Mumbai: A 43-year-old woman from Mumbai’s Mulund area was allegedly cheated of over Rs 11 lakh by cyber fraudsters who posed as recruiters and offered her a fake job at an international bank. Police suspect the accused obtained her personal details from online job portals and lured her into paying money under the guise of recruitment formalities. An FIR has been registered in the case.
According to police, the complainant, identified as Savita B, had been searching for a job for the past few months and had uploaded her biodata on popular job portals such as Shine and Naukri.com. On December 3, she received a call from an unknown number. The caller introduced himself as Abhinav Mishra, claiming to be associated with the job portal Indeed, and said he had accessed her profile through Naukri.com.
According to an Indian Express report, the caller informed Savita about vacancies for managerial posts at leading banks, including Bank of America, Citibank and Wells Fargo. She expressed interest in the Bank of America role. Mishra then asked her to pay a registration fee of Rs 5,850 and shared a UPI ID for the transfer.
Fake Interview Setup
Two days later, Mishra contacted her again and told her that the 'head of Bank of America,' identified as Anupam Chakraborty, would conduct her interview. At around 3 pm, she was connected to a person claiming to be Chakraborty, who conducted a telephonic interview.
Later, Savita received an email stating that she had been selected for the post of Senior Manager at Bank of America’s Bandra (East) office. She was also sent what appeared to be an official appointment letter bearing the bank’s name and logo, asking her to submit personal documents.
The accused then claimed that a verification process was required and asked her to transfer Rs 29,950 for document verification. Over the next few weeks, Mishra repeatedly contacted her, citing various reasons such as processing charges, security deposits and account activation fees and persuaded her to transfer more money. He assured her that the entire amount would be refunded once she joined the bank.
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₹11.28 Lakh Transferred In Multiple Transactions
Trusting the claims, Savita transferred money multiple times via UPI. Over the course of about a month, she ended up paying a total of Rs 11.28 lakh.
On January 22, when Mishra stopped responding to her calls and messages, she grew suspicious and realised she had been cheated. She then approached the East Region Cyber Police Station, where a case was registered on Thursday.
Police have launched an investigation to trace the accused and have once again urged job seekers to be cautious of unsolicited job offers and demands for money during recruitment processes.
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