Five arrested in Hyderabad for Naukri.com job scam, victim loses Rs. 1.9 lakh

Hyderabad: Cyber Crime Police of the Central Crime Station (CCS), Detective Department, Hyderabad, have arrested five individuals for their involvement in a fraudulent part-time job scam. The accused posed as recruiters on Naukri.com, offering high returns for completing simple tasks. The fraudsters lured the victim into a trap, defrauding him of ₹1,93,760.

The arrested suspects have been identified as Paladugula Devakrupa (35), V.V. Shiva Shankar (45), Betham Balaraju (31), Mantri N. S. Prajwal Reddy (24), and C. Vijay Sagar (26). The case was registered under Cr. No. 97/2025 at the Cyber Crime Police Station, Hyderabad.

On January 11, 2025, the victim filed a complaint claiming that the accused had contacted him under the pretext of offering a part-time job through Naukri.com. The fraudsters introduced themselves as representatives of reputed companies, promising lucrative returns for simple tasks such as writing reviews for hotels.

The victim was asked to make payments to "unfreeze" his account after being told his account had been "frozen" due to incorrect actions. As a result, he lost ₹1,93,760 to the suspects.

The police seized several items from the accused, including six mobile phones, one cash counting machine, eleven passbooks, six cheque books, and three debit cards.

The accused worked together to scam the victim by offering fake part-time jobs. They contacted the victim and convinced him that he could earn money by completing tasks through Naukri.com. After receiving payments, the accused falsely claimed that the victim's account was frozen due to errors, and pressured him to pay additional amounts to "unfreeze" the funds. This led to the victim's financial loss.

The arrests were made by a team led by Inspector K. Madhulatha, along with SI Vijay Cheryala, SI B. Pranitha, and Police Constables K. Sagar, D. Pranitha, N. Bhaskar, Manish Kumar Tiwari, Vinay, and A. Pavani. The investigation was conducted under the supervision of Assistant Commissioner of Police, Sri Shiva Maruthi, Cyber Crime PS, Hyderabad.