Randomly wondering whatever happened to that one @iim_sambalpur con artist who scammed Tier 1 b-schoolers out of money in lieu of job referrals?

Last I remember him and his 37k odd ka network being active in March. Then he disappeared after conning almost everyone out of min. 700 bucks. Like dayummm.

Did a little digging today and found out he’s disappeared from LinkedIn, blogs are gone, groups are gone. So is everyone’s money.

For those wondering, here was the scam: you pay money (refundable) for premium referrals. These groups were made on the basis of your CTC and college stature. Quite a few people I knew actually paid out of sheer desperation of a job change.

Except this chap, the guy who initiated the groups, Awiral Kumar Das, never actually refunded anyone’s money. And most jobs that came up in those groups were pretty fuckall too considering the groups they were being posted in. Think data entry and whatnot.

The buffoonery lasted long enough for these ‘networking’ aficionados to engage in paid meet-ups at fancy places and whatnot. Except the guy would fuck with people when they asked for their money back upon exiting the groups.

For b-schoolers, this lot that got scammed out of ~1 Cr., while I feel for you, honestly what was the guarantee that you’d ever see your money except for some rando on whatsapp promising you would?

Though I do hope the guy and his cronies get caught and @MumbaiPolice takes notice of elite scammers running rampant but damn. The only place I could find him still being around was a private account on Instagram by the name of chaiwaleybaba.

P.S. I’d joined a few ‘free’ groups myself when I was looking to switch jobs around 2 years ago. But was honestly a spam fest with the shittiest entry level jobs being posted for the top 10 b-schools nonetheless. Muted them all till I finally quit.

But I can’t help but feel bad for genuinely desperate b-schoolers in need of a job switch that trusted this rando instead of their own abilities.

Sharing screenshots below in case some news outlet gets bored of the Rhea SSR coverage and chooses to pick this up (LOOOOOL!) and actually get people’s bytes on this.

In case anyone’s interested, a quick google search and google images/ quota articles will give a clear picture. The amount this guy must’ve saved in taxes has me like .

Con ho bhai tum?

Ooh and this kid is listed in the @iim_sambalpur prospectus/ placement report. Also had NIT-trichy @ecell_nitt listed on his profiles.

Please use this thread as a cautionary tale if you’re a b-schooler or aspirant. Entrepreneurial spirit isn’t the only metric for your success. Misplaced integrity or lack thereof is what will screw you over in background checks if you ever decide to work for anyone else.

The more experience you gain, the bigger roles you start vying for, the more stringent the quality checks get. And if you and your hubris think you’ve gamed the system in the beginning of your career, your ‘network’ will always be around to trip you up with one QC call.

Everyone that got duped out of 700-2500 bucks will recover from the financial loss. This kid who wanted to beat the system by starting these shenanigans will probably be the only collateral damage in this entire charade.