CID Officials in Visakhapatnam Assist in Apprehending Job Scam Fraudster

On 10 April 2024, the Crime Investigation Department (CID), in Vizag, made an arrest of Ginni Gopi, a 29-year-old man from Juttada village in Pendurthi, for his alleged involvement as a job scammer in 17 online cases. Gopi preyed on unemployed individuals in Telangana, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu, enticing them with job prospects and subsequently defrauding them through UPI payments.

The CID’s intervention was triggered by a complaint lodged by a woman from Bheemili who had fallen prey to Gopi’s fraudulent schemes. He orchestrated fake interviews via Google Meet, dispatched counterfeit job offers, and siphoned off money through UPI transactions.

Officials revealed that Ginni Gopi was a B Tech graduate in Electrical and Electronics Engineering, and he had briefly been employed at a software company in Hyderabad, Telangana, before he undertook the fraudulent activity of scamming people online. He exploited job seekers who had posted their details on LinkedIn, reaching out to them via WhatsApp and extorting money under the pretense of securing job placements.

His victims included a woman from Nandyala district who was defrauded of Rs 3.18 lakh and a youth from Tirupati who was cheated out of Rs 30,000. Cases against the job scammer, now under arrest by the CID, have been filed in Kolimigundla and Tirupati police stations, as well as the Cyber Crime Police Station in Vizag.

The CID has issued a public advisory urging caution, advising against clicking on suspicious links, and discouraging payments to unknown individuals. Any such incidents can be reported to the CID via the toll-free number 1930 or the website www.cybercrime.gov.in. The investigation was spearheaded by CID’s Cyber Crime Analysis and Task Force Team, which includes Inspector P Vara Prasad, Sub-Inspector G Gopala Rao, and constables P Suresh Babu and V Venkata Ramana.