When you are on a job hunt, it is easy to fall prey to fake job postings that sound too good to be true. There are thousands of people looking for a job these days as result of the continuous layoffs across companies. However, one thing to remember during this time is to proceed with caution and check the job listing thoroughly before engaging with it. A Delhi-based woman was robbed off of more than Rs 8.6 lakh when she tried getting a job by applying for it through Instagram.
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Delhi-based woman loses over Rs 8.6 lakh
A Times of India report revealed that a woman based in Delhi was duped of over Rs 8.6 lakh when she clicked on a job advertisement on Instagram. Her husband reported the matter to the police in December 2022 and said that his wife saw the job ad on Instagram and opened the given link. She was then directed to ‘another ID called airlinejoballindia’ and filled her details in the asked-for format. After the woman entered her details, she got a call from a man called Rahul. The scammer asked the victim to first deposit Rs 750 as ‘registration fee’. After this, he got the woman to transfer more than Rs 8.6 lakh to his account as ‘gate pass fee, insurance, security money’. After Rahul, the scammer, continued asking for more money, the woman sensed something was amiss. The incident was then shared with the police.
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The Delhi Police has now arrested the accused. The Times of India report also quoted DCP Sanjay Sain as saying, “During investigation, it was found that most of the withdrawal of money was done from Hisar, Haryana. The location of the mobile phone of the accused too was in the same state. The team members then carried out a raid and nabbed the accused.”
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Not only this, the accused admitted to the police that he had started scamming people two years back after he lost his job during the Covid-19 pandemic.
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How to stay safe from such scams
There are a couple of things that users can do in order to ensure that they stay safe from such scams. It is best to apply for jobs from authentic portals dedicated to the same like LinkedIn, Naukri.com, Indeed, etc. However, if you must apply through jobs via social media, perform a thorough check of the account that is offering the job and check how legitimate it is. A simple Google search can help you to identify if the company that is offering the job even exists or not.
Next, reputed companies will never ask you to make any kind of payment for landing the job. Hence, if somebody asks you to pay up in order to get the job, take it as a major red flag. Also, be very careful before filling out your personal information like name, phone number etc, and ensure that the same is entered on credible websites only.
