I was following a job lead in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Finally they offered me a huge package. After receiving the offer letter, I informed my family. Someone in my family start putting doubts in my head and I thoroughly searched on the internet and on one blog I found that there is some kind of a job scam going on.
Here are some points which makes it more suspicious:
- Someone is communicating with me on the behalf of that company, but using a gmail account.
- I am asked to pay for the Work Permit to work in the UAE "as per company Policy" (As I was looking into UAE jobs, UAE rules state that all work-permit expenses should be handled by the employer).
- The contact phone numbers given by that HR person is the same as listed on the multinational company's website (Oil and Gas).
- When I googled it, I found two companies with the same initial name. In the contract, the email of one company is being used and the logo of another company. I searched google to see if they are a group of companies and found that one is an Oil and gas company and the other one is Construction company.
Note: From both companies' websites, I have found their official emails.
Also note that I applied for the job from a job website after googling the company and from there I got the response from the gmail account on behalf of actual company.
After exchanging a couple of emails, I got a form to fill, and after a couple of days, I got this job offer.
Q1. How should I contact them whether this job offer is legitimate or not?
Q2. Should I forward them the email with the contract I received for confirmation?
Q3. How can I keep myself safe from possible job scams?
Suggestions:
1. If a recruiter asks for money for any purpose, just say THANK YOU and walk away. This is the biggest red flag! Recruitment agencies make money by placing people in companies. And companies pay them healthy commission for the placements they do.
2. If the recruiter mentions that the opening is URGENT, beware!
3. Few online job sites make a convincing pitch by adding FAKE job openings, fake testimonials, photos of people who have been recruited. Easiest thing is to do a GOOGLE search on the recruitment agency themselves by adding words like "scam", "fraud". This may bring up some vital information on the recruitment agency and other scams. And if more than one person talks negatively about a particular agency in an online forum, then it most probably is true. Doing Google Image Search on the photos will tell you that the photos are taken from other websites!!
4. Before committing to any company do a thorough due diligence on the company. Search in Google for company information, Managers and so on.
5. Check about the company in LinkedIn.com which has a database of most companies around the world. In this age of connected lives, it will be a shame if you fall prey to the online scams.
6. It will also be good to lodge a complain with the Police Department on any organisation, person, site that is conducting scam. I believe the authorities will take right action.
7. Go through local online forums. Here are LINKS: Fraudwatchers, Dubai Forum, Desert Speak, Complaints Board. Go through these links and educate yourself. Do not fall prey to any scam.
8. USE Common sense!
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