Pandemic: Shrinking jobs catapult fake job rackets
Kolkata: With complaints of hundreds of fake job rackets being reported, the pandemic inflicted gloom's repercussions, seemingly, have not only catapulted the number of retrenchments but have also seen an increase in nefarious activities.
In the past two months alone, both West Bengal and Kolkata Police have received around 500 complaints about people being cheated by fraudsters running fake job rackets.
Senior police officers think that the fake job racket is operating over phone calls. Senior cops believe that the caller identifies him/her as a corporate agent of a multinational company and calls the targeted person and tells them that they have been selected to be appointed. They are also further told that they will be posted in Kolkata as a branch head. The call would soon get disconnected abruptly. When the person concerned would try to reach to the number again, they would only be disappointed to know that the number does not exist. And this does not stop just here. There's more because the next day, the phone would ring again from the same number. Yes, the targeted person would receive another call from the same number but this time from an unknown caller. This unknown caller would then present himself from the same multinational company offering the person a loan. The caller would claim that his/her name has been selected and he is one of the lucky few to receive the grant. And immediately the call would get disconnected.
Moreover, few have got calls from unknown callers asking for a ransom of Rs 50,000 to get a job. Reports of such cases have also been registered.
A senior police officer on the condition of anonymity, said: "Preliminary investigation revealed that a huge gang is operating in this fake job racket. We are trying to investigate who is the brainchild behind the entire gang operating in the state. The gang also operates in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and Hyderabad. This fake job racket has increased during this pandemic since news reports of job losses were started pouring in."
According to the statistics provided by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, almost 122 million people lost their jobs during the lockdown and out of which 75 per cent were small traders and labourers.
Another senior police official expressed his concern over the same after receiving several complaints about this fake job racket operating in the state. Now, both Kolkata and West Bengal Police have decided to create awareness about such false employment claims through social media.
However, senior police officials of Kolkata Police, are of the opinion that preliminary investigation has revealed that the gang members received phone numbers from various online mediums. They have noticed that most of the numbers were provided by the users for various online purchases. The sorry state of affairs during this pandemic that has left many jobless has only added to this current situation.
