The Whitefield cybercrime police are on the lookout for a woman who, posing as an HR personnel of a leading IT company, cheated five software engineers of ₹4.9 lakh by promising them jobs.
The cheating came to light on Thursday when one of the victims, after waiting for many days to hear back from his “new employer”, approached the firm. When he asked about the progress of his employment status, he realised that he had been duped.
P. Shiva, 25, a resident of Kundalahalli, told the police that the accused, identifying herself as Pushpula Mounika Lakshmi, befriended him on social media in April this year. She introduced herself as an HR manager and after a couple of interactions, she offered him a job at her company, said the police.
Excited about the offer, Shiva shared the news with four of his friends. “Mounika Lakshmi offered to help them too. She organised multiple rounds of online interviews and on the pretext of processing fees, courier charges, and security charges asked them to pay a total of ₹4.9 lakh,” said a police officer.
The victims arranged the money and transferred it online from different bank accounts. However, soon after receiving the money, the woman disappeared, the police officer said. “We are tracking her down based on the mobile phone which she used to communicate with the victims and the bank account details,” said a police officer.
