Odisha Police Busts 'India's Biggest Ever' Job Scam, Prime Accused Arrested From Uttar Pradesh

The Odisha Police busted a job fraud and arrested the key accused from Uttar Pradesh that targeted at least 50,000 job seekers across the country

Police said early estimates suggest at least 50,000 job seekers across the country were duped.

The Odisha Police busted a job fraud and arrested the key accused from Uttar Pradesh that targeted at least 50,000 job seekers across the country. The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha Police said it unearthed the scam, what is said to be the country's "biggest ever" job fraud operating from Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, reported news agency ANI.

The fraudsters targeted the unemployed youth in at least five states including Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Odisha. Odisha Police said the duped amount runs in crore.

The EOW has arrested the prime accused named Zafar Ahmed, according to the Odisha Police. The 25-year-old is a resident of Civil lines in Aligarh. Zafar, who is considered one of the masterminds of this scam, is an engineer by profession. He was produced before a local court in Aligarh after which the court granted five days transit remand. He will be produced before the court in Bhubaneswar.

"We are very thankful to Aligarh Police of Uttar Pradesh for assisting us in arresting the accused. The investigation is still going on to unearth the involvement of others and the huge amount amassed by the fraudsters in this process, said deputy inspector general, EOW JN Pankaj.

Here’s how the group duped unemployed youth

The early estimates suggest around 50,000 job seekers across the country were duped in this scam, as per the police. The scam was operated by a group of highly tech-savvy engineers from Uttar Pradesh through the aid of some expert website developers. The core group was assisted by around 50 call center employees who were paid Rs 15,000 per month and belonged to Jamalpur and Aligarh districts. More than 1,000 fake SIMs and 530 handsets and mobile phones were used for this scam, revealed EOW, Odisha Police.

The fraudsters are believed to be extremely sharp as they anticipated every move of the police and law enforcement agencies. They engaged in using only WhatsApp voice calls by using fake SIM cards. In a bid to avoid caller detection, the fraudster saved their mobile number related to the Scheme name only to ensure that if someone checks their name on "True caller" it will show the scheme name.

The scammers also stayed away from using personal phones for fraud. Around 100 mule bank accounts were used in this scam. The money was withdrawn only from "Jan Seva Kendra" using the QR code of Jan Seva Kendra and mule account.

This payment method ensured zero trails either through phone or bank accounts. The scammers would develop a website resembling a government website displaying the government job advertisement mainly targeting health or skill department jobs, some using"Pradhan-Mantri schemes" to attract and deceive the job seekers, said police.

The fraudsters also gave advertisements in local newspapers but ensured that they would use fake identities and use Whatsapp calls or other such systems and transact money through mule bank accounts only.

They would charge candidates for registration, interview training to other kinds of events ranging from Rs 3000 to Rs 50,000 depending on to what extent candidates trust them. Generally, they would select all the candidates registered/applied for the job. To win the confidence of candidates they insisted that they work only through their official website, said Odisha police.