US embassy flags new job scam, approaches police
The US embassy in New Delhi has flagged a new job scam targeting health and safety officers in India and Nepal, and has requested the Delhi Police look into the matter, crime branch officers aware of the matter have said. According to the officers, the fraudsters posed as agents for Us-based companies with offices in other countries, and convinced their victims that they needed US visas to move abroad.
The Delhi Police registered a first information report on Monday after the US mission requested an investigation into the scam, and reported a threat to security since several “random” Indian and Nepal nationals had turned up at the embassy premises since October with fake or forged documents.
In its complaint letter, the embassy attached the details of the Indian and Nepal nationals who turned up at the mission, along with their passport details and the telephonic conversations with them. They mentioned names of at least seven individuals, including two Nepal nationals, who reached out to them in the last four month with similar requests.
HT has seen a copy of the letter.
Sharing details about the case, a senior crime branch officer said the scamsters use ads on social media sites such as Instagram to lure job seekers.
“To make the scam seem real, the victims are introduced to fake ‘agents’, who offer jobs as per the candidate’s education qualifications. The accused allegedly demand Rs 2-10 lakh from each candidate to process their application, but flee with the money. The scamsters usually shut shop as soon as they are able to cheat 4-5 victims, but this time, we found that they directed their victims to the US embassy in order to buy time to escape,” the officer said, on condition of anonymity.
According to police, the first person duped by the scamsters was Ahmed Khan, 25, a resident of Hyderabad, in October 2023. They said the scamster convinced him to come to the US embassy in the Capital and submit an application that he had bagged a job at a Us-based company in Canada, and wants his work visa application to be processed.
“Embassy officials contacted Khan and found that he was lured to pay $3,200 (Rs 2.65 lakh) by the accused. The accused also provided Khan with contacts of fake agents and company officials to cheat him. He was sent to Delhi to get a work visa and other travel documents. However, we found he was cheated, and the embassy had no record of any visa application in his name,” a second officer probing the case said.
In the same month, police said, two more people — a 24-year-old woman from Chandigarh, and a 35-year-old man from Nepal — submitted similar applications to the US embassy.
The second officer quoted above said, “We called the Nepal national, identified as Ajay Kurmi. He told us that he saw ads on Instagram about jobs at a Us-based company in Poland, and was offered a job, for which he was told to pay Rs 5 lakh as a ‘processing fee’. We found there was no such job in Poland, and no visa entry was available in Kurmi’s name.”
Police eventually found the names of around seven other people who were duped, who were from Gujarat, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh.
“All the victims were told that different Us-based companies are looking for staffers in their offices abroad. We are trying to get names of the offices, the agents and the Instagram handles. However, the social media pages have been deleted,” the first officer said. The police refused to share the names of the US companies that the fraudsters claimed they were agents for. HT reached out to the US embassy, but a comment was not immediately available.