Nidhi Razdan says her Harvard University job offer was a ‘phishing attack’

Popular TV journalist Nidhi Razdan Friday claimed that she had been a victim of a “very serious phishing attack” in which she was offered a job as an “Associate Professor of Journalism” at the prestigious Harvard University in the United States.

In a statement on Twitter, Razdan said that she was made to believe that she would be joining the University in September 2020 but citing the Covid pandemic was told that her classes were to begin from January.

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

“In June 2020 and after 21 years with NDTV, I decided to move on and said that I would be joining Harvard University as an Associate Professor of Journalism,” said Razdan in a statement released on Twitter. “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 in January 2021. Along with these delays, I began noticing a number of administrative anomalies in the process being described to me.”

The journalist further said that she dismissed the “anomalies” thinking them as part of the “new normal 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,” she added.

Wow — this is awful.

For the record, @Harvard has no school of journalism, no department of journalism, and no professors of journalism.

(It does have @niemanfdn! But we have no faculty and no classes. And it does have @ShorensteinCtr, but no journalism-specific faculty.) https://t.co/AiMYkcrB6Q

— Joshua Benton (@jbenton) January 15, 2021

It was after contacting the authorities at the University, Razdan said, she realised she was a victim of a phishing attack.

“After hearing from the University, I have now learnt that I have been the victim of a sophisticated and coordinated phishing attack. 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,” she said in her statement.

Razdan also said she has filed a complaint with the police and has handed over relevant documents. “I have requested them (Police) to take immediate steps to identify, apprehend and prosecute the perpetrators of this abominable attack,” she added.

On June 13, Razdan had announced that she would be quitting NDTV to take up a position at the Harvard University.