Abu Dhabi: Conmen are targeting job seekers in various parts of the world with fake offer letters in the name of Cleveland Clinic, Abu Dhabi’s premier healthcare facility.
Many job seekers have reported receiving these bogus offers via email in recent weeks. An Arab man, curently on a visit, said he nearly fell for the scam because the job contract was on a letter-head carrying the hospital’s name, address and distinct blue and green logo.
“Everything looked genuine, but when I read the part where I was asked to pay a Dubai travel firm to process my papers, I was instantly reminded of a recent XPRESS story where con artists were using a similar modus operandi to scam people looking for teaching jobs in the capital,” he said.
Attractive offers
Anwar Alawi, a sales director in Lucknow, India, said he received a ludicrously attractive offer from the ‘HR manager of Cleveland Clinic’ about two weeks ago.
“The position was of business development manager and the monthly salary was Dh49,500 plus perks. I immediately knew it was a scam,” Alawi said.
His two-year contract entitled him to a slew of monthly allowances including Dh3,500 for a car, Dh3,200 for entertainment and Dh40,550 annually for furniture.
If that was not good enough, he was also offered two months’ annual leave along with a Dh24,500 purse for miscellaneous spends. Business class tickets, Dh17,500 for each overseas business trip, three-bedroom duplex apartment and a new car were among other perks.
A job aspirant said his contract offered him advance salaries.
“I got suspicious when I read the fine print which said that I would be given two months’ salary upfront as soon as I pay a certain travel company in Dubai to get my papers processed,” he said.
Calls made to the cellphone numbers of the purported human resource manager of the clinic and travel firm remained unanswered.
Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi said it’s aware of the racket.
“These letters [job contracts] are fraudulent and were not issued by Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi.
“Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi never requests nor accepts financial deposits in order to secure a job opportunity,” the clinic said in an email statement to XPRESS.
“We are working diligently to investigate this matter and are collaborating with the relevant stakeholders to have this resolved,” the statement added.
In recent months, XPRESS has exposed similar job scams in which conmen created not just fake letterheads but also bogus websites of popular schools, hospitals and oil companies in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
Authorities have repeatedly urged job seekers to exercise caution in dealing with these emails.
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