Monster Boosts Security To Prevent Fraud

The worldwide online job search firm monster.com has said it has intensified security measures to prevent fraudsters from downloading job seekers' information from its website.

The statement came in response to XPRESS readers' complaints against a fake hospital with a UAE address which sent appointment letters to job seekers in the region.

Last month, fraudsters had managed to hack into the Monster site and download information of job seekers and then attempted to lure them to attractive jobs in the UAE.

Readers from countries including India, Pakistan and Egypt told XPRESS they received appointment letters from General Hospital Dubai — the fake hospital in question, which has a website www.generalhospitaldubai.org.

Most of them said they had posted their CVs on the US-based monster.com, which is regarded as the largest online job search engine in the world.

Kathryn Burns, media official of Monster Worldwide, the parent company of monster.com, in an e-mail interview with XPRESS, said: "As recently reported, Monster became aware of illegal activity that involved the downloading of information such as names, addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses for 1.3 million job-seekers with résumés posted on Monster.com.

"Monster responded by conducting a comprehensive review of internal processes and procedures, and notified these job- seekers that their contact records had been downloaded illegally.

"We believe these actions are one of the reasons why job seekers continue to place their trust with Monster. Job-seekers have confirmed this by posting their résumés at rates as high as before the situation started," Burns said.

In the wake of the breach of security at monster.com, the Gulf's popular job website Bayt.com said it is continually posting information on its website about potential security threats to ensure they can avoid them.

"Recruiters can only access job-seekers' information if their requirements match the criteria and even then only up to the level of access the job-seeker has permitted," said Akram Assaf, Chief Technology Officer, Bayt.com.