JEDDAH: Fraudsters are using the Internet to tempt job seekers in the Gulf with false offers of work in Malaysia.
Those who fall for the trick are asked to pay around $1,500 in administration costs, which the con artists pocket before breaking off contact with their victims.
The gangs typically e-mail their targets with a package consisting of a substantial monthly salary, fully furnished accommodation and free medical and travel insurance, among others.
“These gangs have chosen Malaysia because it is an economically vibrant country where people would love to work,” said one would-be victim of the scam, who chose to remain anonymous. He said the swindlers obtained his personal data from the Internet and sent him an e-mail offering him a good job at a big offshore oil company in Malaysia.
“I was asked to complete an online interview. They asked me 16 questions about my educational background, work experience, computer literacy and so forth. A few days after I submitted my answers, I was told that I had the job but would have to pay $1,500 for visa processing and the issuance of a work permit. I knew then it was just a con,” he said.
Mohsen Awad, an Egyptian printing technician who has been working in Jeddah for about 10 years, said a few days after he put his data on the Web he also received an offer at an oil company in Malaysia.
“Two days after the interview I received a work contract stipulating a monthly salary of $4,500, paid-for accommodation and education for my kids as well as free air tickets and a new car. They asked me to sign the contract and return it to them immediately,” he said.
Awad said two days after he signed and sent the contract, they asked him to pay $990 in administration costs, including $100 for a visa. “That was the mistake they committed. Egyptian citizens are not required to have a visa for Malaysia. I realized then it was all a scam,” he said.
He also noted that the address they asked him to send the money to was different from the one he had been contacting them on. “When I tried dialing the telephone number written at the bottom of the contract, no one answered,” he said.
Awad said he discovered that he was not the only one targeted by the scam. “I found out on the Internet that there had been many other victims,” he said.
According to Awad, the fraudsters were particularly targeting foreigners in the Gulf because many of them were losing jobs due to the financial crisis. “This made them easy prey,” he said.
Muntassir Abu Al-Maati, a construction engineer working for a company in Saudi Arabia, said he referred a similar offer he received from Malaysia to his brother, who is also an engineer in Egypt.
However, the swindlers were not willing to correspond with him as they were looking for victims in the Gulf who had money, said Al-Maati. He added that when he asked for a copy of the company’s official registration documents, they stopped contacting him.
