Hyderabad: Scammers are duping unemployed youths using the name of Hyderabad Metro Rail. Several tech graduates received emails offering them jobs of accountant, finance executive, electrical engineer, project manager, safety engineer etc in the HMR project. Interview calls, on the letterheads of project executor L&T, were attached to the emails. Those who paid money, as was asked, were cheated.
Police said that in the emails candidates were asked to pay Rs 9,100 as ‘refundable security deposit’. Recently, the Cyberabad police received several complaints from youths who paid money, went for interviews at the given address, and realised that they were duped. The emails were forwarded from a fraudulent site, career.metro@itmetrorail.com.
The emails said, “Your resume has been selected for interview in our annual direct selection process. The company offers you an opportunity to join as executive/manager in the respective department.”
The emails had stated that interviews would take place on January 27 and February 27 this year. Salaries ranging between Rs 20,000 and Rs 67,000 were offered. The email also offered flight tickets for candidates from other states.
Vamshavardhan Reddy Gujjula, a techie working with an MNC in the city, said he and his brother received the emails. “As soon as I checked it, I knew it was fake. L&T will not ask candidates to pay money. So, I posted the same on the Facebook page of the Cyber Crime Police, requesting it to take action,” he said.
The call letters and emails had a lot of grammatical errors and contradictory information, but hardly anyone took note. Two victims approached the cyber crime police and Cyberabad police to lodge complaints.
They said they paid the money and later came to know there was no such interview. “After they paid the first instalment, the fraudster asked them to pay more. When they cross-checked, they understood that it was a scam,” said cyber crime police inspector Md. Riyazuddin.
Police contacted the phone number mentioned in the emails. It was used by a labourer in Delhi. “The email had a phone number of a labourer from Uttarakhand and he does not have any connection with the fraud,” said the inspector. Police has launched an inquiry. Officials from HMR said they do not demand money from candidates.
