Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW), Odisha, on Wednesday arrested three scammers, including a woman, from Bhubaneswar in connection with a Pan-India fake job racket.
The arrested have been identified as Mohammad Sanaullah and Sakshi Jain of Hyderabad and Surat Dalai of Balasore in Odisha. They had been camping in Odisha since the last few months and living in an AIRBNB rented accommodation. One laptop, 8 mobile phones, 3 pen drives, 12 ATM cards and Rs 1 lakh in cash were seized from them during the search, the EOW said in a press release.
This racket was being run from Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad and was operating in at least 6 states – Odisha, Jammu & Kashmir, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
The agency said that the case pertains to a suo-motu enquiry conducted in connection with the advertisement published in the local daily on December 18 and December 22, 2023, by Aided Schools Welfare Society.
The investigation revealed that the advertisements were published by a newly-created fraud organisation which had invited applications for non-teaching posts – development officer, welfare officer, school supervisor, school clerks, school attenders and watchmen- in aided schools in Odisha with specific eligibility and remuneration and vacancies. The last date for applying for the posts was January 10, 2024. while application fee was Rs 1,000 per post per candidate, the salary offered ranged from Rs 28,000 to Rs 40,000 a month. The organisation also runs a website- www.modelschools.ac. The website and advertisement were carefully designed with features/requirements like reservation, age relaxation on lines with government website to mislead, dupe the unemployed youth.
“They were planning to charge heavy interview fee, security fee and verification fee in the coming days before closing the website,” it said.
The EOW further said that the scammers used various mule bank accounts to collect the fees to puzzle police/law enforcement agencies. The members of the gang were also found using fake SIMS. Many YouTube channels were used to promote their scheme/job advertisements, especially targeting the youth keen for a government job. “So far, transactions of more than Rs 1.7 crore were noticed in these bank accounts. Most of the money was withdrawn in cash through ATM to leave no financial trail,” the release said, adding that police/law enforcement agencies of other concerned states will be alerted about the scam.
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