An Australia-returned Masters degree holder was cheated of ₹5.79 lakh in a phishing attack while she was searching for a job in India.
Nilakshi More, a 26-year-old resident of Airoli returned on February 11 after completing her Masters in biotechnology. She updated her personal details, including her educational qualifications and contact details, on a job search portal.
After applying to several organisations, on February 22, she received a job offer. The email id from which she received the offer was a lookalike of an official mail id of a Canada-based chemical company. The mail came with a link to fill a form which she did.
After a few days, she received another e-mail from the same id, confirming that she had been selected. Later, a woman who identified herself as Lynn Desautels called Ms. More and sought some more details. She then connected Ms. More to one Nora Jayden.
Multiple transactions
Ms. Jayden said she was an agent from New Delhi and told Ms. More that she would have to pay ₹35,800 as work visa charges, and an additional ₹88,650 for the work permit.
As per the complaint registered by Ms. More with the Rabale Police, she paid an additional ₹2.89 lakh towards travel expenses including flight tickets.
The accused also asked Ms. More transfer another ₹1.65 lakh to create a new bank account for her.
“When the accused kept demanding more money under some pretext or the other, the complainant got suspicious and did a background check of the firm,” an officer from Rabale police station said.
It was then that she realised that the email account used by the accused was fake. It was after this that she decided to approach the police.
“We are investigating the case with the assistance of the cyber cell,” the police officer said.
