Frauds cheat 33 aspirants of ₹3L by offering ‘jobs’ in Reliance Jio

The company told the police that when a job offer is made to a candidate, the company also mentions an employee ID in the letter which was missing in the fake letter. The fraudsters had demanded money in the name of providing mobile phones and laptops, while the company does not seek any monetary benefit while offering a job

Navi Mumbai: Reliance Jio has lodged a complaint with the Navi Mumbai police against unknown fraudsters, who have cheated people by promising them jobs with the telecom giant. The company claims it has received as many as 33 such cases within the last three months, said police officials.

The company told the police that when a job offer is made to a candidate, the company also mentions an employee ID in the letter which was missing in the fake letter. The fraudsters had demanded money in the name of providing mobile phones and laptops, while the company does not seek any monetary benefit while offering a job (StockPic)

According to the police, the telecom giant learnt about the fraud after some of the victims of the scam emailed them ‘appointment letters’. The letterhead that the fraudsters used had a fake logo and trademark of Reliance Jio.

The 33 people who got in touch with the company have collectively lost ₹3 lakh for securing the job.

Sudhir Nair, deputy manager of the company, filed a complaint based on which the Rabale police station has filed an FIR against the unidentified accused.

“The accused have not only copied the trademark and logo of the company but have also created email ids that look like they belong to the company,” alleged Nair in his complaint.

“The company does not ask for money from any candidate for offering a job nor do they contact anyone via email or SMS directly,” said Nair in his complaint.

The fake job offers were largely from domain names reliancejiohiring.co.in, hiringreliancejio.online and reliancejioindiaofficial@gmail.com which do not belong to the company.

“We are investigating the case with the help of Cyber Cell. Whenever there is any involvement of money in securing a job, one should understand it is fake. To confirm, it is best to check with the help of the official contact numbers and email ids mentioned on their official website,” said a police officer from Rabale police station.

According to the police, the modus of the accused is to approach the candidate via text messages and calls posing as a HR person from Reliance Jio and then conduct a fake interview over the phone.

The accused would then tell them that to get an offer letter they will have to make a payment towards company’s mobile phone and laptop. To win their trust, the accused would also mail them the fake offer letters forged with the logo and trademark of the company.

“There is a high chance that the fraudsters group is getting data of possible candidates from some job offering portal. Using the data, they chose their targets. They offer positions depending on the qualification mentioned in the data. The phone numbers used in such cases are procured using fake documents. It’s a huge nexus which mostly works from rural areas of in the northern and eastern regions of the state,” a police officer from cyber cell said.

When contacted, Nair refused to comment .

Jio, a part of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries group, had placed a global fraud alert in the “careers” section on its website in multiple Indian languages to alert about fraud communications a few months ago.

“Certain persons unconnected with us have been masquerading as officials of Reliance Industries Limited or our Group Companies and are making business proposals to companies and individuals in several countries using fake email IDs ending with “@ril.vc” or “@ril.sg” or “@ril.us.com,” the alert posted on the website said.

“These business proposals are in respect of raising funds, proposed mergers and acquisitions and jobs at higher management level. While making some of these proposals it is being wrongly portrayed that these proposals are made by Group Companies of Reliance allegedly registered in Russia or United States of America whose parent company is Reliance Industries Limited, Mumbai, India,” the alert said.

The statement said the company had noticed that fraudulent names like Reliance Retail Ventures LLC, Russia, Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings LLC, Russia, Reliance Retail Ventures Limited, Delaware, USA; and Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings Limited LLC, Delaware, USA.

“Reliance Industries Limited or any of the Reliance Group Companies do not have any office anywhere in Russia. These communications have nothing whatsoever to do with us and are obviously intended to deceive the recipients,” the statement said.

It also said that officers of senior Jio officials have been forged on letters and agreements and email ids ending with @ril.vc”, “@ril.sg” and “@ril.us.com” have been used by fraudsters.

The company said all authentic Reliance group companies use emails ending with @ril.com. The company has lodged criminal complaints in September 2019, and April 2020 with Mumbai police, and the Cyber Cell has been investigating them.

The company also set up an email recruitment.fraud@ril.com where anyone receiving suspect communications on behalf of Reliance could send an alert.