Nidhi Razdan and the fake Harvard job offer: what is known

Nidhi Razdan, an Indian television journalist, said in January 2021 that she had been the target of a phishing attack. She said it led her to believe she had been hired as an associate professor of journalism at Harvard University. She has said the offer was never genuine. She has reported the matter to police in India as an alleged case of forgery, cheating, identity fraud and impersonation by unknown people. No one has been identified as a suspect in the material reviewed for this article, and no court proceedings against anyone have been reported.

Who is Nidhi Razdan?

Razdan was born on 11 April 1977. She spent more than 20 years at the news channel NDTV, which she joined in 1999, and became one of its best-known presenters and reporters. She worked as a diplomatic correspondent and later as an executive editor. In 2017 she published a book, Left, Right and Centre: The Idea of India, which looks at the country's political debates. In June 2020 she announced that she was leaving NDTV after 21 years to take up an academic post at Harvard.

The alleged phishing attack

Phishing is a form of fraud in which criminals pose as a trusted organisation to persuade a person to hand over personal details, money or access to accounts. It often relies on emails that imitate the real sender.

According to her account and her lawyer's statements, Razdan received an email in December 2019 containing what looked like an offer from Harvard to teach journalism. Reports say that the letterhead and email addresses were forged to resemble the genuine ones. She was told she would start in September 2020. The start date was later moved to January 2021, with the pandemic given as the reason. She has said she also noticed what she called administrative anomalies along the way.

When she contacted senior figures at the university for clarity, she was told the offer had not come from Harvard. In a statement posted on social media on 15 January 2021, she said she had been the victim of a sophisticated and coordinated phishing attack. She said she had not in fact received an offer to join the faculty. Her lawyer later said the emails and forged documents had been sent over about a year.

What she says the scammers wanted

In a longer account published on 17 January 2021, Razdan said the attack appeared designed to give the perpetrators access to her bank account, personal data, emails, medical records, passport and devices such as her computer and phone. She has said she shared personal information during what looked like a recruitment process. These are her claims, and the identity and motives of those behind the messages have not been established in public.

The police complaints

Razdan filed a complaint with Jammu and Kashmir Police on 16 January 2021, while she was in Srinagar. On Monday 18 January 2021 she filed another with Delhi Police. Reports say it was received at Greater Kailash police station and passed to the cyber crime unit. Her complaint listed forgery, cheating, identity fraud and impersonation as offences carried out against her by unknown accused. It enclosed emails exchanged with those behind the alleged scam and other documents.

In Indian criminal procedure, a cognisable offence is one for which police can register a case and begin investigating without first obtaining a court warrant. Razdan's lawyer said she wanted a detailed investigation to trace the accused and a First Information Report, the formal record that starts a police inquiry, to be registered. She also asked Harvard to approach the Federal Bureau of Investigation or other relevant authorities in the United States.

Questions raised at the time

The episode drew wide attention because of the career she had left behind. Some commentators and social media users were sceptical of her account. Reporting by a US newspaper noted that the names given as human resources staff in the documents she shared did not appear in Harvard's employee systems. That finding is consistent with her statement that the offer was not genuine, but it does not identify who sent the messages. Razdan has maintained that she was deceived.

Where the case stands

The sources reviewed for this article do not record any arrests, charges or trial arising from the complaints. Cross-border online fraud is often hard to investigate, because emails can be routed through several countries and fake accounts can be created quickly. Anyone described as responsible for the alleged scam is presumed innocent unless and until a court finds otherwise. Readers should treat the account above as the allegations of the complainant, not as findings of a court.

Lessons for job seekers

Whatever the final outcome, the case shows how convincing a targeted fraud can appear. Cyber security specialists generally advise the following:

• Confirm a job offer through the employer's official website or switchboard, using contact details you found yourself rather than those in the email.
• Be cautious when an offer involves unusual delays, repeated changes of date or requests for sensitive documents such as a passport.
• Check sender addresses closely, as forged domains can differ from real ones by a single character.
• Avoid resigning from a current post until the appointment has been verified in writing with the institution directly.
• If you suspect fraud, change passwords, enable two-step verification, keep copies of all messages and report the matter to the police promptly.

Summary

Nidhi Razdan's case remains an example of an alleged phishing attack aimed at a public figure. Her account is that a forged Harvard offer led her to leave a long-held post, and that the university told her it was not genuine. She has reported the matter in Srinagar and Delhi. Without any reported charges or court ruling, the identity of those responsible remains unknown in the public record.