27,000 job seekers duped on fake govt site, 5 arrested

New Delhi - Over 13,000 fake jobs were offered on the fake site.

The Delhi Police Cyber Cell has busted a gang operating from Hisar, Haryana, which created a fake government website of a fictitious entity - Swasthya Avm Jan Kalyan Sansthan (SAJKS), under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, to dupe job seekers.

The gang defrauded over 27,000 job seekers in the name of job registration and siphoned off over Rs 1.09 crore. Five persons are arrested including the mastermind, who also runs an Online Examination Centre outsourced for conducting government recruitment tests.

Over 13,000 fake jobs were offered on this fake site www.sajks.org and www.sajks.com. The fake websites were so convincing that even mainstream media reported the news of 13,000 job openings. This led to even more persons falling prey to the fraud. The victims were prompted to submit their bio-data with the prescribed fee.

"The mastermind misused data of job aspirants appearing at his Online Examination Centre for various government recruitment tests. The personal details of candidates appearing at the Examination Centre were used to send targeted messages of job offers in Swasthya Avm Jan Kalyan Sansthan (SAJKS), under Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, to the gullible victims," said Anyesh Roy, DCP Cyber Cell.

Investigating a cheating case, it was revealed that the website targeted thousands of gullible job seekers and the gang members are siphoning out the money from ATMs in Hisar.

Accordingly, one of the gang members, Aman Khatkar, was caught red-handed while drawing money from an ATM from the bank account linked with the website, in which the money was being transferred from the website's payment gateway. The other gang members were also apprehended in due course from various parts of Haryana and Delhi.

The mastermind, Vishnu and Ramdhari, who run an Online Examination Centre outsourced for conducting government recruitment tests, misused the data of job aspirants appearing at their Online Examination Centre. The personal details of candidates appearing at the Examination Centre were used to send targeted messages of job offers in fictious Swasthya Avm Jan Kalyan Sansthan (SAJKS), under Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, to the gullible victims.

"It is advised that people should use due caution while applying for jobs through online portals and forums such as social media, instant messaging apps, emails, etc. Genuineness of the website/company and its representatives should be checked from credible sources before applying for job, or before accepting an invite for interview, etc. Transfer of money for registration and other actions such as sending private/confidential details, should be done only after thorough check of the website/company's credentials," the officer advised.

• India