accounts used for collecting cheated money were also seized.

Further analysis of the recovered data revealed that over 40 similar complaints have been registered on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP) against the gang across multiple states.

A case has been registered under Sections 318(4)/ 319(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) at the Cyber police station, South District.

“The accused were part of a larger organised cyber network. More victims and associates are being identified, and further investigation is underway,” DCP Chauhan added.