Hyderabad: Fraudsters siphon off Rs 6.3 lakh from job seeker

Hyderabad: Promised a work opportunity in the United States with a 10-year visa in exchange for a hefty sum, a city resident working in a private company as an accountant was duped by cyber fraudsters over a period of four months from May this year.

G. Krishna, 55, (name changed) who was aspiring to work abroad was lured with the offer of a high-paying job. When he fell for it, the fraudsters extracted Rs 6.27 lakh from him under various pretexts before he realised he was being cheated.

The victim, a resident of KPHB Colony, was scouting for a better opportunity. While browsing on Facebook in October last year, Krishna received a message from two strangers who claimed to be Ben Anderson and Tommy Smith. They offered to provide him a job in the US. When he agreed, they sent him some officious looking documents to fill and email back. They also asked Krishna to pay Rs 14,000 towards the registration fee for the job application, and he complied.

Some days later, Krishna received an email containing a copy of a H1B visa valid for 10 years, and was asked to pay money for travel account fee, mailing charges, immigration fee, as well as for customs clearance and visa stamping among others. In this manner, they collected Rs 6.27 lakh in four months from May.

All this while, he had been given copies of documents. When the duo did not provide him the original documents, he messaged them to cancel his visa and refund the money. This they assured to do if he paid up another Rs 2 lakh. Krishna realised he was duped and lodged a complaint with the Cyberabad cyber crime police.

Based on the complaint, the police has registered a case under the IPC and IT Act and taken up investigations.