Call centre employees conned by cushy job offer

Mumbai : Employees of a Malad-based call centre have written an application to the Bangur Nagar police, alleging that a colleague duped each of them of more than Rs 1 lakh, on the pretext of offering them lucrative jobs.

Borivli resident Vishal Sharma was an employee of IBM Global Process Pvt Ltd in Malad (West). In September, he was approached by a colleague Irfan Ahmed, who claimed that he had secured a job with Q-Tel, a Qatar-based telecom company. To substantiate his claim, Ahmed showed Sharma his appointment letter and visa.

Ahmed then sold Sharma and about 15 of his colleagues on the idea of applying for jobs in the same company, assuring them that their applications would be accepted, as he had contacts in the firm.

Ahmed also convinced his victims that they would have to pay for their visas and airfare to his uncle Nihad, claiming that he owned a travel agency in Trivandrum.

"Ahmed egged us on to apply for posts lying vacant in Q-Tel. Soon, we received appointment letters, purportedly from Q-Tel in Qatar, which instructed us to report for duty on November 1," said Sharma.

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Sharma and his friends, who had already paid Ahmed Rs 10,000 each, were then asked to go to Kerala, and cough up Rs 1 lakh each to Nihad for their tickets. They complied.

"When we received our tickets and visas, we realised they were fake. We had already quit our jobs, and were left in the lurch," said Sheela Nair, another victim.

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Sharma and his colleagues have all filed FIRs in Kerala, besides complaining to the Bangur Nagar police.