A genuine employer never asks you to pay to get hired. If a job offer wants money from you first, or asks for your OTP or bank login, treat it as fraud until proven otherwise, and report it fast at cybercrime.gov.in or by calling 1930.
Losing money to a fake job is not a sign that you are foolish. These scams are built to look real, and they target people who are hopeful, under pressure, and short on time. If it has happened to you, you are not alone and it is not your fault. This guide helps you recognise the trap, understand the shapes it takes, and act quickly if you have already paid.
Read the offer in front of you and tick every signal that matches. There is no magic cut-off, but the rule is simple: the more flags you count, the more certain the offer is fake. Even one or two of the money and credential flags is enough to stop and verify before you act.
Count how many of these are true about your offer:
None of these belong in a real hiring process. A legitimate company pays you, verifies you through its own domain and staff, and never needs your banking secrets.
Most fake job frauds fit one of three patterns. Knowing the shape helps you name what is happening.
You are offered a role and then told to pay a registration charge, security deposit, or training fee before you can start. The amount is often small at first to feel reasonable, then more requests follow: a document fee, a background-check fee, a joining kit. Once you stop paying, the contact vanishes. A real employer deducts nothing from you to give you a job.
You are recruited for easy work-from-home tasks: liking videos, rating hotels, or completing small online jobs. The first tiny payouts arrive to build trust. Then you are asked to deposit your own money to take on higher-value tasks that promise bigger commissions. The more you deposit, the more the withdrawal is blocked behind another fee. The early payouts are bait, not earnings.
Here the trap is different and more dangerous. You are hired for a role that involves receiving money into your own bank account and forwarding it onward, or lending your account, card, or UPI to the company. What you are actually doing is moving the proceeds of other crimes.
This variant can put you at serious legal risk, not just financial risk. If your account is used to move criminal money, you can be treated as part of the fraud, your account can be frozen, and you may face questioning or a criminal case even though you thought you were an employee. No genuine job ever needs your bank account to receive and pass on money. If anyone asks you to do this, refuse, stop all contact, and report it.
Move quickly. A faster report gives banks a better chance of stopping or reversing the transfer before the money is withdrawn at the other end. There is no guaranteed recovery, but speed genuinely improves the odds.
There is an official job-fraud awareness brochure published on the cybercrime portal at this link. Reporting through cybercrime.gov.in or 1930 is the primary official channel.
Do not delete the chat in embarrassment. Every message is proof. Keep:
The Right to Information Act reaches public authorities only: government departments, public sector undertakings, and government-recruiting bodies. You cannot file an RTI on a private company, a fake recruiter, or an anonymous scammer, and RTI is not a tool to recover your money.
Where RTI genuinely helps is verification and status:
To learn how to draft and file these requests well, see The RTI Playbook and the RTI Act, 2005.
Kashvi Pathak, a final-year student, receives a polished offer letter for a data-entry role from a company she never applied to. The email is from a free personal address, and the letter asks for a refundable security deposit of ₹4,500 to reserve her seat, payable by UPI the same day.
She counts the flags: a fee, no interview, same-day pressure, and a personal email domain. That is four. She does not pay. Instead she searches for the company on its official website and finds no such address or role. Because the letter claims the company is empanelled with a government skilling body, she also files an RTI with that public authority to confirm whether the company is actually listed. When the reply shows it is not, she reports the offer and the email on cybercrime.gov.in and warns her classmates. She loses nothing because she stopped at the scorecard.
No. A genuine employer pays you a salary and never charges you a registration fee, security deposit, training fee, or refundable amount to hire you. Any demand for money before you start is a strong sign of fraud.
Treat it as urgent. An OTP or PIN can let a scammer move money or take over an account. Contact your bank immediately to secure the account, change your passwords, disable UPI or card access if advised, and report the incident on cybercrime.gov.in or by calling 1930.
You may be at risk, because moving money for others can make your account part of a fraud even if you believed it was a job. Stop at once, do not move any more funds, preserve every message and record, and report the situation on cybercrime.gov.in and to your bank right away so your side is on record.
No. RTI applies only to public authorities and cannot be filed on a private company or an anonymous scammer, and it does not recover money. It is useful for confirming whether a government-linked recruitment is genuine and for asking the status of a complaint you filed with a public authority.
As fast as you possibly can. Reporting quickly on cybercrime.gov.in and calling 1930 gives banks a better chance of stopping or reversing the transfer before the money is withdrawn. There is no guaranteed recovery, but speed clearly improves your odds.