A bogus letter claiming that three 'Village Service Representatives' would be selected from each village under 'Gram Vikas Rozgar Yojana' is doing rounds on the internet, yet again. The letter had earlier surfaced in Telangana and Meghalaya.
The letter mentions that the interested candidates should send a demand draft (DD) of Rs 1200 in the name of Kanak Enterprises, payable at Delhi. However, a basic Google search tells us that no government scheme with the name 'Gram Vikas Rozgar Yojana' exists.
Further, the South West Khasi Hills district administration in Meghalaya had issued an advisory note in 2019 stating that the letter was not authentic. "On the evaluation of representation documents received at the Village, the same cannot be proven to be authentic and has a dubious objective," the advisory read.
All that's suspicious with the letter
The letter has a number of spelling and grammatical errors, that no official document or notification contains. The name of the scheme has also been spelt differently in different instances in the letter.
Is asking for money in exchange for job usual?
According to experts, the modus operandi of a job scam is to ask the candidates to deposit registration fees, especially via bank transfers or e-wallets.
"Under no circumstance is the candidate asked to pay in any form for their candidature. If that happens, it's an immediate 'no go'. No matter how much the fraudsters try to convince about the need for any such transaction. This is an absolute red flag," co-founder and EVP of TeamLease Services Rituparna Chakraborty was quoted as saying by Economic Times.
Police take notice
A Twitter user recently posted the letter and said that it is going viral in Kashmir.
"There is a scheme (Gram Vikas Rozgar Yojna) going viral in Kashmir, asking unemployed youth to deposit some amount through DD made on name of Kanak Enterprises payable at Delhi. Plz see into its authenticity (sic)," the user wrote, tagging the Jammu and Kashmir police, Prime Minister's Office and Department of Information and Public Relations in J&K.
The Zonal crime branch of Kashmir took cognizance of the case and said: "We have taken note. We invite any citizen who has any more information about the subject to our office. CBK at people's service Always (sic)."
