Recently, Naavi.org has
received information about a new kind of fraud from Chennai. This fraud
targets new IT companies which ae eagerly looking for software projects.
The apparent fraud is played
out as follows.
A new IT company looking out
for projects recruits a software professional Mr Madhusudan. He
suggests that the Company may benefit by using the services of a
consultant, Mr Subramanyam who has recently returned from abroad where he
was working.
Subramanyam promises a
lucrative project from a company in Germany where he was earlier working.
He gives a contact person Mr Dmitry in the German firm and the Company
exchanges some e-mails. The contact invites the Company for a discussion
with a very short notice. Company officials find it difficult to get Visa.
Subramanyam suggests that he is travelling to Germany on some other work
and if the company wants can have discussions about the project. Company
agrees. He keeps contacting the Company on e-mails and then returns after a
fortnight stating that the meeting was succesful.
Company invests further in
recruiting a few more persons at the instance of Mr Madhusudan and project
team is formed. The team keeps working on prototype and time passes until
the Company realizes that the project cannot continue. The team which has
worked for nearly 6 months offer to resign en-mass.
At this time the Company
gets some doubt on the genuinity of the project and tries to contact the
German company. It finds that there is no person in the Company by the name
Dmitry. They also find that some of the mails sent by Mr Dmitry appear to
originate from Chennai.
The Company in search for a
project is now poorer by several lakhs of rupees in terms of salary and
other expenses incurred on the team along with loss of precious time.
Could this be a genuine
failure of a business project? Or is it a new kind of fraud?.. Further
investigation may reveal the truth.
In the mean time, Naavi.org
invites companies to report if they have faced similar instances. They are
also advised to be on guard with such fake project vendors and ensure that
they check the veracity of claims made by consultants particularly when the
promised project is from abroad and it is difficult to establish its
genuineness.
Naavi
August 24, 2008
