The man shared the story as a cautionary tale for any young job seekers who might believe fall for a similar scam while desperately looking for a job. “I had a pretty scary experience in Delhi when I was a fresh graduate, just starting my job hunt. I got a call from a consultancy claiming they were hiring for top companies through a third-party agency and would help place me,” he said, adding that he found the job listing on a popular job portal and he did not suspect anything till he reached the “office building”.

‘Shady building, bodyguards’

“When I arrived, the building looked shady. There were bodyguards standing outside, which immediately felt off. I asked one of them where the interview was, and he told me to go inside, where HR would be waiting. I walked into the room, and a woman in mid 30s greeted me,” he added.

The interviewer boasted of connections with top companies and showed “fake” pictures of candidates who she claimed had been placed in Microsoft through her. However, when she questioned the engineer about his software skills, he suspected something wrong.

“I deliberately gave wrong answers just to test her, and she still told me I did great. At that point, I knew something was wrong. Then, she asked me to pay her 3,000 rupees,” he said.

Asked to pay ₹3,000

The engineer said he was desperate to leave but noticed bouncers outside the door. “I only had a 500-rupee note, so I handed it over and told her I needed to go outside to get the rest of the money. I convinced her, and the bodyguard followed me down the stairs. As soon as I was out of the building, I ran as fast as I could and took a metro because I knew he wouldn’t follow me on a public road,” he said.

The engineer said that the scam traumatised him. “This scam made me feel even more down and defeated during that time. It’s sad that these scammers are out there preying on innocent people,” he said.

The post was flooded with comments of support and stories of similar scams people were duped in. Many users thanked the engineer for sharing his tale to help make others aware.

(Also read: ‘I rejected a CEO today’: Woman turns down job after being compared to ChatGPT)