Eighteen persons were arrested from an office in New Town on Wednesday night for allegedly running a call centre that would identify probable job aspirants through various portals and lure them into investing money as “processing fees” for getting a job, Bidhannagar police said.
The aspirants neither got any job nor the refund, the police said.
The identity documents of some of the job aspirants were also allegedly used for taking bank loans without their knowledge or consent, the cops added.
Based on a complaint, the police raided the office on the fourth floor of a highrise in New Town and found 18 persons working on laptops speaking to people over the phone.
“Their modus operandi was to find out the names and contact details of job aspirants who have applied for jobs through several Internet portals. These men and women would contact them and lure them into investing money either to undergo employment skill development training or for processing fees for getting a job,” said an officer.
The police said they have seized 12 laptops, 18 mobile phones and several other electronic gadgets from the office.