Sharjah: A Sri Lankan man has been left devastated after he fell for a job offer from a rogue recruitment company located on Sharjah’s King Abdul Aziz road.
Rameshan (name changed), 35, said he not only resigned from his current job at a restaurant but also turned down a lucrative offer from another company because the recruitment firm promised him a better pay package.
Irresistible offer
“They said I had been hired and will get a salary of Dh10,000 plus a car. They sounded so convincing I didn’t think twice before putting in my papers. Meanwhile, I got an offer as a restaurant manager from another company. The salary was Dh7,500 but I turned it down because I was repeatedly assured that my Dh10,000 per month job was confirmed. As it turned out, it was a scam. I became jobless and had to withdraw my child from school,” said Rameshan, who claims he paid Dh600 to the bogus company for ‘registration and urgent visa processing’ charges.
Rameshan said following several days of follow-ups and a heated exchange, the recruitment firm refunded him Dh400 of the Dh600 he paid them. “They still owe me Dh200, but it’s not about that, it’s about my life which they have ruined.”
In a story published in September 2010, XPRESS blew the lid off several fraudulent recruitment agencies (Google UAE’s biggest recruitment scam) when a reporter created a dumbed-down CV (which included lines such as “I am a dim-witted imbecile… I bring about a steady erosion of values and have hastened the doom of many companies”) before registering it with several employment agencies for Dh300. The response was shocking. Within hours, he got calls for attractive job offers, with two Sharjah-based firms offering him appointment letters provided he paid them more money. A third company even offered the ridiculous position of elephant trainer – in a zoo in Canada. Yet nearly two years after the chilling expose, the racket still flourishes unhindered.
The internet forums are flooded with the sob stories of job scam victims. On Monday, a Gulf News report highlighting the plight of a victim generated over 100 comments, many from people who had similar experiences. One victim contacted XPRESS after she was duped by a bogus firm located on Sharjah’s Buheirah Corniche street.
“They took Dh350 from me for a non-existent job. When I demanded a refund, I was threatened,” said Ameena.
By conservative estimate there are at least half a dozen fake recruitment firms in the UAE. An insider who works for one such agency said they are given a target of Dh25,000 daily.
Watch out
Fraudulent recruitment agencies lure job-seekers by advertising non-existent jobs in newspapers and on various websites. Respondents are asked to come to their offices where they are asked to pay money for registration and other charges. Do not pay them. It’s illegal. If they make you an offer that’s too good to be true, in all probability it is.
