Abu Dhabi: A doctor was nearly swindled out of thousands of dirhams by a job scam in the US.
Several months ago, Dr Mona, a long-term Dubai resident, who did not want her identity shared, began to search for jobs in the US by completing job applications online.
Finally, someone claiming to be a manager at the Southwest Hospital Medical Centre’s human resources department in the US, emailed Dr Mona to inform her that they wanted to offer her a job in Atlanta. She was provided with an employment contract as well as other formal documents.
“I called the HR man because I was surprised they didn’t want to interview me, but the man told me they were short-staffed and I was more than qualified for the job… he was very convincing,” Dr Mona said.
The 34-year-old doctor asked a couple of her friends in the US to check the job contract which, they confirmed was standard and in order.
She proceeded and provided the HR manager with the requested documents, including her passport copy and academic credentials.
Around 10 days later, she was contacted by someone claiming to be a lawyer with the hospital’s law firm, Katz Stephen Law Firm, to process her visa and work permit.
She called the lawyer and spoke with him about the letter and forms he had provided her from supposedly various government departments about her case.
The only condition of her employment was that she pay a sum of $1,450 (around Dh5,292) for her Alien Employment Certification payment.
Although Dr Mona had googled the people who had contacted her and found that they all existed on their company’s websites, she decided to make one final check before making the payment. She googled the email addresses of the HR man and the lawyer, but nothing came up.
She then decided to contact the attorney using the phone number provided on the law firm’s website instead of the number he had provided in email.
The law firm confirmed that they had not sent her any offers, or a request for payment.
“I was completely shocked, the whole thing was a scam. I never thought there were people dedicating this much time to create letters, forms, emails and identities to try and get Dh5,000 from you.”
Dr Mona feels lucky to have not paid the scamsters though she is worried they may use her personal information for identity fraud.
