Hindustan Pencils Private Limited (HPPL), Indian manufacturer of writing materials and stationery items, has announced to have taken legal action against fake job scams falsely attributed to its iconic brand Nataraj and Apsara.
According to an official release, these scammers fraudulently impersonated HPPL’s legitimate representatives. They misused HPPL’s registered office address as well as images of their personnel to cheat innocent and unsuspecting individuals. The people were offered work from home pencil packaging job opportunities through various digital media including Google, LinkedIn, WhatsApp and other online platforms. Several job seekers fell victim to this scam and lost their money.
“HPPL has never authorised any such employment offers of work from home pencil packing job. HPPL would like to bring to the notice of all job aspirants and the general public that recruitment in HPPL is carried out through a well-established selection process. It is clarified that no websites or agencies have been authorised by HPPL either to show vacancy position on its site or to accept any application for recruitment on behalf of HPPL,” the company said in a statement.
HPPL has asked the public to refrain from paying in exchange for a job posting stating that such offers are fake.
The company has filed a First Information Report (FIR) to initiate legal proceedings against those responsible for propagating these fraudulent job offers. Furthermore, the company has dubbed and uploaded videos in 10 key Indian languages which include Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu and Maghai to create awareness on social media channels and educate the public about these fraudulent job scams. The video underscores the importance of verifying job offers through official channels to avoid falling prey to scams.
Till date HPPL has announced to have tracked 991 pages carrying fake pencils packing jobs with work from home. They claim to have taken down 11 pages carrying fake pencils packing job work from home on Indiamart portal.
Alongside law enforcement authorities, Hindustan Pencils is engaging with consumers across India through emails, telephone calls, 24 x 7 automated response on board line and consumer care number response through manually operated customer care executive to highlight the menace of the fraudulent packaging job scam to help protect public interests, the release said.
HPPL is also keeping close eyes on various advertisements published in print media under classified column and communicating directly with publications disclaiming any such job offers and have also published cautionary notices in the newspaper where such fake job offer advertisements were published, it added.