Fake offers flood job portals

A fraudster prowling the city in the guise of a Special Commissioner from the UK embassy, promising people an opportunity to make quick money, was caught red handed by the city cops on Thursday. This incident came close on the heels of several other job scams that were busted in the recent past.

In the current recession-hit job market, where recruitments are frozen and pink slips are the order of the day, a cunning few have made a career out of cheating gullible, desperate job seekers who easily fall prey to the job traps set by them. From floating fake online portals that can pass off as genuine job portals to conducting fake interviews at plush hotels in the city, these fraudsters are smarter than ever and are luring young job seekers effortlessly, say cops.

Sudhakar was one such victim who got duped after he posted his resume on a reliable job portal. He got an offer that promised him a job at the Marriott Residence Hotel in London. After clearing initial screening, he was told to contact the Asia head and later, they asked him to deposit £300 pounds (Rs 26,000), as registration fees. And this was just the beginning of the scam by the end of which he lost out on Rs 4,63,950. “By the time he complained to the cops, it was it was too late,” says R.S. Praveen Kumar, DCP Crime.

In yet another incident, a man from the city was taken for a ride when he posted his CV in another online job portal called XING which offered him a job with a French oil and natural gas company called Total. He deposited £1,489 as asked only to be duped. Says DCP Praveen Kumar, “In the excitement of getting a job, youth often forget that no reputed company will ever ask for caution deposit. neither will they conduct interviews on email. If these two aspects can be kept in mind, people will be safe from frauds.”

Sohini Gosh, an employee of a publishing house, says she has been wary every since her friend fell prey to such a scam. “My friend was offered a job in a software firm and was asked to pay a bond amount. But before they realised, the owners of the company disappeared.”

Interestingly most of these job frauds are UK based. Kumar says, “Over 90 per cent of the fraud cases are from the UK, the rest are Nigerian. So be wary of phone calls with a +44 code. Even reputed websites are easily hacked into and scamsters approach individuals via phone or email saying they liked the candidate’s profile. They even put them through fake tests to seem genuine,” says DCP Praveen Kumar.

It’s advisable to stay on your guard and double check if you feel that offer letter is too good to be true, warn the cops.