Country's youngsters: Jobless and scammed

Fly-by-night placement agencies and spoofers are at the centre of a scam that’s defrauding hundreds of thousands of job seekers across India by promising them dubious or non-existent employment.

While the placement agencies use a business model that appears legitimate, the ends aren’t as rosy as the means. Spoofers, on the other hand, are clearly out to cheat, using impersonal means. Many of them are based in nondescript places in Delhi-NCR, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand.

In April 2019, shortly after posting his CV on a job site, Jayesh D Gaikwad, a postgraduate in English literature from Thane district, said that he received a call informing him that he was eligible for a data entry position in a leading software company, on its campus in Thane.

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Unaware that the company doesn’t have a campus in Thane, Gaikwad, who was unemployed at the time, was elated.

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But then came the demands of money for registrations and other services. Gaikwad paid until he had finally expended Rs 33,000, including a staggering
Rs 15,000 for courier charges.
Gaikwad said he kept paying because the “human resources executive” was “extremely persuasive”.

All this culminated in him receiving an offer letter on April 23, offering him the position of Back Officer, starting June 3, with an annual salary of Rs 4.20 lakh per year. For Gaikwad, it was an offer which presented the vision of a better life.

Gaikwad began to suspect the scam when he received another letter that offered him the position of a customer care executive. The address on the two letters was different and appeared shady. When he rang up the company for clarification, the number was switched off.

He approached a local police station to file an FIR. While they didn’t file an FIR, they registered the complaint as a non-cognisable offence.

Iqbal Navalur, a commerce graduate, had not found a job despite applying at several companies for months. As the pressure mounted within his family to find employment, he turned to digital platforms in the hopes of increasing his chances. Among a cluster of job advertisements was a vacancy for an accounts supervisor in a food products corporation.

Much like Gaikwad, Navalur was offered the position in his hometown, Hubballi, with a monthly salary of Rs 25,000.

Uncertain if the company had a manufacturing unit in Hubballi, Navalur called up the number provided in the advertisement. A man speaking in a North Indian accent answered in Hindi. When Navalur revealed the purpose of the call, he was asked a series of basic questions: about his life, where he had studied and what his qualifications were. In the end, the speaker on the other end of the line announced that Navalur had been hired.

Navalur was elated. Soon, the speaker was asking him to pay Rs 4,000 to process the interview application and gave him a bank account number where he could deposit the money.

His desperation getting the better of him, Navalur deposited the money at a bank. He then rang up the representative to ask for the offer letter.

The man responded that he should collect the letter from Delhi.

When a furious Navalur asked him, “If the job is in Hubballi, why should I come to Delhi to get the offer letter?”, the man hung up.

When Navalur dialled the number again, he found that the phone had been turned off. Navalur said that he raced back to the bank in the hopes of stopping payment, but it was too late.

Jobs sites have put up elaborate warnings to warn job seekers about dubious advertisements. Job seekers are asked to report fraudulent job postings, look for verifiable company e-mail addresses and refrain from making payments.

Several job seekers, however, told DH that the e-mail addresses appeared legitimate as the company names look similar.

Access to personal data

A key part of the scam is the easy access to job seekers’ personal data such as academic qualification, phone numbers, email addresses, etc. Anyone registering on these job sites can access the data for a nominal fee. Worse, they also ask for various government IDs from job seekers, rendering them to potential misuse.

If spoofers are having a field day, dubious placement agencies equipped with valid licences are using practices that are clearly questionable.

K Giri Vardhan Reddy, who did his civil engineering last year, uploaded his resume to a job site as part of his job hunt. A telecaller from a placement agency, registered with the labour department and the ministry of corporate affairs, contacted him soon enough and offered “professional assistance” in placing him in reputable city builders at a monthly salary of Rs 25,000. With no job coming by, Reddy walked into its office in Bengaluru last May. He paid Rs 200 for registration and took an aptitude test.

He was told he had failed the test and asked if he was willing to subscribe to a premium plan that would boost his skills and brighten his job prospects. Reddy signed up on May 25, paying another Rs 2,300. But that didn’t help either. No employer ever contacted him.

Lacking a special policy

Government departments which should have some oversight over the fraudulent activities of certain firms, said they were limited by their charter to policy decisions and addressing key areas, such as environmental or labour issues.

While a senior labour department official said that the Department of Commerce and Industry, being the highest government body regarding industry in the state, had the authority to tackle some of these errant consultancies, Gaurav Gupta, Principal Secretary of the Department, clarified that the department has no mandate to regulate companies, firms or industries.

“The department is purely concerned with policy and the promotion of industry. Addressing illegal practices does not come under our ambit. We have no authority to carry out oversight of how companies conduct themselves. If any incidences of fraud are committed, they are cognisable offences under the Indian Penal Code and fall under the aegis of the police who are required to take action,” he said.

Police, for their part, say that they are overwhelmed by the scale of the problem. Senior police officers said that Bengaluru’s cybercrime police station alone registered 482 complaints

Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), Bengaluru, Sandeep Patil, specified that such cases fall under the textbook description of IPC section 420 (cheating). “The penalties for such crimes are stiff, nevertheless such scams persist because so many people are rendered gullible or are lured by promises of easy employment,” Patil said.

Crackdowns and arrests of scammers are constant, the officer said, who said that they track down culprits using cell phone numbers and bank account numbers, but he insisted that 90% of these scam cases would not exist if the victims had refrained from clicking on such links.

“In fact, people should realise that any job opportunity which requires them to pay money upfront is a scam,” he explained.

Patil asked the public to report SMSes, phone calls or emails that promise jobs for a fee. “Anyone can make a complaint on the police control room or just tweet to the Bengaluru police’s Twitter handle,” he said. “We’ll take immediate action.”