[Mumbai, India] A con artist posing as a recruiter was arrested by a joint operation of Indian security forces over the weekend.

Sumit Upadhyay, a resident of Guwahati, Assam (in northeastern India), had cloned the website of a shipping company based in Goa, far to the southwest of his home. The company - Ouvert Marine - filed a complaint with the Goa Police's Cyber Cel.

Upadhyay, allegedly created a duplicate website in the name of Ouvert Marine, mimicking the original, through which, he would issue fake placement letters for jobs on board cruise ships and ask aspirants to pay fees up to 5-lakh for processing each fake placement. Once he had the payment he is accused of going silent on job applicants, prompting several of them to follow up with the Director of Shipping in Goa, who then went directly to Ouvert, alerting them to the scam.

According to a statement issued by the Cyber Cell to the Times of India, Upadhyay was arrested in a joint operation conducted by police agencies from Assam and Mumbai just when he was about to leave Mumbai by flight.

After the Cyber Cell took down the fake website, Sumit fled and was on the run using "fake identities, sim cards and travelled across Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Mumbai and Guwahati", the statement added.

"The accused then attempted to abscond to Mumbai where a joint team of ATS Mumbai under Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), Shivdeep Lande, and led by Police Inspector Daya Naik, Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Sahar Airport, and Cyber Cell Goa officials apprehended him in the plane," the police statement said.

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