Campus Recruitment – How to know whether a company is genuine

Campus Recruitment – How to know whether a company is genuine

How to know whether a company is genuine

It has become extremely common these days to come across companies that are fake or do not do what they are believed to be doing. A candidate searching for a job should beware not to walk into the trap of such fake employers. The following are some of the tips which will help you know the basic information about a company its website etc.

• Some companies may ask you for initial down payments through Demand drafts. There may be a disclaimer stating that the money cannot be refunded.
• Remember, no genuine company takes money from the candidates. Beware of this trap. This is outright unethical.
• There may be emails sent out to a job seeker’s email ID from some fake ID that may appear like a genuine ID of well-known companies.
• Hackers may resort to phishing and try to get your bank account details. This is another trap.
  You can view the company data by visiting the website of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
• If the company claims to be registered, check with the government website of that country if they are registered.
• And enter the company’s full name here and search, if it is found, it means that the company has been registered, but further investigation is required.
• If any Company claims to be registered with MCA/Registrar of Companies (RoC), you may ask them for the CIN (Company Incorporation Number) which is allotted by RoC (each registered Company has a unique CIN allotted).
• If you cannot find the Company Name either using the name or CIN provided, you can be sure that it’s not registered with Registrar of Companies/ Government of India.
• Domain names are easily available. Hence, domain names and email Ids are not reliable means to ascertain whether a company is genuine or not.
• The company’s address is the only legitimate means of finding out whether the company is exists or not.
• Look for terms and conditions. Legitimate companies will almost always have ‘terms of use’ or ‘terms and conditions’.
• If they do have terms, read through them carefully for things that sound suspicious.Search for the company through trusted web search engines like google.
• If the search does not show any results, it is a cause of concern.
• Check for the registration data of the company. Also research on the person who has registered the company.
• You can check for the date on which the website was created and when it would expire. Any indication of the website expiring in the near future is a cause of concern.
• A company’s website is hosted (put on an internet somewhere on some servers), so we can find information about the website and that can tell us a lot about a company.
• There a number of websites which keep records and make a lot of information accessible;
  E.g. domaintools.com, whois.net, netivorksolutions.com etc.
  By searching for information about the website we can find following information:
• Company’s name, Address, How old the website is, Registered domain name, Host server, Website status, Creation date of the website etc.
• Do browse the company website for the company’s credit score, their performance, the director structure, their financial performance etc.
• Check for discrepancies in the website. Sometimes a website may be self-contradictory i.e. stating something at one place and contradicting the same at another place. This shows that information has not been coordinated and is an indicator of being thoroughly unprofessional.
• You can file an RTI (Right to Information) against an organization and the RTI query has to be answered by law.
• If the company is mid-sized to a large one, the website must be registered with the company name and company address. If it is registered in a person’s name then it invokes some suspicion. (This is however, not always true).
  Example: If Company XYZ Pvt Ltd. is owned by Mr. Hari then the Organization name would be known as “XYZ Pvt Ltd”
• If the email ID of the contact personnel is a personal mail ID and not a company ID then it is a cause of concern.
  Example: If Company XYZ Pvt Ltd has their website as xyz.com then their email id should be something like admin@xyz.com or contact_us@xyz.com.
• Look up for date on which the website was created. Read the company’s financial information.
• If the company’s website is young say, just a year old, but the company boasts of heavy profits or investments, be sure that the information is fake.
• The status of only LLP (Limited Liability Partnership), Private Limited Company and Public Limited Company Status can be obtained using MCA Website.
• Status of entities registered as Sole Proprietorship (having Shop Act Registration) or Partnership Firm cannot be obtained through MCA Website.