Complaints India - Articles
Learning to Identify Fake, Fraud Recruitment Offers & Email Scams. How to Recognize Fake Recruitment Offers
23 May 2010 David N (Complaints India)
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Recruitment Scam is a thriving Cyber Crime Industry which is said to have swept away Rs. 120 Crore from Indians last year. Criminals take advantage of eagerness of jobseekers to find a cushier job with better pay package, than their own.
The spammers could use names of well known companies and even design mail ids or URLs similar to theirs. The Spam may originate from India or abroad. It can be from Nigeria but offer may look like coming from US or UK.
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A) How do one Recognize Recruitment Scam Mail?
Step 1. By Observing Content of Mail
- IF you have not applied for the job offered and email says you have been selected or short listed, simply press DELETE button
- IF the mail asks for payment of any money for any reason, simply press DELETE button
- IF the unsolicited mail asks for personal information in the first mail itself for example your Mobile Number, simply press DELETE button
- IF the mail instructs candidate to reply to a mail ID which is different from the mail ID, from which the Job Offer was received, simply press DELETE button
Step 2. By Observing Email Id.
If we observe the Mail ID from which mail has arrived, it could even be the actual mail ID of a reputed company. Its possible to force "From Mail ID" as any mail Id, that a person wants. This means one could receive an email from hr@infosys.com which was actually sent by cyber thieves and not by Infosys. This is a technique called "email spoofing" and is widely adopted by Spammers.
But when "Reply" button is clicked, the mail id will be a Hotmail, Gmail or such other accounts. Sometimes the "TO" mail ID will be deceptively similar to the actual mail ID of the Reputed Company.
A company mail ID will end with companyname.com, or companyname.in etc. Since Criminals can not use the mail Id of the Company which they are spoofing, to receive mails, in order to deceive candidates, they will create mailid starting with company name.
For example, mail is received from hr@infosys.com offering job for software engineers.
But when "Reply" button is clicked, the "To mail Id" is observed to be hr.infosys@hotmail.com . This is a Hotmail account created by criminals starting with hr.infosys@ to make it look like genuine mail Id of the company.
Or the Spammers will register a website URL similar to the reputed company (for example www.info-sys.com ). In this case, the reply email id will be hr.infosys@info-sys.com, hr@info-sys.com or something similar to this ending with info-sys.com
Many jobseekers may fail to see the deception and start mailing and interacting with the cyber criminal gang, all the while presuming that they are corresponding with Infosys executives!
Step 3. Do Background Check
Jobseekers should never ever proceed with any employment offer without checking background of the sender on the internet. If the email received is a fraud, then someone would have posted comments or an article on the matter.
For example, if Recruitment mail from "GCI Enterprises" is received, search immediately on Google for "GCI Enterprises Complaints". This should throw up enough results to alert a person, about the scam.
Step 4. Unable to Decide Even After above Verifications?
Please note that Recruitment Spammers keep changing Company Names and Email Ids. Recently spammers have been sending mass mails in the names of :
- London Bridge Hotel
- Sony Electronic Corporation, London
- Balfour Beatty Construction Company UK
- Sheraton London Hotels
- T. Mary Hospital United Kingdom
- Mercedes-Benz UK Limited
- IFB Industries
- Sansui Technologies
- GCI Enterprises
- Sony Electronics
Tomorrow, we could receive such fraud offer mails from any company. It could be in the name of Reliance, L&T, Airtel, TCS, Toshiba, Samsung, Nokia, ICICI ….. or any other!
Even after the first 3 steps of verifications, if one is unable to decide whether to proceed or delete the offer, contact the company directly by searching for the actual company website and calling them up / sending mail.
Never call the numbers given in an unsolicited recruitment email or send reply to the mail Id given, without completing above verifications.
B) Modus Operandi
The spammers operate different methods to extract money. Some want money in the first step. Others are patient but they are more dangerous since they will draw the victim, deep into their trap, bleeding him.
Shoot Point Blank. Quick Pay
Recruitment email arrives offering job and invites candidate for interview. Or it may say "you have been selected based on your published resume". In either case, candidate is asked to make certain payment by DD or by Bank Transfer to a designated Account.
Once payment is made, in most cases, there will not be any reply to candidate's email asking why the job offer or interview letter is not sent. Telephone numbers will refuse to work. Sometimes, the criminals will take calls or respond to email, to check whether the jobseeker is a "bunny" and if so, will then ask to transfer more money, by giving some reasons.
In "Shoot Point Blank. Earn Quick Pay" method, the amount asked will not be very high. Can range from Rs.1000 to say Rs.10,000. The idea is to keep amount low so that people might pay without asking many questions or trying to research the background.
The Spammers look to net large number of people within couple of months, close the account, withdraw all money and then start all over again with anew account and new company name. By the time affected people go to police, the Bank Account would have been closed.
Kill by Slow Poison. Earn Big Pay
The Recruitment mail explains the background and asks for candidates personal details for processing. This can include Passport number, Current Salary, Company, Designation, Mobile number etc . The cyber thieves are interested only in your mobile number and email Id. Once they get mobile number, an agent in India or a foreigner from somewhere would call and take the person through "preliminary interview". Off course no one is ever rejected! They may then arrange a "technical interview" or straightaway ask for sending scanned copy of passport and other papers to them for processing.
After few days, call or mail will be received asking to remit certain fee for visa processing, embassy fees, attorney fees etc
Once paid, the victim is totally trapped. They will keep asking for more and more, stating that if next payment is not made placement is not possible. After having paid lakhs already, the victim will pay further to get the job! They will bleed the victim to a terrible state of psychological collapse and by the time the victim realizes and rushes to police, there will be no trace of the cyber thieves.
To reinforce the discussion, lets repeat! "Never call the numbers given in an unsolicited recruitment email or send reply to the mail Id given, without completing above verifications."
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