Fake Internship Scam Loots College Students

Hyderabad: As the job market has become increasingly competitive in recent years, many students are opting for internships to gain experience and enhance their resumes. However, this trend led to a rise in the instances of fake internships and internship scams, which mislead students.

Students pursuing graduation from private organisations reported that they frequently receive messages in their WhatsApp groups on fake internship offers that closely resemble authorised internships. Once they pay the required fees to begin their internship, they receive links that lead to empty or non-existing pages, leaving many students frustrated.

One of the students said that work-from-home opportunities are the ones that are majorly looting them as this could be the best way to trap students because we want to balance college and have pocket money at the same time.

Nithyusha, a second-year graduate student, shared her interest to secure an internship to support her family. In her search she contacted an Instagram page advertising a typing internship which requested a payment of Rs 1,300 to begin. After she paid the fee, the Instagram account vanished and she was unable to find the account through other profiles also.

Unfortunately, she is not alone; many students have witnessed similar scams on Instagram where such fake accounts take advantage of students' hopes for internships to steal their money.

Shivakumar Reddy Puchakayala, a research scholar and assistant professor, mass communication and journalism at a private college, reported that many students including him have encountered such platforms, which do not add any value to their resume, and do not help them in acquiring real skills.

“After charging fees they fail to provide any meaningful tasks, communication or even the promised certificates. As someone who values genuine learning and professional growth I feel it’s important to raise awareness about fake internship programmes that do more harm than good,” he said.

Individuals, who are involved in writing lab records for students, said that the existing lab records market primarily serves intermediate students who are preparing for competitive exams like IIT and NEET. These students often struggle to find time to write their lab records because of their hectic schedules. As a result they reach out to individuals who charge up to Rs 800 per record. Interestingly, many of these lab records are written by junior lecturers from the same colleges.

Srinivas Kodali, a cybercrime expert, said that fake internship offers are cropping up largely due to increased demand for real-world experience in a competitive job market. As students look for ways to enhance their resumes, individuals and organisations take advantage of this need by offering fake internships. Also the Hyderabad Cybercrime Police stated that no cases were registered about fake internships in the recent times.

Students on their Linkedin profiles posted about these scam alerts using various hashtags and quoted a few companies that they were scammed from. A human resource talent acquisition official said that it’s important to verify the company’s website and read people’s reviews before enrolling with the company for internship and students should never pay for internships.