The scamsters are offering lucrative jobs in big companies provided you pay them Rs10,000 or more as security deposit for the job offer letter and air tickets to attend the interview.
Job scams or fake job offers are not new thing. Companies like Wipro and Videocon were earlier forced to issue a clarification that they do not ask candidates to pay money for a job. The latest fraud to make the rounds is an email that offers candidates an opportunity to work with Siemens with a salary ranging from Rs30,000 to Rs2 lakh per month, excluding house rent allowance (HRA), dearness allowance (DA), conveyance and other benefits. There are many similarities between the mails of Videocon and Siemens job offer, like the addressing, writing style and language and the format used. These scamsters also love to recruit 62 candidates each for both the companies and offers to send air tickets for attending interviews at the company's headquarter. Only catch...they want you to pay them a security deposit Rs10,000 and above, which the scamsters claim is refundable.
Here is what the email says… "You have to deposit the (Cash) as an initial amount in favor of Company HRD. Department. for Rs. 10,000/- through any [STATE BANK OF INDIA, Branch from your Home City to Company Senior HRD. Account NO, which will be sent to you upon your response. This is refundable interview security. Your offer letter with Air tickets will be send to your Home Address by courier after receiving the confirmation of interview security deposited in STATE BANK OF INDIA Company will pay all the expenditure to you at the time of face-to-face meeting with you in Company. The Job profile, salary offer, and date -time of interview will be mention in your offer letter."
Viswakumar Menon, head-corporate communications, Siemens Ltd said, "Such email job offers have come to our notice and we have taken necessary action. We have also filed a complaint with the Police and as per our knowledge they (Police) have caught some people who are thought to be behind this email scam."
"The candidates should understand that no company (to my knowledge) asks to pay any security deposit for job selection or interview. We, at Siemens, make it clear in our recruitment ads as well," he added.
The scamsters are offering to pay Rs30,000 to Rs2 lakh in Siemens case, the amount goes to as high as Rs11 lakh per month for Videocon, and that too without even disclosing the post or designation. People who have fallen victim for such mails are often found to be tempted by big salary amounts. So think, why on the earth, any company would want to offer you a highly paid job without even knowing your background.
According to people familiar with recruitment process in large companies, nobody selects any candidate just by looking at the email IDs, there is certain procedure like written test, round of interviews, and then the candidate may gets selected for the job. Unfortunately, most people ignore the procedures and want to grab the lucrative opportunity.
How to identify a fake job offer
1. First thing is there are bound to be spelling and grammatical mistakes. Like, in the so-called 'Siemens job offer', the name of Mumbai was written as Mumbia.
2. Check the email ID from which the mail was sent. It always is different from the company name. For example, the 'Siemens job offer' mail was sent from [email protected], which has no connection with the company. The reply address in this case was [email protected]. This should ring a alarm bell, as why a company based in India would have email ID from UK and that too from someone like 'Live', which is free email service provider.
3. Check the signature at the end of the email. It usually has words like MrXYZ or Ms or MrsXYZ. The XYZ could be any name. In the 'Siemens job offer' mail, the scamsters used name of 'Peter Loscher' and designation as Executive-HRD. And this is where the alarm ring should make a biggest noise, because, Mr Loscher, although a familiar name, is in fact president and chief executive officer of Siemens AG (the parent company of Siemens India). A simple check on the web will show you his credentials. And also note that no professional or educated person signs with a Mr or Ms or Mrs in the mail.
4. If you still have doubts about the email, visit the company's website. Contact and check with them if any such recruitment is going on or not. Better, forward the mail to the company's HRD or Corporate Communications department, informing that you want to know if they have sent any such mails.
5. Finally, the safest way. If you receive such mails, do not pay any heed and simply mark them as "spam" and press delete.
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