Nidhi Razdan, former anchor at NDTV and until recently a supposed ‘Associate Professor’ of Journalism at Harvard University has now revealed on Twitter that she has been grandly scammed and phished, and that the University of Harvard never really approached her with the said prestigious job offer. This, despite the fact that Nidhi Razdan has been projected for the past few months as a faculty of Harvard, on no less than NDTV too. Her Twitter bio too, until recently, stated that she taught journalism at the Ivy league institute.
In a two-page statement, Razdan revealed the embarrassing ordeal she has been made to go through for the past six months. Intriguingly, why Harvard University did not intervene in such a scam all this while is not yet clear, despite the alleged appointment of Nidhi as a faculty member of theirs receiving much social media traction. The journalist captioned her statement with a disclaimer that she would not be speaking any further of the embarrassing turn of events. “I have been the victim of a very serious phishing attack. I’m putting this statement out to set the record straight about what I’ve been through,” Nidhi said.
The statement by the ex-NDTV journalist stated, “I had been given to believe that I would be joining the University in September 2020. While I was making preparations to take up my new assignment, I was later told that due to the ongoing pandemic, my classes would commence in January 2021. Along with these delays, I began noticing a number of administrative anomalies in the process being described to me.” It must be remembered that Nidhi had parted ways with NDTV owing to the same scam, where she was made to believe that Harvard University had chosen her to be a part of its journalism faculty.
I have been the victim of a very serious phishing attack. I’m putting this statement out to set the record straight about what I’ve been through. I will not be addressing this issue any further on social media. pic.twitter.com/bttnnlLjuh
— Nidhi Razdan (@Nidhi) January 15, 2021
“At first, I had dismissed these anomalies as being reflective of the new normal being dictated by the pandemic, but recently the representations being made to me were of an even more disquieting nature. As a result, I reached out to senior authorities at Harvard University for clarity. Upon their request, I shared some of the correspondence that I believed I had received from the University,” the statement added.
Upon being contacted by Razdan, Harvard University declined having anything to do with the offer made to her on their behalf. “I did not, in fact, receive an offer by Harvard University to join their faculty as an Associate Professor of Journalism. The perpetrators of this attack used clever forgeries and misrepresentations to obtain access to my personal data and communications and may have also gained access to my devices and my email/social media accounts,” the phishing-victim said in her statement.
The journalist, meanwhile, has filed a police complaint and has urged the law enforcing agencies to take the strictest possible action against the scamsters who duped her for six long months. “I hope that the police are able to get to the bottom of this attack on me at the earliest and help me bring this unsavoury incident to a swift end,” she said.
All this while, Nidhi Razdan religiously believed that she was a faculty member at Harvard University. Her Twitter bio and graphics of TV appearances stated the same. It is indeed an embarrassing situation for the journalist who left NDTV after over 20 years, only to be scammed by phishers on the net. While police must make it a point to get to the bottom of the entire fiasco, internet users must be well aware of what they are getting involved in while making such life-changing decisions.
I don’t know why she’s so surprised / shocked.
Any university who offers to hire anyone from NDTV, that too as professor of journalism…..just cannot be the real deal. She should have smelt a rat the second the scamster offered to hire her! What in the world does NDTV have to do with journalism?
Groucho Marx: “I refuse to be a member of any club that would have me as its member!”
It must have been the inflated the egos of our journalists that made them believe that Harvard would OFFER them a post!
So much for being a journalist and so much for teaching Journalism at Harvard when you yourself can be scammed. If you cannot smell the fishy deal you don’t deserve to call yourself a Journalist.
“Intriguingly, why Harvard University did not intervene in such a scam all this while is not yet clear, despite the alleged appointment of Nidhi as a faculty member of theirs receiving much social media traction” Why do we believe that places like Harvard etc. would be BOTHERED about every Tom Dick and Harry? There would be thousands of crooks out to exploit such institutions’ names. These institutes have better work to do! It also talks of our media-persons’ over-inflated egos, which we the gullible, ordinary people have helped them nurse!
It is evident that the CIA just bailed on her. If Harvard was truly not aware, they would have intervened in this scam ages ago to save the reputation of their university. This is a typical intel MO; cultivate assets in other countries, hold on to them to serve their agenda and then take a decision based on how valuable the asset is.
Joshua Project and Langley can buy several such journalists in India. She served her purpose and the asset is no longer active. Simple as that.
Yup. Election khatam, kaam khatam.
Lol… that’s a new one.. so far i use to blame traffic , now i have a new excuse up my sleeves “phishing attack” ..