Indian police are investigating an incident of alleged fraud of Rs. 1.2 crore ($240,000 AUD approx) involving an Indian national with the pretext of getting him a job in Australia.
A 50-year-old man from Bardez district in North Goa registered a police complaint on Monday with the cyber crime wing of the state police, claiming he had been a victim of online fraud.
The victim, Mr Carlos, had previously worked in a management position in the hospitality industry overseas for over two decades, before quitting to look for better job prospects in another country.
According to police, the alleged fraudsters contacted the victim about eight months ago when he replied to an email about a job offer in Australia.
Investigators suspect the alleged fraudsters might have obtained the victim’s details from one of the online employment portals.
Superintendent of Police, Karthik Kashyap, told that after the initial contact, the alleged conmen kept on asking for money under different pretexts - including visa fees, residential fees etc. Mr Carlos is reported to have paid them through bank deposits in 10 different transactions. Superintendent Kashyap says the victim paid a total of Rs 11,949,000 ($239,000 AUD) between October 2017 and April this year. He stopped paying after he suspected he was being defrauded.
Mr Kashyap added that at one point Mr Carlos was even willing to sell his house to pay for the promised job.
“We have registered a case against unknown persons, and the investigation is in progress,” Mr Kashyap said.
“The accused persons cheated the complainant by impersonation by using computer resources by way of phone calls and emails on the pretext of providing a job and marking the complainant deposit money into various bank accounts,” the First Information Report (FIR) registered by the police reads.
Although the police FIR has named three people as the accused, police believe the names may not be real and the fraudsters may have been using false identities to communicate with the victim.
