Frauds Claiming To Be An ‘IT Startup’ Con 600 People For $224K

PC Technology Pvt Ltd have duped at least 600 people in Mumbai by promising to provide them with assured jobs. The company claimed to be based in Dehradun and asked individuals to pay $373 (INR 25,000) each in exchange for a three-month training, with a partial refund of the money and assured recruitment.

Their fraud came to light when the ‘company’s’ trainees and employees returned to office after a week long holiday, only to find the office premises sealed shut.

Their racket was spread across seven Indian cities and the estimated number of total victims is in thousands.

Sunil Lokhande, DCP of Zone 5 said, “Around 600 people were cheated and $224K( INR 1.5 Cr) extorted from them. We have come to know the fraud has also occurred in various other cities, so the case will be transferred to Economic Offences Wing. Also, there is a possibility of more people coming forward claiming they have been similarly cheated, so the number of victims in Mumbai itself may might increase.”

On August 22 a cheating case was registered at Wagle Estate police station against the CEOs—Chaya Singh, Yashraj Singh and Pankaj Kumar. The Mumbai police got in touch with the Ashok Nagar police station in Bengaluru and found out that nearly 500 employees had registered a similar complaint of being cheated and company shut down between August 13- August 18.

Police now claim that all the offices of the firm, in Bengaluru, Kolkata, Pune, Visakhapatnam, Dehradun, Chennai, and Hyderabad shut down during the same week-long holiday.

The company offered individuals an opportunity for walk-in interviews. After being asked to pay INR 25K, they were made to sign a bond with the company according to which the money was to be refunded after a year. The initial 90 days were termed as ‘training period’ whereafter the trainees were promised to be paid a sum of INR 18K. The office shut its doors without paying anyone back.

“The office was located on the first floor in Ashar IT Park, in a 4,500 sq ft space taken on rent from KJ Infra. A notice on the door claims the property has been sealed due to non-payment of electricity bill, maintenance charges, rent, etc.,” said an employee.

A few employees had already started to question the credibility of the company in May as the client and project details of the companies they worked with were never disclosed to them. The same was the case on the website. The employees were fed up and asked for money repeatedly. They were never given the promised amount.

This is the first scam of its kind to come to light where even IT startups are not spared the attentions of people looking to take advantage of the masses.