Hundreds of employees, including HR staff, fell victim to a job scam in which they were conned out of thousands of Rupees by a 'start-up IT company' in India.
At least 600 people in Mumbai, and potentially thousands more across the country, were tricked into paying 25,000Rs (NZ$509.57) for what they were told was a three-month training programme which included guaranteed recruitment and a partial refund of the money, and staff have gone unpaid, according to reports.
The scam was only revealed when the trainees and employees of the company, PC Technology Pvt Ltd, returned after a public holiday to find the office premises sealed, Times of India reports.
A worker at the company, Swati Mohandas, told the Times that the company returned 7,000Rs of the funds to workers, and promised that the rest would follow: "The initial 90 days were a 'training' period and I was told at the end of it they will pay me 18,000Rs," he said.
He added: "Even HR employees were not paid their salaries since May."
A cheating case was registered against the CEOs of the company, which claimed to be based in Dehradun, India, on Monday.
The scam is reported to have happened in other cities in India too, and will be transferred to the Economic Offences Wing, sources said.
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