Software major Wipro Technologies today warned job aspirants from falling prey to fraudsters who had sent out bogus e-mails in its name asking them to appear for an interview after making a payment.
The e-mails had been sent out to job aspirants registered in job portals informing that they had been shortlisted for interviews for various vacancies ranging from software programme, assistant manager to H R assistants, said Pradeep Bahirwani, VP Talent Acquisition, Wipro Technologies.
The company had come across such instances of fradulent letters earlier as well, after aspirants who either had relatives, friends or acquaintances in the company crosschecked with them about the authenticity of the letters.
"But this time we have come across e-mails that carry the company logo and its letterhead," said Bahirwani.
The letters signed by one Narayan Murli also asks aspirants to deposit a refundable security deposit of Rs 4,670 in a particular account number as payment towards the interview, and offers a salary ranging from Rs 15,000 to Rs 65,000 a month, he said.
"We are not sure how many such letters have been issued, but we wish to warn aspirants not to fall prey to it," he said.
These letters, he said, were replete with spelling and erroneous language and originated from some public domain like gmail and not from the company's domain and warned job aspirants to be on the lookout for such errors.
"Moreover the letters state that the office is located in Noida and the interview is scheduled at Noida. In fact, we do not have an office in Noida," he said.
Pradeep said the common modus operandi of these fraudsters, who aim at maximising their returns from these interview payments, was that they keep changing the account numbers and close down the accounts after a period of time.
The names of those signing the letters and the account holder also keep changing. The account in this particular incident was registered with a leading bank.
The designation of the person signing the letter was never mentioned in these letters, he said.
Giving details on Wipro's recruitment procedure,Pradeep said it drew talent from various sources, including campus, portals and fell on its own data base. The letters orignated from its company domain and most important they never charged any payment, he said.
The software major has also spoken to one of the job portals about these fradulent letters.
The company which is in the process of filing a complaint with the police warned aspirants from tier two and three cities with less access to information and were more likely to fall prey.
Such fradulent letters were not necessarily restricted to Wipro. Similar instances had been reported from other IT firms as well, he said.
