Job portals take aspirants for online ride, takes lakhs

He was offered the job of an air ticketer at the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA).

Now, Sharavana Kumar L works at three places to clear debts of over Rs 3 lakh he incurred after paying the “representatives” of the online job portal which made him the offer.

The ordeal began after the 25-year-old BCom graduate applied at www.shine.com and received a call from a representative of the portal.

He was asked by one Sneha to pay Rs 1,650 towards admission fee. Later, he was asked to deposit up to Rs 3.42 lakh in stages between October 19, 2016, and July 27, 2017.

The amount was to be deposited in the accounts of Nikhil, Rahul Sharma and Vishal Singh.

During their interaction, the representatives told Kumar that they were sending him an offer letter from Jet Airways as an air ticketer at the KIA with a monthly salary of Rs 40,000, with insurance to his family. They, in fact, sent the letter with a fake Jet Airways letterhead.

Kumar realised something was amiss when the representatives contacted him again and demanded more money, saying the ID cards were ready and that he could join for work anytime. That’s when he approached the Cyber Crime police.

Kumar, a resident of Yeshwanthpur, had taken money from friends to pay the fraudsters. Now, he works as a newspaper boy in the morning, then as an administrative staff at the Indian Institute of Science, and as an accountant and
receptionist at a clinic in the evening.

Sole bread winner

Kumar told DH that he is the sole breadwinner of his family. He has to take care of his parents and fund the education of his brother and sister.

“There are crores of unemployed people who go to such websites in the hope of finding a job, but are cheated. Some struggle to pay back the loan they would have taken to pay these guys while some end their lives unable to repay,” he said.

Somson Smith A is another victim at the hands of shine.com. He, too, was cheated of Rs 3.42 lakh. Incidentally, he was also offered the job of an air ticketer with Jet Airways at KIA.

The Ist ACMM Court on Tuesday directed the Cyber Crime police to register an FIR in the case. A senior police officer said the court has directed the police to probe both the cases.

It is yet to be investigated whether Shine.com is behind the fraud or someone else had hacked into the website and used the data to con the candidates.

Recent arrests

Ten days ago, the Ahmedabad cyber cell police had arrested 35 people. Seven others were held from Noida, including Harish Bhatt, an employee of Shine.com who sold the data of unemployed youths registered on the website.

There are a lot of call centres which take data from such websites and cheat candidates on the pretext of offering
jobs.

Two days ago, the Mumbai cyber cell police arrested Sonal Rana, an employee of Monster.com and Manoj Tiwari of Shine.com who sold data of aspirants to a Noida-based call centre.