Frauds flourish in slump

The economic slowdown, which caused severe job-cuts across the country, has brought new opportunities for frauds who, masquerading as representatives of IT companies, are luring employment-seekers with promises of good placements in lieu of some "security amount".

The frauds using names of Information Technology big- wigs like HCL, Wipro (WIPRO.NS : 622.6 -6.7) and other companies are sending e-mails to job-seekers, especially fresh graduates from management schools, promising them jobs in these companies at attractive pay-scales if they deposit some "refundable" deposits in their personal accounts.

Such mails have forced IT behemoth HCL Technologies (HCLTECH.NS : 330.95 -5.75) to raise the issue with Nasscom and cyber crime cells of the Police Department. The company has even asked banks to "work on" account numbers mentioned in such mails.

Their modus operandi is simple. First, a three-line mail is send requesting the candidate to urgently forward his or her resume for a particular company. The senders use email ids like wipro.hr.4@gmail.com, employer@timesjobs.com, hcl.computer.ltd@gmail.com to make their communications seem authentic.

Once the candidate replies back, another e-mail hits the Inbox with details of date and venue of the interview for the company. But this one comes with a rider to deposit anything from Rs 4,000 to 10,000 in a particular bank account as refundable security.

One such mail read, "Your offer letter with air tickets will be send to your Home Address by courier after receiving the confirmation of interview security deposited in HDFC Bank."

"When I received the mail, I spotted several mistakes in its language leading to suspicion that the senders may not be genuine. The sender has asked me to deposit the money in a private bank in the account of Sachin Kumar," said Ashutosh (name changed), a fresher from a leading management school.

Ashutosh is not the only one. While he had received the mail from HCL, one of his friend Rohit (name changed) had received a mail claiming to be from Wipro Technologies.

PTI