Thousands of law students, advocates fall prey to massive online job fraud

Palakkad: An online job scam which cheated thousands of law students and advocates across the country has come to light. However, very few among the victims who lost lakhs of rupees are willing to file complaints. One law student in Bengaluru even attempted suicide after realizing that she was defrauded. Still, some complaints have been submitted to the Kerala Police and the matter has been forwarded to the National Cyber Cell.

The victims had received emails, SMS alerts and WhatsApp messages from some legal reviews of a Bar Council member, flex work solutions and advocate associates offering online work related to legal matters and mentioning the payments. However, not only was the payment denied but money was also extorted from the victims by threatening to send legal notices. The scamsters were based in Gujarat, Haryana, Odisha and UP. They had agents in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. 

Initially, victims were asked to engage in tasks such as writing abridged versions of court judgment and legal articles, collecting information on cases and copying data on crimes. A three-page contract was to be signed which mentioned the monthly pay as Rs 23,000. However, Rs 7,500 was reduced from this amount citing various reasons. Later, the salary itself was cut to Rs 21,000.

Whenever an error occurred in the work, the employees received a message to pay a fine. If the fine was not paid, they would be sent a legal notice and made frequent threatening phone calls. A message mentioning that the candidates had to appear at police stations in the northern parts of the country also was sent. Most victims paid the money in order to avoid these troubles.

However, they would be then asked to deposit another Rs 32,000 to renew the job contract. Those who are unwilling to continue the contract would be directed to pay Rs 2,75,980. The law student in Bengaluru attempted suicide at this stage. She belonged to a lower middleclass family and had applied for the job to meet her educational expenses.

The victims in Kollam, Kottayam, Thrissur, Palakkad and Kannur districts of Kerala joined a firm which had the address, ‘Advocate Ashok Desai, Bar Council Member, Desai Associates, District Sessions Court, Gujarat.’ Some junior advocates in Kannur received a message from Mangaluru in Karnataka, but when they called back after developing suspicions, the phone was picked up by a person in Bihar. These lawyers lost Rs 5,000 each. Many of the victims also received a fake legal notice from the Gujarat High Court for violating the terms of the contract. 

At the same time, the victims are now concerned as they had submitted copies of crucial documents such as Aadhaar, PAN cards, identity cards and photos to the scamsters while applying for the job. The victims fear that these documents could be misused.

Meanwhile, a few victims have sent complaints to the Bar Council of India and the Gujarat High Court.

A victim’s account
Among the victims is a third-year law student from Palakkad. She applied for the online job to meet the expenses for the course without burdening her parents. The application was sent through Google and she joined the Ashok Desai group in Gujarat. A week after submitting all her details and data online, she received a message which said that she had made mistakes in her work and an amount of Rs 7,000 had to be paid. Even though the message did not mention what was the error, the law student sent the money in three instalments by scanning the QR code sent by the scamsters.

Later, she received another message which said that she could terminate the contract by paying Rs 72,000. When the student replied that she had no means to find that money, she was told to pay only Rs 36,980. Even though the student was suspicious, she borrowed the amount from friends and paid it.

However, her troubles did not end. She began receiving calls and messages even during class hours to speak by a video call to a company representative. Finally, she attended the video call, in which a person named Advocate Vijay Chouhan asked her to appear before a sessions court in Gujarat.

Immediately, the law student filed a complaint with the Cyber Police in Palakkad. The next day, she received another call from the racketeers, to which the student replied that she would approach the court. Two days later, investigation revealed that the company that had employed the law student did not exist.