Hyderabd, March 27: “Hello, this is Sandy speaking from Intelli Group and I would like to conduct a telephonic interview.” Be careful while answering such calls as there are many con interviewers luring youngsters with IT job offers and cheating them of lakhs of rupees.
Sleuths of the Crime Investigation Department (CID) busted one such racket by nabbing three of a five-member gang.
One Govinda Reddy a few months ago applied for the post of Associate Software Engineer in Intelli Group through Internet. He later got a call from one Kiran Kumar, who introduced himself as the Senior HR Executive of Skill Bank Consultancy, and conducted an oral interview. Subsequently, Govinda Reddy received an appointment letter and details of pay package through Internet.
“However, Govinda Reddy was asked to deposit Rs 1.5 lakh in a bank account, which he did promptly. Later on he was asked to report in the office of the Intelli Group, Madhapur,” the cops said. When Reddy walked into the office triumphantly at the appointed hour, to his utter shock, he was denied entry and upon enquiry was informed that no job had been offered to him. However, when Reddy produced the appointment letter given to him, it was the turn of the officials to get shocked as the letter head, the proforma and content were identical to the company’s official letter, sleuths said.
During investigation, it was found that Kummamuru Venugopal of Skill Bank Consultancy was behind the fraud. Initially, Venugopal maintained contacts with many non-IT companies and had been a recruiter for some.
Later on, eyeing easy money, he collected resumes from various job sites like Naukri.com and Monster.com by introducing himself as a recruiter. With the help of his wife Anusha and three others – Veena, Riyaz and Gangadhar – he contacted jobseekers on the pretext of telephonic interviews and collected money from them.
Police caught the accused after interrogating key witnesses and analysing the telephone numbers of various suspects.
“We advise public to be cautious about offers received through e-mails. They should check the genuineness of the consultancy before entering into a deal,” the CID sleuths said.
–Agencies–