How Should We Handle a Candidate Who Threatens Our Company After Failing to Join?

Issue with Candidate Commitment and Potential Threat

We are a website designing company. Recently, we offered a job to a candidate for the position of Senior SEO Expert (Search Engine Optimizer). After a mutual decision, we provided him with a joining date. However, on the day of joining, he informed us that he wouldn't be able to join because his mother was unwell and requested us to change the joining date. We considered his request and gave him a new joining date, but he did not show up on that day either.

When our HR Department tried to contact him, he initially said he would be late by half an hour due to the same reason. Later, he mentioned that he would be joining at 1:30 on the same day, but he failed to show up. After a few days, he called us again, apologizing for his behavior and expressing his desire to join our company. However, we informed him that we cannot hire a candidate who does not keep his commitments. In response, he threatened to do something to our company's website that we would never be able to overcome.

I am now seeking advice from our senior management. Can we blacklist a candidate's CV? If yes, how can we do that?

If you are a NASSCOM member, you can ask them to blacklist him. In any case, you should file a police complaint against him for threatening you on the above matter.

Thank you for your valuable advice. I am not a NASSCOM member, and we have recorded the conversation in which he is threatening us. If anything happens to our website, we will definitely take legal action against him. However, I want to blacklist this candidate who can threaten the HR of a company for not appointing him. If you can help me with any other options, I would appreciate it.

Understanding Blacklisting in the Industry

What exactly do you mean by blacklisting? There is no national database, etc. How will you blacklist? NASSCOM has a database for its members, and the members refer to it to know about employees who have worked with other software companies. It is also a means to prevent the falsification of experience in large software companies.

Filing a Police Complaint for Cyber Threats

For the police complaint, you need not wait until your website is hacked. You can file a complaint with the cyber crimes division based on the threat. They will take action. Incidentally, it will appear in his police records.

Like Saswata Banerjee mentioned, you can file a criminal complaint with the evidence you already have. However, I suggest you go one step further and do it right away, rather than waiting for him to try something inappropriate and then responding. Since an SEO can literally manipulate websites (having handled them earlier, I know how easy it is for them—except that they misuse their technical knowledge), it's wise to preempt the situation rather than wait for it to happen and then act (and face embarrassing situations with your clients in the intervening period).

Going by what you mentioned, it looks like he was trying to use your offer to leverage with other companies and failed—that's when he tried to return to you. Your focus should be not on teaching this guy a lesson but to safeguard your company's interests—since such individuals will face consequences regardless of your actions. Why bother about him, now that you don't want to hire him?

All the best.

Rgds, TS

No need to worry. Even being an SEO, he cannot harm your site unless he has the credentials of your website. To harm your site, he would need to be a hacker.

However, if he threatens you again, tell him that you have already filed a complaint against him with the cybercrime team.

You don't need to worry. He can't do anything to your site. He is just an SEO. But as you said that you guys are a web-design organization, you must have people who understand security. Just inform them about this incident and ask them to monitor any suspicious activities for the next few months.

To answer your other question, you have all the rights to blacklist the candidate for any future employment in your organization. You just need to find a mechanism in which you will uniquely identify him in the coming years (PAN number check or other credentials).

Make sure that you are following basic practices such as sending him an email explaining why you are taking back his offer. Do mention all the incidents along with the date and time.

As TS rightly said, don't bother about going ahead and blacklisting him with other organizations. Such a system is not in place but is expected in a few years.

And do feel good that such a candidate is not joining your firm as he could have been a big trouble in the future. 

All the best,

Regards,
Abhishek