She is the victim of a crime. Full stop.
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It’s spear phishing. Phishing aimed at and tailored for one specific person. Even if we don’t know what they wanted they had a goal other than just appearing to be someone they’re not, like a catfisher does.
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Not ‘even for’. Maybe ‘especially for’.
This scam would never have worked on anyone who wasn’t already so full of themselves that they would consider a job offer out of the blue from Harvard of all places as a done deal without even checking. She may be a respected journalist in India, but that’s nothing like the superstar she clearly is in her own estimation.
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Oh come on. Nobody anywhere gets hired to a prestigious job in another industry in another country with one email, and then they do no research, not even a phone call to say, “You fuckin wit me?”
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That’s true, I’d know it was fake if I got a job interview from any university.
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Apparently, according to her own account, she had been to the Kennedy School before this happened, and spoke with someone there, unofficially, about a potential teaching spot. Which is the sort of thing they would do–they have journalists, politicians, etc., in all the time for fellowships. Possibly her attacker knew that she had been there, and was interested. Also, the offered position was at the school of continuing education–Harvard’s night school, basically, where teaching gigs are a little more loosely assigned. And, of course, since last March, physical access to Harvard’s campus has been very limited. In those circumstances, a little bit of ‘too good to be true’ could go a long way.
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Why exactly is that? Is india subpar for some reason? Are Indians less worthy of the “esteemed” Harvard for some reason?
OH! You’re saying that she isn’t just full of herself…
Entirely possible… but of course, many here have rushed to the conclusion that she must be an idiot to fall for this scam.
Right?
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I wouldn’t say that. I mean, we haven’t seen the actual emails, but it seems that someone went to a non-trivial amount of effort to make it seem credible, because for whatever reason she seemed to be a high-value target and, perhaps, they had other information about her they could leverage. That’s how these kinds of attacks work (see also: John Podesta).
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You wouldn’t… others here very much have in this thread, though. 
Seems like that to me, too.
I don’t know how well known she is in India, but the OP indicates she has some stature in India, perhaps more than enough to trick her into giving up some information about herself that would normally be found in a job application packet type thingie.
But it really should not be a shock that a high profile person, even in a non-western country, would be a target of such an attack, nor that it would be sophisticated enough to fool even an education person.
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Everyone wants to believe they’re Too Smart for that Shit, but we all have our blind spots and moments of weakness. I mean, if I got a convincing email from Toscanini’s saying I was going to get free ice cream for life, I’d be at their door before I thought to check the headers.
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Do you have anything to support that? Her statement says:
And which number do you call if you’re not a complete paranoiac?
The one the people who contacted you gave you.
For all those decrying the steps they say this woman didn’t take, here’s her blog going into a bit more detail. At least, it appears to be her blog. After all I haven’t rung her, got her to show me her passport and obtained three sworn depositions from local luminaries that it is actually her…
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You could start by calling Harvard. But I’ve only been a journalist for 38 years, what do I know?
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Well, yes you could. But why would you when you get a contact from somewhere plausible offering you something you could plausibly expect to be offered?
It’s not like they emailed her saying “Hi, we’re Harvard. We have BIG JOB for YOU. Just send us your account details, PIN numbers, mother’s maiden name, the names of your first pet and your favourite city.”
There was a whole lengthy process with fake interviews, fake offer letters, etc.
Yes, of course she could have discovered the deception earlier but that is the point with these kind of things. You always could have discovered the truth easily but you didn’t.
I have to say the Nigerian Oil Minister scam will seem a lot more plausible in future given the emails Trump has been sending his supporters.
Dearly beloved friend, I am the unjustly deposed President of the United States. I have several MILLIONS of BEARER BONDS in customs ESCROW in NEW JERSEY airport. I require funds from a third party to release the BONDS which will be used to fund the glorious FIGHTBACK against the STEAL. SEND $500 and a scan of both sides of your state driver’s license to PO Box XxxxxX…
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Wow, thank you for this. So much clearer with these details. This was a very elaborate scam and all of us would have fallen for it, I’m sure.
Others have already pointed this out many times above, but being scammed does not make a person stupid, ignorant, foolish, or careless. Anyone can be scammed. If you think you can’t because you’re so thorough and clever, it just means nobody has tried very hard to scam you.
I amended my post near the top of this thread. I too started from a place that was a little victim-blamey, because this case seemed so implausible without the details. We should all be more charitable about a situation we know nothing about.
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Well, assuming her blog post is in turn not part of some scam…
/s but then who knows…
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Hear hear. I haven’t even read the blog yet but even so I regret my previous posts when I think about them.
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It’s not a job offer until you hear you’ll be working with a–holes…and luck should have it if they aren’t, but have to turn down massive time sinks or have other disappointments.
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I wonder how many other attendees of that event received similar emails?
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