The Gulf Career Dream
The lure of high paying jobs both in the skilled and semi-skilled sectors in the Persian Gulf has lured many in the past and continue to do so at present. In spite of modern-day information access that was not available during the previous decade, prospective job hopefuls continue to fall prey to conmen who are getting more and more sophisticated in their scam plans.
Fraudulent job offers are rampant in the Gulf with skilled conmen using the names of entities both real and fictitious to lure jobseekers.
Etihad, Emirates, Adnoc, ADEC, Icare Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, Awazen Hospital, Thumbay and New York University are among several Gulf-based bona-fide establishments in whose names fake offer letters have been sent worldwide.
According to labour laws in most Persian Gulf countries, it is illegal for recruitment agents and companies to charge job candidates and employees any fees for any part of the recruitment process or residence visa and work permit application.
The usual modus operandi is a well laid out website which lists integrity and honesty among its core values, doesn’t exist anywhere in the world other than the internet. It’s website is a merely a cut-copy paste job created to dupe unsuspecting job seekers.
They usually shoot of scores of fake appointment letters to job aspirants worldwide, offering them huge salaries and perks including monthly entertainment and recreation allowances. Other perks typically include free housing in a three-bedroom apartment and a long list of other monthly benefits like car maintenance, and travel.
To clinch these dream jobs, the candidates have to remit funds to a purported travel firm’s bank account so that their visa and employment papers could be processed and they could start work. The offer letters which bear forged stamps of the ministry of interior, assure candidates that all expenses made towards visa and work permit costs will be reimbursed once they land in the Gulf.
People who have received bogus offer letters deduct that the scamsters picked their email from job hunting websites where they had uploaded their CV.
