An engineer who had registered on an online job portal that connected him with an engineering consultancy firm in Australia was duped of nearly Rs 5 lakh.
The engineer had been convinced to pay the money in instalments as processing fee, medical test fee and document verification fee to two bank accounts in Madhya Pradesh to finalise the job offer.
Saumen Bose, the engineer, said he could not see through the fraud initially as the emails and the phone numbers from where he was contacted during the purported interviews matched the details mentioned on the Australian company’s website. But later, when the “agent” stopped taking his calls, he realised he had been duped.
The bank accounts where he had transferred the money became defunct within 24 hours after the last transfer. Bose has lodged a complaint with police.
“I have been extremely cautious against online frauds…. I had registered myself with this reputable online job portal several years ago and have benefited from it in the past when they helped me get a job in Kolkata. I was in Delhi before,” said Bose, a civil engineer.
This time, Bose said, he was deceived by impostors.
He said he had received an email from the job portal about a suitable job opportunity in an Australian company.
“I saw a good job opportunity and showed interest. I was connected to representatives of the Australian company through this portal. When I received emails and telephone calls from this company, I cross-checked the email ID and the number mentioned on their official website and found that everything matched,” Bose said.
Bose told the cops that he had been asked to transfer money to two bank accounts.
“I paid Rs 4.77 lakh in eight instalments…. But after the last payment, the person who was coordinating with me started avoiding me. Every time I called, he would pick up the phone and make an excuse saying he was in a meeting. Exactly 24 hours after I made the last transaction, he stopped taking my calls. Later, I realised that he was keeping in touch with me just to buy time for a day that he needed to close the bank account where the money was transferred,” Bose said.
The police said the matter was being investigated.
“It is yet to be ascertained if the complainant was duped using phishing emails or if the portal and the Australian company’s emails were hacked,” the officer said.