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:

  1. Someone is communicating with me on the behalf of that company, but using a GMail account.
  2. 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).
  3. The contact phone numbers given by that HR person is the same as listed on the multinational company's website (Oil and Gas).
  4. 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?

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    Huge job offer without an interview? HR not using company email? Seems very suspect to me. – cdkMoose Jul 2 '14 at 19:41
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    Use of Gmail here is sufficient enough to raise a suspicion. No need of other points! Just reply to the gmail email and request them to send offer letter via official email IDs. Also request a direct phone number (land line) where you can call for more queries. – PagMax Apr 29 '17 at 8:21

Yes, definitely contact them by way of their officially published email address.

Use an email header that is to the point and attracts attention, like "I received this job offer. Is it really from you or is someone misrepresenting you?"

You can respectfully ask them for verification because there are some facts that you consider suspect, and someone attended you to other scams in their name. Name these facts. Write something positive like you would very much like to work for them, but that you are afraid the offer you got is a scam.

They will want to know if someone is misrepresenting them. And yes, include the 'contract'.

  • 1
    How is this the most upvoted? The company phone number is apparently the same as the one of the person calling. They mixed company logos. What makes you think the website is legitimate in the first place? This advice is essentially to contact the scammer and ask if they are scamming. – Mär Oct 27 '19 at 12:31
  • @Mär, the OP never said that they were called by the employer, just that the numbers shown (likely in an email signature) matched what was online. This is a very common tactic used by scammers. – goat_fab Oct 28 '19 at 21:31
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    @goat_fab, Mar is right. It's a scam web site as well. Just read the other answer posted below several years ago. Vicky answered her own question, but forgot to remove the checkmark from the other initial (incorrect) answer. – Stephan Branczyk Oct 29 '19 at 18:23
  • @StephanBranczyk Ah! I had just been browsing the most recent active questions and didn't realize this one was from several years back. Apologies! – goat_fab Oct 29 '19 at 19:23

It was a scam which is being played at a very large scale. I am going to share the details with you to save others from it too.

Actually there is a scammer which pretends to be an oil and gas company.

They often change their oil and gas company name and post jobs on portals like indeed.com or other platforms.

From there they proceed through the process.

My Scenario:

I googled and found that there is a scam.

I had a contact working in an oil and gas company in the UAE, he confirmed it that it's a scam. I got the same contract details as follows:


But now their current website address is jumeirahnocuae.com and their contact information is based on that.

When I filled the questionnaire, as mentioned earlier, they sent me the following message. The attached contract has the same wording as I already mentioned.

Dear XYZ,

JUMEIRAH NATIONAL OIL CORPORATION - UAE, congratulates you over your success!!!

This is an affirmation that your experience and qualifications were found successful for the requirements of JUMEIRAH NATIONAL OIL CORPORATION - UAE. Please find attached herewith, the relevant document containing the Prototype of your Contract Package for your perusal and approval. Upon thorough review and acceptance of this Contract Package, please sign on the last page and send us the Scanned Copy of the Acceptance page.

Meanwhile, you have to contact AERO SPACE TOURISM LLC for the acquisition of your Work / Residence Permit Papers which will empower you to legally live and work here in U.A.E. Also send the signed Copy of the Acceptance page to the Travel Agency, through their contact details below:

AHMED HASSAN CHIEF IMMIGRATION OFFICER AERO SPACE TOURISM LLC Al Attar Shopping Mall P.O Box 124118 | 302, Karama, Dubai - UAE. Email: info@aerospacestourism.com Website: www.aerospacestourism.com Tel: +971559206330

This is in line with the Expatriate Statuary Law of UAE in compliance with the U.N. Terrorism Act. However, you must update us on your communication with the Travel Agency in case of advice where necessary, and ensure you provide them with their requirements asap, for the fastest processing of your papers from their office.

Please feel free to contact us for more clarification, should you require more information.

Project Management Office: Contact: Abdul Molnar, Jumeirah National Oil Corporation, Sajja Industrial Area, Dhaid road, P.O Box: 2011. Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. Tel: +971562681143. www.jumeirahnocae.com

Further I searched on google, the logo they used on the contract was from this giant construction company located in UAE. which is http://www.jumeirah.com

And I found the real company has mentioned on their website that their name is being misused.

Ref. Link: http://www.jumeirah.com/en/jumeirah-group/jobs-with-jumeirah/recruitment-fraud/

The same scam is being played with different names. Ref Link: http://www.consumercomplaints.in/complaints/alain-national-oil-corporation-c328495/page/2

On yahoo answers, same this is mentioned: Does a Company called ZUMATA OIL AND GAS COMPANY exist in United Arab Emirates, Dubai? ref. Link: https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20140614130702AAd4BS0

and also searched some domain hosting companies to go deeper, many such company domain names are being deleted and created new. But the pattern is the same.

So spread the word. It seems like a global scam. Thank God I am safe and I want others too to be saved from such scams.

  • 11
    For future reference, if an offer seems too good to be true, it probably is. Glad you found out before it was too late, but you may want to be more careful in the future about believing job offers received via e-mail that come out of the blue. – jmac Jul 4 '14 at 2:43
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    "congratulates you over your success!!!" this part makes it way too obvious. – Jonast92 Aug 22 '14 at 10:40
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    So what's the scammers goal? Is the goal that you pay this "AERO SPACE TOURISM LLC" money for worthless permit papers? – gnasher729 Sep 30 '15 at 21:38
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    So the scam part is that they say "you have to pay for the work authorizations/visas, send the money here" and that's what they are bilking out of you, right? – PoloHoleSet Sep 29 '16 at 19:58
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    Yes and they keep on asking for money, unless one is tired of giving them the money. After a week/month they get new web sites up and start doing this activity again. – vicky Sep 30 '16 at 7:24
