HOW IT WORKS
The process of turning a job applicant into a job scammer works like a machine. In five stages, here is the journey from start to finish.
1 Chadha, Tanwar, and Khatri create profiles on job listings websites like Monster.com and Naukri.com and upload their résumés. Kumar’s agency can access up to 100 CVs on Naukri.com daily by paying a rate of ₹10 per CV.
2 Chadha, Tanwar, and Khatri are inundated with job offers from “HRs”. These agents immediately direct them to placement centres for interviews. Kumar employs eight HRs. They contact hundreds of job seekers every day through Naukri.com and many other online platforms.
3 At the interviews, the three are asked to introduce themselves and to spell out the acronym BPO (business process outsourcing). Having done that, they are told to pay ₹500. They get slips confirming jobs at unnamed companies. These slips follow a template: “We are pleased to inform you that you are hereby selected for C.C.E. (customer care executive) in the BPO department of our organisation.”
4 Chadha and Khatri are told that they’ll start their jobs after a two-hour training class. They travel to Divine Kamal Public School in Uttam Nagar, where they’re instructed to pay ₹1,000 for entry. The “training” consists mainly of advice about introducing yourself and technical terms related to call centres. Despite having already been told that they had guaran teed job offers, the girls are sent after class to a new round of interviews with a new set of HRs. Yet again, the girls receive supposedly guaranteed offer slips. This time, they are directed to Kirti Nagar.
5a No Job Chadha arrives at a call centre and is offered only ₹10,000 a month, ₹5,000 less than she had been told to expect. She refuses. Chadha is sent to another call centre, Ornatus Solutions. Her interviewer says she is unqualified and does not offer her a job.
5b Job Scammer
Khatri arrives at Ornatus and gets a job with a monthly salary of ₹15,000.
Khatri is told to begin every call the same way: “I am calling from Jobishh. We have your CV with us. Are you looking for a job or a job change? We have opportunities for you.”
She learns Ornatus sells the services of a jobs website called Jobishh. Khatri soon comes to a dark conclusion about her employer: “They are scamming.”
5c Tech Support Scammer
Job scams are only one variety of call-centre scam. Others include scams in tech support, insurance, banking, and travel.
Tanwar follows the directions sent by his placement agency to a call centre in Gurgaon, where he is hired. Tanwar figures out the company is running a tech support scam in which people are tricked into buying security products they do not need. Tanwar quits after four months.