A day after former NDTV journalist Nidhi Razdan shared on Twitter that she was a victim of a phishing scam, and that the job she was offered as an associate professor at Harvard University was fake, a detailed blog published on NDTV details the series of events that unfolded.
The ‘elaborate and sophisticated phishing scam’, Nidhi wrote in the blog, was all an attempt to access her personal information including bank details, emails, medical records, passport etc.
Elaborating the events, Nidhi said that in November 2019, she was invited to speak at an event organised by the Harvard Kennedy School that was to take place in early 2020. It was then that one of the apparent ‘organisers’ had contacted her separately about a teaching position. “I submitted my CV, thinking I had nothing to lose by trying. I never really expected anything to come of it,” she wrote.
Nidhi says she was interviewed online for 90 minutes, all of which seemed legitimate. While many on Twitter stated that Harvard did not have a journalism school, Nidhi clarified that she was offered the position at Harvard Extension School which does offer a Journalism Degree Programme. This, she ran a Google search and verified, she says.
“The actual programme is called the Master of Liberal Arts, Journalism degree. The Extension School lists 500 faculty of whom 17 are categorised as journalism faculty. A number of these people are working journalists. I believed I fit this profile,” she wrote.
Nidhi said that she received an offer and letter agreement from what appeared to be an official Harvard email ID, which also contained signatures of senior Harvard University officials who actually do hold those positions even today.
She added that her employers at NDTV and others too were emailed separately for recommendation letters along with ‘official-looking acknowledgements’ mailed back to them.
Several emails were then exchanged, she alleges, where her personal information was sought for a work visa.
“I was also sent an "official" invitation to attend a faculty orientation in March 2020 but that was called off due to the pandemic. I honestly didn't think anything of it since COVID had suddenly started disrupting all our lives and lockdowns were being announced the world over,” she wrote.
Nidhi was sent class schedules, details of subjects she would be teaching and even a breakup of the classes, which were supposed to start in September 2020, which was then postponed to January 2021 due to COVID.
“I had been told a work visa had been issued in the US for me which would be sent to me only when travel was required. I would have also needed a visa from Delhi but it never reached that stage since no travel was on the cards immediately,” she added.
Nidhi explained that she started having doubts when administrative processes began getting frustrating and the salary she was promised from September 2020 didn't come through.
“It was all blamed on chaos due to COVID or IT failures. At one point they even sent me a bank transfer slip even though no money ever came,” she wrote. She assumed this was lack of coordination due to COVID.
The blog said that Nidhi came to know that there was no record of her appointment when she wrote to the Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in January 2021.
“It was only earlier this week that I heard back from them telling me there was no record of my appointment and that the people claiming to be their HR staff do not exist! I wrote back to Harvard expressing shock at this and urged them to take this matter seriously since there are people impersonating their senior staff and even forging their signatures on fake letterheads, including the Vice President of HR and their Chief Financial Officer,” she added.
Nidhi said that she realised at this point that it was a massive phishing exercise.
Nidhi has filed a police complaint and handed over all the documents and communication.
“This was a gross criminal act. I am very shaken by this and keep kicking myself for being such an idiot. With the benefit of hindsight, could I have done more due diligence? Absolutely, yes. But these scams succeed because they look so real. What these scamsters put together was good enough for me to throw away a 21-year career in TV,” she wrote.
Nidhi clarified, however, that in hindsight she didn't see any cause for alarm as the delays were attributed to the pandemic, and especially because she was never asked to pay any money.
“And that there is a lesson for me and for us all - never trust anything online. I am angry, disappointed and upset but also relieved that I found out what was going on and alerted authorities including Harvard before any serious damage was done. If after all this the only thing I can be accused of is being stupid, then I'll take it on the chin, learn from it and move on,” she said.
Nidhi’s blog published on NDTV on Saturday comes after several people have been pointing out on social media that Harvard University does not have a journalism department, and casting doubts over her story.
Harvard University, meanwhile, has also responded, saying that it did not find records of hiring or appointing Nidhi after “reviewing their people-related systems.” The University also said that the agreement documents given to Nidhi by the fraudulent persons had irregularities. The institution did not, however, respond to queries about why it did not comment when Nidhi announced her appointment in June last year and it even made news in several Indian media publications.