Abu Dhabi Police have warned job seekers against a new wave of fake employment offers online promising placements after asking applicants for “recruitment fees”.
Officials said fraudsters are exploiting occasions of official events to create convincing but fake company websites and social media profiles, posing as legitimate recruitment firms. They solicit money from job applicants under the guise of fees for employment opportunities, only for the applicants to later find out they have been duped.
Abu Dhabi Police have carried out several awareness campaigns for individuals, companies and job seekers to alert them about the malicious methods used by criminals and swindlers to lure the unemployed. The police warned against dealing with anonymous websites on social media, especially websites that ask them to provide their personal information such as ID numbers, bank card information or passwords.
In this type of scam, fraudsters impersonate an employer’s recruiting, interviewing and HR team, create bogus job offers, and target job seekers by using fake websites or fake email addresses. They then post the fraudulent employment opportunities with the company they’re impersonating in order to obtain sensitive personal and financial information from the unsuspecting job applicant.
Some fraudsters go so far as to impersonate a company’s former employees, communicate with and hold interviews with applicants, and even extend job offers on behalf of the company. Employers have even reported individuals showing up for their onboarding meetings when a job requisition has never been opened. Occasionally the scammers request payments as part of their fake recruitment process.
Khaled Al Hammadi, an expert in recruitment and employment, told Gulf News said: “Throughout the years that I have worked in recruitment departments, and through the experiences that I have gained, I warn young men and women against falling into the trap of recruitment agents because most of them practice illegal methods to entice job seekers.”
He added: “With the development in social media technology, swindling has become very easy to do over the mobile the phone device, using an application that can be downloaded. The swindler today no longer needs more than a mobile phone and a device or two to practice his criminal activity.”
He continued: “Recruitment fraud is on the increase. Scammers target job seekers by listing jobs that don’t exist, in the hopes of getting either money or personal data for use in identify theft. Recruitment fraud tends to occur through online services including fake social media accounts, and unsolicited emails claiming to be from well-known organisations. Often company employee names and logos are used to try to convey legitimacy.”
