“Hello. I am HR Suneel of Publicis (India) Communication Private, can I have a minute of your time? I would like to offer you a part-time job. This is a simple job and you are not required to pay any joining fee. And you can earn 5000-55,000 $ a day in your free time. I can’t call you right now Sir because we have too many employees to accommodate.”
Nevermind that Sir is actually Madam.
Another message, but this time in the name of integrated marketing agency Gozoop.
“I am Ms. Kate from Gozoop Marketing. Our recruitment partners at the job website sent us your number.” “I hope it will not disturb you, because we cooperate with Naukri.com and they will send your contact information for us to contact you.”
“We are hiring freelancers who can “work from home”. The role is to Follow/Like Indian YouTube pages to increase their fanbase (10 – 15 YouTube pages, 15 mins daily). Payment is Rs 1500 – 3500 per day via UPI, Gpay or account depending on your choice. (This is totally free of charge).”
Another message in the name of advertising company Interpublic Group. “I am the personnel manager of IPG company and I am currently recruiting part-time staff. You can work from home using your smartphone. A part-time job takes 30-60 minutes! Daily salary: 2000-9000 rupees. This job requires you to be at least 20 years old (Click the link to contact customer service WhatsApp).”
In a span of two weeks, these messages were received by unsuspecting users of WhatsApp. As Ahmed Aftab Naqvi, global chief executive officer and co-founder of Gozoop puts it, “This is a scam!”
Naqvi’s Instagram feed is full of screenshots of various scammers posing as the agency’s officials. He tells us that the scam has been going on for over a month.
Interestingly, the agency’s employees were also offered these jobs and perks at the agency that they already work for. So far, more than 100 people have reached out to Naqvi sharing these messages they received from accounts posing as Gozoop recruiters.
Naqvi has also been the victim of fraudulent emails sent in his name, making it seem like Naqvi is in trouble and urgently needs Rs50,000 transferred to his account.
These scams are certainly not new, but the targeted approach of the job scammers using agency references are startling some agency folk.
Publicis Communications and Gozoop are not the only targets. White Rivers Media’s co-founder Shrenik Gandhi too raised alerts on such scams happening in the independent digital marketing agency’s name.
According to Lloyd Mathias, angel investor and business strategist, the equation shared between an agency and a client presents a new opportunity for the scammers where they can function from a place of authority. The scams happening evoke sensitivity and worry because the access of agencies and clients to a broader network is fairly deeper. And, such messages would have a negative impact.
He explains, “Today, a lot are making use of phishing techniques to get hold of data. For example, I can send a mail saying that I come from an income tax office. Most don’t go deep and check the email id properly. Subject lines with, ‘Job offer’, ‘Urgent’ etc, results in people tending to click blindly without checking in the details. They need to control the urge.”
Agency heads are concerned about how these scams are affecting company image and reputation, but also how it might impact receivers. Naqvi says, “The goodwill of Gozoop has been built over years. My thoughts go out to many aspiring job seekers, especially from small towns and villages, who are not based in Mumbai. For them, they think that it is a great opportunity to work from home and earn money. I think they are the main target of the scammers. I hope that they don’t fall prey to such things.”
Counter measures
When scam emails in Naqvi’s name began to circulate, he filed a police complaint. To counter the deceptive messages which are currently circulating and are increasing in number, an informal discussion was conducted within the agency to decide the next step. As of now, scam messages have been compiled and they have been submitted to authorities. Further, the entire ad community was made aware through the posts put up on platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn.
White Rivers Media’s Gandhi states that it is their vigilant attitude which helps them nip the issue in the bud. “There are opportunists trying to make money in the name of certain organizations. Whenever we see signs of such scams, we put up official announcements.”
Mathias suggests some steps to avoid any unexpected repercussions of such messages on the client side. His suggestion is to get the client servicing department to be in regular touch with clients when frequency of such messages increase. “Since this is a people oriented business, there is a sense of familiarity and it becomes easier to address the problems,” he says.
Scam messages have also gone out from numbers and accounts posing as Publicis Communications. The spokesperson shared in a statement, “When encountering any fraudulent activity, each case is assessed by our internal teams and appropriate steps are taken by the company including filing a police complaint and issuing a public statement. We are in the process of pursuing all possible legal actions and we have approached the concerned authorities to investigate the issue. We urge the public to not be taken in by miscreants posing as Publicis representatives and to be vigilant of who they share personal information with, and to also proactively report such cases to the authorities.”
Mathias stresses on the importance of proper cybersecurity training and agencies listing the ‘Dos’ and ‘Don’ts’ to be followed by all employees. Further, he also believes that agencies must clearly communicate to their clients and share a list which highlights or tracks who are a part of the agency and who are no longer working with the agency.
Mathias says, “If you get a random mail from a well-known agency, it is always good to check who the person is. Today, it is very easy to go on Google and LinkedIn and check his or her profile. It is easily addressable but to make people conscious of the fact that they don’t give away information is the hard part.”