Two of the country's biggest business conglomerates -- Cyrus Mistry-led Tatas and Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Group -- have become the target of fake job syndicates making fraudulent employment offers to gullible jobseekers in lieu of money.

After coming across several instances of such fraudulent job offers being made in their name, both the groups have warned of initiating strict civil and criminal actions against these fraudsters and have also issued separate public notices in this regard.

According to senior executives at some leading human resource consultants, they have been also approached by certain people claiming to be representatives of these groups and had asked them to arrange for potential candidates for numerous vacancies.

However, they got suspicious after they got to know that certain cash deposits were being demanded from the job applicants and they directly approached the internal HR departments of the respective groups, said head of a leading HR consultancy.

Subsequently, it was discovered that the job offers were being made by some fake employment syndicates looking to make quick bucks by promising lucrative postings at leading business groups like Reliance and Tatas, he said, while adding that the HR consultants have now become more vigilant for such frauds.

Previously, mostly IT companies have been hit by such frauds, which seek to take advantage of the people desperately looking for job offers.

Salt-to-software conglomerate Tata group, which has more than 4.5 lakh employees across its about 100 companies, said in its public notice that it has already lodged a complaint with the Delhi Police and Mumbai Police about such fraudulent actions.

Reliance Industries, which had a total workforce of 23,519 employees and 29,462 temporary as per its annual report, casual or contractual staff as on March 31, also said it would take possible civil and criminal actions "against such persons who indulge in such illegal activities and are responsible for causing such disrepute to RIL and its group companies".

The notice, issued by by RIL's HR Head, said that Reliance Industries and its group companies have come to know about some unauthorised persons making false and frivolous job offers at RIL and its group firms by demanding cash deposits in specified bank accounts.

The group said that such offers are "purportedly made to bring disrepute to RIL and its group companies" and asked the job seekers not to be misled by them.

At the same time, the RIL group also made a disclaimer that "RIL and its group companies shall not be responsible or liable for any loss that may be caused to any member of the public on account of their indulging into any sort of actions with such unscrupulous persons".

Tatas, in their notice, said that Tata Sons and other Tata companies have deployed a merit-based employee selection practice.

"We do not charge/accept any amount or security deposit from job seekers during the selection process or while inviting candidates for an interview.

"We have noticed that fake job offers in the name of companies like Tata Motors, Tata Consultancy Services and Tata AutoComp Systems and certain other Tata companies as well as fictitious entities like 'Tata Groups Limited', 'Tata India Limited' have been circulated by some unauthorised persons/fraudsters.

"Some fraudsters are using the names of Tata companies to solicit job applications and require the job seekers/ applicants to pay processing fees or deposit amount by sending false e-mails or by making fraudulent telephone calls."

Tatas also asked the jobseekers not to respond to any unsolicited or fraudulent job offers against payment of money.

"We shall not accept any liability towards the representation made in any fraudulent communication or its consequences and such fraudulent communication shall not be treated as any kind of offer or representation by any Tata company," Tata group said.

Suggesting some precautionary measures, Tatas said: "On receipt of an interview call for any job in any Tata company, the candidate may take some measures such as visiting the official web site of the concerned Tata company to get the contact details and enquire with the human resources department of such company about the interview details and other relevant information."

In another notice, Tatas said they have also come across instances of spam e-mails are being sent in the name of Tata Sons and other Tata companies with the intention of committing fraud and illegally obtaining confidential information and/or money from people.

Source : ET