The case of fake Ashok Leyland appointment letters

Some engineering graduates have been receiving fake appointment letters in the name of Ashok Leyland, the heavy commercial vehicle manufacturer. Apparently, there are some fraudsters who are posing as Ashok Leyland’s job consultants and targeting young students, generally from non-metro cities, who are desperately in need of a job. Posing as Ashok Leyland’s executives, these fraudsters call students and offer them a job in the Company against a cash deposit as security.

HRKatha was able to track down one such victim, from Madhya Pradesh. Mayank Tripathi, a mechanical engineer, got an offer letter asking him to deposit Rs 5000. In fact, talking to HRKatha, Tripathi shared that this is not the first time when someone posing as a consultant from Ashok Leyland had contacted him. Two years ago too, when Tripathi had applied to Ashok Leyland, some fraudsters offered him a job and asked for security against employment. “This is the second time when something like this is happening with me. I had given an interview over a phone call and after a few days I got an appointment letter on the mail,” shares Tripathi.

Another engineering graduate, who did not want to be named, told HRKatha that he also received an offer letter from Ashok Leyland offering him a very high compensation. “I smelled something fishy, because no industry offers such high compensation to an entry-level employee, and, I had not even applied to Ashok Leyland. I just randomly received a mail from someone and several follow up calls for the same too,” he shares.

A spokesperson from Ashok Leyland tells HRKatha that several such instances of fraudsters, posing as job consultants for Ashok Leyland, duping unsuspecting candidates have been brought to their notice. “These candidates are usually from non-metros and desperately looking for a stable job with a reputable organisation. We ensure that we report such incidents by registering a formal complaint with the Commissioner of Police, Cyber-crime Department. We share whatever details we have to help shut down such operations. Job seekers usually visit our website first and on the career section/page we have a standard disclaimer message, warning potential candidates about such nefarious operations where money is expected from candidates in lieu of a confirmed job. Additionally, our team acts immediately on incidents that are brought to our notice and they communicate to all candidates to exercise caution and report to us about such imposters.”

During these times, when many people are struggling to find employment, some cheats are trying to take advantage of their situation. The gullible and desperate ones are even falling into their traps.

What’s interesting is there are people who were interviewed first and then got the fake appointment letter, which can be a matter of coincidence, because there were others who were randomly picked to be served with fake offer letter.

Cautioning potential candidates, the Company says “We’d like to highlight that we are an equal and fair opportunity employer, whose hiring policies are transparent. Candidates must stick to our careers page or Job Search platforms for any information on the opportunities. We’d like to re-emphasise that anybody or any document promising employment against money or kind, is fake and illegal. These must be immediately reported to us or the authorities.”