Mumbai: Hotel management graduate loses Rs 4.74L in a job racket fraud

A 23-year-old hotel management graduate from Borivali who was looking for a job and had applied for the job on websites related to the hotel industry had last month received an email offering him a job in a renowned hotel in the Netherlands. The victim was induced by the fraudster to pay a total of Rs 4.74 lakh over a period of one month. The accused also took a skype interview of the victim to make his con look genuine. When the demand for money kept continuing, the victim visited the Consulate General of the Netherlands office and learnt that the appointment letter of the victim was bogus and that he had been duped.

According to the Borivali police, the complainant had completed his hotel management course from a Bandra-based institute in 2018 and in April this year had applied for a job on a few hotel websites. On August 01, the victim received an email, appearing to have masked an email from a reputed chain of hotels, informing the victim about a job vacancy in a hotel in Netherland. The victim applied for the said job after which he received a link and had even undergone an interview process. After completing three rounds of interviews, the victim was informed that he had been selected.

The fraudster even sent an appointment letter to the victim over an email. From August 22 onwards, the victim was induced to pay Rs 4.74 lakh on several pretexts such as work permit fee, consulate fee and opening of an overseas bank account. The victim was also provided documents such as the hotel's bond paper, work permit letter and authorisation from the concerned consulate. When the demand for more money kept continuing, the victim approached the consulate office at Nariman Point on September 05 along with his appointment letter and other documents, police said.

At the consulate, the victim was informed that all his documents were bogus after which the victim approached the police on Wednesday and lodged a complaint. The police have registered a case on charges of cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property, identity theft and cheating by personation by using computer resources.