This story is from July 24, 2018

Fired & dumped, Gujarat man preys on job seekers

Fired & dumped, Gujarat man preys on job seekers
AHMEDABAD: Angry at being fired from his job and deserted by his wife, a 30-year-old man decided he would make money by cheating people using the lure government jobs. At least 25 unemployed people fell into his trap and paid him in hope of landing government jobs. The con artist, who extracted Rs 4.5 lakh from his victims, ended up behind bars.
Anil Ugrejiya (30), a native of Botad, worked at the call centre of a telecom company in Ahmedabad but was fired eight months ago for “poor performance”, as he did not meet his targets, a source in the police said.
When he was sacked from the job, he managed to get a list of customers of the company and later identified those in need of a job. While he was working at the company, he had been given the responsibility to interview candidates for to hire. He then used the list of job-seekers for his own ends.
After being fired, Ugrejiya started calling the job-seekers and managed to trap at least 25 people, from whom he extracted Rs 4.5 lakh, investigators said. However, this sum involved involved could be as high as Rs 1 crore, as he had called at least 400 of the 1,200 candidates on the list.
Jugal Purohit, an inspector with local crime branch (LCB), said Ugrejiya was arrested on Sunday night while the agency was probing an FIR lodged with Surat police. Ugrejiya was apprehended at his house in the Makarba area of the city.
Police sources said Ugrejiya’s one-year-old marriage was also on the rocks and his wife then left him and returned to her maternal home. “His parents were unaware about his cheating people. His father, who repairs electricity poles for Gujarat Electricity Board, told police that his son sent Rs 5,000 home and they thought he was working for the telecom company,” said sources.Ugrejiya was handed over to Surat police on Monday.

Modus operandi
Ugrejiya would call potential targets saying that they had secured jobs with the Gujarat government and needed to pay sums up to Rs 30,000 to confirm employment. When they deposited the money in Ugrejiya’s account, he would withdraw it from an ATM and then destroy the sim card he had used to make the call.
Ugrejiya used two bank accounts and sim cards that were in his name. Because some people have a certain app installed, which identifies callers, he used his own name to trap job-seekers. This of course landed him in jail.
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