Noida: A gang that was running a fake employment racket from an illegal call centre using stolen personal data was busted, police said, adding that five persons have been arrested in the matter.Records show a total of five complaints related to the gang have been registered in different states, including one each in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, and three in Maharashtra. Authorities are expanding the investigation accordingly.The accused, Aditya Chauhan, Sumit Kumar, Suraj Gupta, Rishabh and Gaurav Pathak, are all aged between 19 and 23 years and most of them have completed their bachelor’s. Aditya and Suraj are BCA graduates, Rishabh holds a BSc degree while Gaurav is a BA graduate. Sumit studied up to Class 12.According to police, the accused used stolen data from various companies to identify and target unemployed youths. They would then call the victims, offer them jobs at reputed companies or training programmes and placement assistance. Several youths were forced to pay registration and processing fees on the pretext of accepting the offers, which never materialised after that.The gang charged Rs 5,000 to Rs 15,000 per placement—fees low enough to entice desperate job seekers. Once victims registered and submitted payment, the scammers vanished entirely. The racket operated for at least two months, defrauding approximately 150-200 people before police launched a probe following complaints filed on an online portal. According to police, the modest fee structure proved instrumental to the scheme’s success.Deputy commissioner of police (cyber crime) Shavya Goyal said the action was taken on the basis of confidential inputs and a team conducted a raid at the illegal call centre in Sector 63.One laptop, 17 SIM cards, four debit cards, two company seals, cheque books, passbooks and calling data allegedly used in the commission of the crime were found at the site. Investigators are also examining bank transactions and financial records linked to the accused to identify how much money they had received from the victims.Further investigation is under way to identify additional associates and determine the full scale of the operation.
