Anyone who has looked for a job online is likely to have encountered remote recruiters from India. They are ubiquitous in the recruiting field. However, due to the overwhelming negative experience that people have with foreign outsourced recruiters from India, questions and hesitancy remain when dealing with them.
So, what I want to do here is explain why so many recruiters seem to be from India. Also, why is it that it seems that so many of the jobs they contact people about are fake. And finally, what should be your gameplan if you are contacted by an Indian recruiter.
For anyone who works in the Tech field, I’m sure this will come as information that they already know. Indian recruiters have completely transformed the landscape of Tech recruiting. So much so that there are entire companies of Indian recruiters here in the USA that deal exclusively with tech jobs.
However, Indian recruiters might also contact someone who is a financial analyst, or an executive assistant. This is a bit different than traditional Indian recruiter roles, and so it helps to familiarize yourself with the process if you’ve never dealt with an outsourced recruiting from India before.
Why Are So Many Recruiters From India?
So, one of the first questions people have after they are contacted by a foreign recruiter from India is why there are so many in the first place.
It doesn’t make sense to most people why someone from India would be calling you to discuss a job.
Most peoples first inclination is to think it’s a scam. Getting a call from an Indian recruiter rings alarm bells.
What most people associate with Indian telemarketers are scams and identity theft. And that’s a serious and pervasive problem.
In the next section we’ll discuss the problem of Indian recruiters and identity theft and other issues, but let’s discuss why there are so many recruiters from Indian—both legitimate and fake.
The main reason why there are so many recruiters from India is that it’s cheap for companies to hire them.
The same reason why you see Indian tech support personal and customer support. The company can pay almost nothing for Indian labor.
So, let’s assume you are dealing with a legitimate recruiter and not one that is posting fake jobs and looking to steal resume info, contacts, or worse.
One reason that companies use Indian recruiters and outsourced recruiters is that they do not have to pay them a salary that is even close to minimum wage.
Many recruiting agencies in the United States look to cut corners and outsource their work. The CEOs and other businessman who run these recruiting agencies are looking at the bottom line.
They outsource their payroll department overseas where they can pay full time employees a few dollars an hour. Of course, temp agencies that outsource their payroll overseas are problematic since social security numbers often times get sold to criminals.
This is why I suggest only working with verifiable agencies and vetting anyone you work with on LinkedIn. Not only should you check out their Linkedin profile, but try and get them on the phone to make sure they are legitimate. If you notice any discrpencey, then be aware that you might be dealing with a fake LinkedIn profile. Message the recrutier on LinkedIn and see if they are able to write like a normal recrutier, or if they respond back like an outsoucred recruiter.
I’ve seen it time and time again in the staffing world. The executives of an agency (who do not do recruiting) are investors in the recruiting agency business. They look to outsource all labor on their end to maximize profit.
They would rather hire 10 foreign Indian recruiters for the cost of one entry level minimum wage local USA recruiter.
These same agencies tend to act questionable with regards to their temp employees, so they get a bad rep in the industry. However, people who have never worked with temp agencies and are otherwise desperate end up working with companies where the executives look to pay as little as possible to staff and temp workers.
So, the bottom line is that Indian recruiters work for well below minimum wage.
Staffing firms who use outsourced foreign Indian recruiters are looking to pay as little as possible to their own employees. What do you think that says about the rate they will pay their temp employees who find work through them?
If you see that a recruiting agency or temp agency is using outsourced recruiters, be they from India or anywhere else, proceed with caution. It says volumes about a recruiting agency that they are unwilling or unable to pay even minimum wage for their own employees.
Are Indian Recruiters Trustworthy?
Some are, some aren’t. You can’t throw a blanket statement over all Indian recruiters. And to be clear, the better question is if outsourced recruiters are trustworthy.
That’s a good question. People will want to ask themselves why someone from India, Indonesia, the Philippines, etc… would be calling or emailing them about a job.
There are only two options: they are outsourced recruiters who work for real companies who are cost cutting. Or they are working some sort of scam.
In the IT world, it’s very common to run into scams. Outsourced recruiters seek to find fresh resumes and then use those resumes and change the name. This is often called resume harvesting.
Essentially what is happening here is that the Indian recruiter is taking a resume, changing the name to someone they are associated with and submitting the resume in hopes of the person landing a visa contact job.
There is endless discussion about Indian recruiters and the associated scams they pull if you read Quora, Reddit, or any other form.
The odds that you will find a real job, let along land a real interview, when dealing with an Indian recruiter or outsourced recruiter is virtually none.
Any Indian recruiter who asks for sensitive information such as photo ID or social security numbers or passports should be immediately blocked.
At best you are dealing with an outsourced recruiter working in a boiler room in India (where they have their recruiters work overnight to handle the USA market). These recruiters have no real understanding of the jobs, companies, or even the geography of the United States.
For instance, someone in Texas is called by an Indian recruiter working on a job that is for California. They do not understand the geographic distance. And the company will not pay for relocation. The boiler room outsourced recruiters are not looking to actually fill jobs, they are just filling their daily quota of making contact to fulfill their contract with their employer.
At worst, you’ll be dealing with a recruiter who is actually trying to steal your information.
Why Do Indian Recruiters Post Fake Jobs?
There are many reasons why Indian recruiters post fake jobs. Honestly, the main reason is to execute a scam.
The main scam is to simply scrape the resume of information, remove the location and name, and replace it with an Indian employee who is seeking work and to use that resume. The goal is for the person to sneak into a company with a resume and credentials that are not theirs.
The ease of this scam is quite scary. Many tech companies do not have trained and knowledgeable talent acquisition staff. The person in HR who is hiring for the position has no real way to vet the person’s skill set.
So what happens is that your resume is taken, your name and address is removed, a few fake companies and references are added to the resume, and then that resume is shopped around to different job markets.
Another reason why Indian recruiters post fake jobs is to populate a database for sale. Data is worth money, and by collecting resumes and contact information, the recruiters can both build a database and then sell that data to data mining firms.
Have you ever wondered why you’re getting so many spam emails and calls after answering a job posting? Well, the odds are that the company that received your resume has sold it for a profit.
So, as you can see, there are a few reasons that Indian recruiters post fake jobs. Namely, they are to:
- Harvest resumes
- Steal personal information
- Create a Database of Contact Info to Sell
Beware The Scam: Indian Recruitment Scams
The main problem you have to be aware of when dealing with foreign Indian recruiters is a scam.
The time you waste on a job that doesn’t exist is nothing compared to the time you will spend if you end up in an identity theft situation.
Many foreign Indian recruiters are scraping resumes from online to create fresh databases for their companies to use. They either use these resumes for Indian employees who want to fake skills and job experiences.
However, the most dangerous scams involve identity theft and regular theft. This occurs most often with Indian recruiters who are not working for real staffing firms but who are working for organized crime rings that steal information to sell for profit or who run confidence scams and ask for payments for jobs.
If you are ever asked for the following items from an Indian recruiter:
- Social Security Car
- Drivers License
- Bank Account Information
- Credit Card Info
Then you are in the midst of a scam and you should cease all communication with the “recruiter”.
Is There Ever a Job? Proceed with Caution
One of the main problems when dealing with Indian recruiters is that you can never tell if there is actually a job.
So many Indian recruiters are operating with either fake jobs that the industry is simply best avoided.
In the IT world, the bigger problem is that Indian recruiters advertise extremely low rates. Read any online IT form and you will see experienced IT professionals being emailed by dozens.
Indian recruitment is the main driving force in IT work in the United States. One of the issues that comes with that is IT recruiters are often outsourced, or else local H1B1 recruitment shops.
An experienced software engineer in Florida might receive emails for a 3 month contract in Seattle paying 25 an hour. That software engineer would likely be aghast at the salary not to mention the prospect having to travel across the country for 3 months and not having the employer pay for relocation costs.
Even if you are being contacted by a reputable recruiting firm or temp agency, if the recruiter who is speaking with you is an outsourced recruiter, proceed with caution.
The best way to vet a recruiting agency and a recruiter is to check up and view their LinkedIn profile.
You should never work with a recruiter if they don’t have a Linkedin Profile. Also, if you notice that they are an outsourced overseas recruiter, then ask yourself why the agency would be using outsourced recruiters.
Executive search firms and good temporary staffing firms do not cut costs by outsourcing their employees to overseas boiler rooms.
If you find that the recruiting agency that you’ve connected with is using outsourced foreign employees to recruiter or handle their recruiting tasks, then move on t
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