RIYADH, 20 September 2004 — In a major job scam, more than 20 Saudi young women are filing a suit in the Court of Grievances against both the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Commerce, Al-Madinah newspaper reported.
A fake company purported to be in the health sector embezzled the women for an estimated SR1 million promising to provide them with jobs at various health centers.
Two months ago in Riyadh, the company claimed its health institution was hiring young women to work in its health centers. The young women joined the health institution in the hope that they would be employed at one of the health centers.
The company’s director would demand from each applicant to transfer SR2,000 to a particular account and only after the transfer would they accept the woman’s application via fax.
A number of women who fell into the trap said that after a brief period of time they called up the official responsible for the company but he avoided them. They were told different stories at different times such as how the institution was crowded and that the boss was nowhere to be found, or that there were no vacancies because of the countless number of jobseekers and applications. They turned to the Ministry of Health for help but to no avail. They got no response there. The same thing happened with the Ministry of Commerce.
