2021 is coming to an end. Apart from the depressing second wave of Covid-19, there has been a lot that has happened this year that made to headlines and shocked almost everyone. Here, we would like to draw your attention to the top five bizarre frauds that came to light in 2021 and gained widespread attention on social media. From Nidhi’s Harvard job to Aurangabad teen’s NASA claims, it was an interesting list.

The curious case of Nidhi Razdan’s Harvard job that never existed

Amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, when every other person was losing their jobs, NDTV’s journalist Nidhi Razdan got “lucky” as she was invited by Harvard University to join as faculty in the Journalism department. Nidhi, who had over 21 years of experience in journalism, took the opportunity wholeheartedly and announced that she would be starting the “new chapter” of her life very soon as Associate Professor of Journalist at Harvard on June 13 last year.

Waves of messages congratulating her for the achievement poured in through social media, and everything went smooth. She even left her job at NDTV and participated in several talk shows as an expert with the tagline “Associate Professor at Harvard” written next to her name on the screen.

But there was a catch. Things were not as easy as Nidhi expected them to be. On January 15, Nidhi issued a public statement that the job she had been bragging about for seven months was fake. She alleged that she was a victim of a phishing attack. In the statement, she said, “I had been given to believe that I would be joining the University in September 2020. While I was making preparations to take up my new assignment, I was later told that due to the ongoing pandemic, my classes would commence in January 2021. Along with these delays, I began noticing several administrative anomalies in the process being described to me.”

Statement by Nidhi where she alleged she was scammed. Source: Twitter

She added, “I did not receive an offer by Harvard University to join their faculty as an Associate Professor of Journalism. The perpetrators of this attack used clever forgeries and misrepresentations to obtain access to my data and communications and may have also gained access to my devices and my email/social media accounts.” The journalist was allegedly scammed in such a way that she could not ‘spot the scam’ for months. Unbelievable, but true as per her words.

Then sometime during the year, someone sitting at the New York Times decision-making table thought it would be nice if they could investigate the case. On December 16, NYT published their findings and somehow managed to blame ‘Hindutvavadis‘ for the alleged scam. On the other hand, Nidhi also blamed Harvard for not paying attention to her tweets where she tagged them saying they had hired her as an associate professor. They pointed fingers towards the ‘Hindu Nationalist’ forces irrespective of the fact that in their report, it was mentioned that BJP spokesperson Nighat Abbass was also one of the targets. Interestingly, Abbass had alerted Harvard about the possible scam, unlike Razdan, who thought the job was for real.

Anyway, the “Forensic analysis”, according to NYT, revealed links to Pakistan. Still, NYT thought Hindu Nationalists were behind the attack. It is still unclear why would Hindu Nationalists would target someone like Nidhi with such an elaborated scam anyway. NYT did not give any reason. They just assumed it as all liberal media does.

Shabana Azmi and the amazing ‘daaru delivery dudes’ of Mumbai

Shabana Azmi, the well-known Bollywood actress, and wife of lyricist-politician Javed Akhtar were duped by an alcohol delivery scam in June this year. In a tweet, Azmi said, “BEWARE I have been created by them. #Living Liquidz I paid upfront, and when the ordered item didn’t turn up, they stopped picking up my calls!”

Tweet by Shabana Azmi alleging she was duped by “alcohol delivery shop”. Source: Twitter

In her subsequent Tweet, the actor clarified that she was duped by fraudsters, and she didn’t make the payment to the platform. She tweeted, “finally traced the owners of @living_liquidz & it turns out that the people who cheated me are fraudsters who have nothing to do with Living Liquidz!”. Tagging Mumbai police and cybercrime cell in her Tweet, she urged that immediate action should be taken “to stop these crooks from using names of legitimate businesses & scamming us”.

Now comes the interesting part. The number Azmi had mentioned in her tweet showed ‘Liquor fraud’ on Truecaller. It was flagged by many as fraud, and if she had checked it before paying the money, she would have been saved from the fraud.

What happened next was even more interesting. As Azmi is a ‘celebrity’, it seems to have become a top priority case of Mumbai Police. The cyber cell came into action, and around a month later, it was reported that the Maharashtra state police cracked the case and identified the imposter who duped the actor. Sanjay Shintre, Superintendent of Maharashtra Cyber Police, said, “Accused in the Shabana Azmi online fraud case has been identified. We are tracking his movements, and further investigations are on.” 

But identifying criminals was not the interesting part. What was interesting was that the Police took the help of over 26 experts, including IIT graduates. An official familiar with the case said the fraudster could be tracked only after the 26 domain experts, including IIT graduates hired by the Maharashtra cyber cell, working at the behest of the Uddhav Thackeray government, helped crack the case. 26 experts worked tirelessly just because Azmi did not check whom she was paying before sending the money! What happened next is unclear. Also, someone somewhere might be still confused about how much alcohol was ordered that 26 experts had to be brought in!

In 2021, we hope that Ms. Azmi makes payments through legitimate payment gateways in the apps and websites of actual platforms and not random people who claim to deliver liquor if she pays them.

‘Child activist’ Licypriya Kangujam’s father turned out to be a scammer

The child activist, fondly called ‘India’s Greta’ by the liberals and intellectuals, Licypriya Kangujam, used to be in the news a lot, for her cheeky tweets written in very grown-up language asking political leaders to do what she says, and for being ready to protest for anything and everything under the sun. But things took a curious turn when her father, Kanarjit Kangujam, was arrested for duping around 100 children.

In June 2021, it was reported that Kanarjit had allegedly duped around 100 children from 12 countries under the grab of environmental activism. The fraud amount is estimated to be approximately $44,685, just from fees collected from students.

The alleged scams committed by Kangujam by preying on earnest activists revealed how he looted children activists across the globe using logos of the UN and UNESCO to legitimize his events.

Through IYC, Kangujam claimed to host international-level seminars for activists from India, Nepal, Indonesia, Azerbaijan, Nigeria, and Croatia. He even collected fees citing exchange programs and activities, but the contributors never saw any exchange programs, the reports stated.

Sources told the media that he would create fake events with legitimate-looking documents to lure people into paying fees to attend those events. Kangujam claimed to host events in Japan, Europe, and Mauritius, for which he collected hefty participation fees, however, the events never took place. When the participants asked for refunds, he declined, threatening elimination from the program, which would make them ineligible for any refunds, and passed every complaint to the volunteers to handle.

Documents released by the source showed he duped the children in the name of an exchange program. He duped several Pakistani participants to the tune of $160 each, Bhutanese participants of $300-420 each, and Mauritian participants of €1200 each. As per the source, the participation fee varied as per nationality and sometimes individually.

Karanjit was arrested in a joint operation by Manipur Police and Delhi Police on May 31. Kanarjit has been accused of cheating multiple people, with amounts as high as Rs 19 lakh. In 2015 too, he was arrested in Manipur with charges of criminal case number 176 of 2015 under Section 420 (Fraud), 324 (Assault), and 406 (Criminal breach of trust).

Diksha Shinde, the 14-year-old ‘NASA Panelist’. Really?

Coming to August 2021, Diksha Shinde, a young girl from Aurangabad made it to the headlines. The 14-year-old girl from Maharashtra was a subject of discussion for days after ANI reported she was selected as a panelist on the Minority Serving Institution (MSI) Fellowships Virtual Panel of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The class 10 student had claimed that she was selected for the 2021 MSI Fellowships Virtual Panel in June after the International Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research accepted her research paper on ‘We Live in Black Hole?’ in May 2021.

Now-deleted tweet by ANI.

Of course, it was time to celebrate for many who thought it was true. But there was a group of people who were not convinced with the claims. ANI tried to save its face and published screenshots of alleged correspondence of NASA and IJSER with Diksha. But these communications also did not clarify the doubts and instead create more questions.

The first sign that the story was bogus was the person who had signed the ‘NASA certificate’ shown by Diksha. It had the signatures of NASA CEO and President James Bridenstine and Department Chair James Frederick. However, the organizational structure of NASA does not have the designation of CEO, and the names of the persons were also doubtful.

NASA is headed by an administrator, and the post is currently occupied by Bill Nelson. While the two current chairs in the advisory groups are General Lester L. Lyles and Dr. Patricia Sanders. James Frederick Bridenstine was the administrator in NASA from 2013 to 2018, and some netizens believe this name was split into two to create the ‘certificate’ issued to Diksha Shinde.

On August 26, NASA replied to queries sent by media and other media portals. NASA stated that Diksha had used fake credentials to be selected as a panelist for the selection of proposals under the MSI program. In their statement, NASA said that Diksha was neither paid nor employed by them. Since her credentials were fake, NASA added that they have never published her ‘research paper’ and have never given her any certificates.

The ‘NASA certificates’ shared all over media and social media turned out to be generic templates available for free on the internet. Also, the ‘research papers’ the girl claimed she had published were found to be bogus too.

NASA’s response to Media

As the girl had used fake credentials for applying to be a panelist, NASA said they have started reviewing their verification process for the selection of panelists. They also added that NASA is not funding her trip to the USA. ANI later withdrew the report.

ANI withdrew the report on Diksha Shinde. Source: Twitter.

10,000 people duped of 25 crores in three years via fake e-commerce sites

Last but not least, in August 2021, it was revealed that around 10,000 people were duped for over Rs 25 crores in three years via fake e-commerce websites. The Delhi Police cyber cell unit arrested five accused linked to the case. As per the reports, the accused created over 60 fake e-commerce websites with products ranging from electronics to clothing. Some of the fake websites included Bookmytab, Dailyposhak, and more.

These websites offered heavy discounts and were promoted over social media and via advertising extensively. The victims who fell for the fake websites paid online but never got the products. The Delhi Police’s CyPAD (Cyber Prevention Awareness & Detection Centre) received multiple complaints related to the scam being run by bookmytab.com.

During the technical investigation by the special team of Delhi Police Cyber Cell, the location of the accused was traced. The main accused was identified as Vijay Arora. The Police found incriminating material from his office, and he was subsequently arrested along with four others, including the operations managers and campaign manager in the case.

The incidents mentioned above are meant to make readers aware of the kinds of scams and frauds that widespread internet usage makes us all vulnerable to. Students, youngsters, jobseekers usually fall victim to fraudsters dangling lucrative offers before them. Let us all be more aware and careful before we click.

References:

opindia.com - Anurag