Nidhi Razdan was with NDTV 24X7 for around 21 years. In 2020 she left the channel. Google entries showed her associate professor of journalism at Harvard.
On 15/1/2021 came reports of Nidhi Razdan claiming she was victim of a phishing attack. As per job offer, she was supposed to join Harvard in September 2020 but due to Corona pandemic her classes were to begin from January 2021. Along with the delays she noticed a number of administrative anomalies which she dismissed as the new normal dictated by the pandemic.
Later the representations made to her were of more disquieting nature. For clarity she reached out to senior authorities of Harvard University and shared some of her correspondence. From Joshua Benton, director of Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard, she came to know Harvard has no school/department/professors of journalism. Her offer letter was fake. Criminals had used clever forgeries and misrepresentations to obtain access to her personal data and email/social media accounts.
Common attempts of phishing are mostly by email, sometimes by SMS. Messages are generally of two types. In the first a person receives a message that he has won a lottery. To transfer the amount, he has to give details of address, phone number, bank account and so on. In the second a widow is dying and she wants to bequeath her property to the recipient and asks for details. Gullible people who believe such messages and respond are asked to send some amount towards processing fees. If the amount is sent there follows another demand for another amount. It continues till the person realises he has been conned.
In Nidhi Razdan’s case phishing attack is of a different kind. She has not said whether she lost money due to this attack. If money is not lost, motive could be different. It could be revenge for something personal or professional.
Some question why Nidhi Razdan did not do due diligence and find out about Harvard. There are questions whether she went to USA, if so whether on visitor visa or work visa.
Nidhi Razdan said she has filed a complaint with the police. There the matter rests.