7 Steps for recovering your money if "You" are a Victim of an Online Recruitment Scam

With the advent of cyberspace, the number of online scams are on the rise and online recruitment scams being a major cyber crime with rising statistics.

A typical scam email or advertisement will mention a spoofed email id of a reputed company and will either offer you a job via email, or will place a newspaper advertisement with the contact email id for victims to fall prey.

On responding to such an email, a victim will receive a positive response and will be asked to deposit a refundable amount of money in a specified bank account for securing the job. Once the money is deposited, the recruitment scammer disappears for good and your money is gone!

No real job requires any kind of fee, including administrative, visa processing, work permits, certificates, authorizations, "Affidavit of Guarantee", "Letter of Attestation", "Affidavit of Oath" "Affirmation", or other legal or immigration fees.  No real company ever requires you to make a "refundable" deposit before you are interviewed.  No real company says it will reimburse you for expenses!  As soon as you are asked to pay any money for anything, including a visa or work permit, that tells you there is no job, it is a scam! 

However, Cyber Laws has a legal recourse to recover your money if you are a victim of such scams.

Online Recruitment Scammers can be booked under the provisions of the Information Technology Act, 2000 and The Indian Penal Code.

Simply following the 7 steps given below can help you recover your money:

1. File a complaint with the Cyber Crime Cell to trace the ip address from which you received the scam email.

2. Submit a Customer Dispute Resolution Form with the Bank from where you have transferred the money.

3. Make a complaint to the Bank in which the Scammer has a bank account, where you have transferred the money.

4.  File a Complaint before the Adjudicating Officer, Information Technology Act, 2000 against the Bank where the scammers bank account is functional, along with making the IP address a party so that the Court orders a tracing of the IP address.

5. The Court will further conduct an enquiry into your complaint and the matter will be heard and decided within a period of 6 to 9 months.

6. The Complaint should be filed in the format as specified in The Information Technology (Qualification and Experience of Adjudicating Officers and Manner of Holding Enquiry) Rules, 2003; which is as follows:

PROFORMA FOR COMPLAINT TO ADJUDICATING OFFICER

UNDER INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ACT - 2000

I 1. Name of the Complainant

2. E-mail address

3. Telephone No.

4. Address for correspondence

5. Digital Signature Certificate, if any

II 1. Name of the Respondent

2. E-mail address

3. Telephone No.

4. Address for correspondence

5. Digital Signature Certificate, if any

III Damages claimed

Fee deposited

Demand Draft No.____________dated __________Branch__

IV Complaint under Section/Rule/Direction/Order etc.

V Time of Contravention

VI Place of Contravention

VII Cause of action

VIII Brief facts of the case

(Signature of the Complainant)

7. The Application Fees for filing a Complaint is Rs. 50 and depending on the claim amount a court fees is payable.

Disclaimer: This article does not constitute legal advice and does not constitute an Attorney-Client relationship between the author and reader.