Former NDTV Journalist Nidhi Razdan Says 'Was Victim Of Phishing Attack, Harvard University Offer A Fraud'

New Delhi: Former NDTV journalist Nidhi Razdan said that she had been a victim of a “very serious phishing attack” and had learnt that what she believed was an offer to teach at Harvard University was fake. The journalist had quit NDTV last year after a 21-year stint to take up the offer.

In a post on Twitter, the Journalist said she had been given to believe that she would be joining Harvard in September but while she was preparing for her new job, she was told because of the pandemic, classes would begin in January.

In her post on Twitter Razdan said, “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.”

She further said, “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.”

“Being reflective of the new normal being dictated by the pandemic, but recently the representations being made to me were of an even more disquieting nature,” said Razdan. Further the journalist said that she had dismissed the irregularities but the recent representations being made to her were even more disquieting nature.

Following this, the journalist said she contacted the 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. 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,” the statement said.

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

Razdan said she has filed a police complaint. She also wrote to the Harvard University authorities and urged them to take serious note of the matter, the journalist’s statement added.

Nidhi Razdan was the host of the NDTV programme Left, Right and Centre.

The journalist also won the International Press Institute India award for excellence in journalism for her reporting of the Kathua rape and murder case in Jammu and Kashmir.

(With Agency Inputs)