Hyderabad, Jun 13: Five people were arrested today on the charge of running a fake job racket here and cheating about 70 unemployed youth of around Rs 50 lakh by promising positions in software firms such as Wipro and Cognizant, police said.

Mohammed Ali and four others were detained following an investigation into complaints by the victims, who were issued fake offer letters of companies such as Wipro, Cognizant, Amazon and IBM, a police release said.

They had set up temporary job consultancy firms in the city under different names and promised jobs in various multi-national corporations. The accused had collected money and issued fake offers, joining letters, the release said.

Police seized fake offer letters, ten cell phones among other items from the accused, it said. Some of the gang members had also cheated shopping centres of around Rs two lakh by paying for purchases using fake digital wallets, the release added.