Next time when you get an email from any of the multi-national giants saying that you have won a lottery worth five million pound or you have been shortlisted for selection as an executive on a mind boggling salary, don’t get carried away by the message. It is a new modus operandi put into practice by fraudsters and racketeers of the cyber world to cheat gullible people of their hard earned money.
Young engineering graduates, experienced engineers, marketing experts, and management graduates were in for a surprise when they received mails from Maruti Suzuki, the auto giant, informing them that they have been shortlisted for an interview to be held on May 25 at 11 30 am at its corporate office in New Delhi. The call letter informed the candidates that the company shortlisted them from data provided by job portals like Monster and Shine. The letter signed by Shinzo Nakanishi, chief executive officer and Managing Director asked the prospective job seekers to reach New Delhi with relevant proofs of their educational and professional qualifications.
The letter, sent in the company’s letter pad had one rider. Candidates should deposit an amount of Rs15,200 in the nearest branch of State Bank of India or the HDFC Bank. The account numbers to which they have to deposit the amount will be intimated once they inform the company about the receipt of the call letter.
The company has offered salaries ranging from Rs62,000 to Rs2 lakh per month depending on their qualification and experience. Once the job seekers deposit the amount in the bank account, the company would send them return air tickets for attending the interviews. The amount of Rs15,200 would be reimbursed once the interview formalities are over, said the letter.
Only seasoned people could make out the fact that the letter was not genuine. It has many spelling and grammatical mistakes, highly unbecoming of a multi-national giant like Maruti Suzuki. The mail has the right address of the company’s corporate office in New Delhi. The jarring note is the company’s name which is mentioned as Suzuki Maruti instead of the familiar Maruti Suzuki. The email id of the sender is marutiofficeintervie@live.com, which is dubious. Please note the spelling mistake in the mail id.
Efforts to contact the corporate office of Maruti Suzuki in New Delhi proved futile as all that a female voice said was that the operator would attend the call soon which did not happen even after many attempts. The Chennai office of the company feigned ignorance when asked about the corporate communications officer of the company. When they were told that the call was to ascertain the veracity of the mail, the person who attended the call said it was a fake mail. But in a country where unemployment is rampant and most of the people ignorant of “fishing operations” by rackets, how many people will contact the company to ascertain the genuineness of such mailsIJ
Maruti Suzuki’s is not the only name which is being misused by racketeers and scrupulous elements. There are mails reportedly sent by managements of corporate giants like Hyundai and even a General Toshihiko Murata, Chief Organisation Controller of the United Nations. Most of the people will know about the fraud only after the likes of Murata and Nakanishi reach their safe havens with the money they swindled from the customers.