Riyadh police arrested an unemployed man on suspicion of being involved in a scam to impersonate a Ministry of Civil Service employee to have job seekers send him their CVs and then find employment for them in return for cash.

There were no jobs available for the applicants.

The Riyadh governorate received a letter from the Ministry of Civil Service, in which men and women complained they received calls from an individual claiming to be an employee at the Ministry of Civil Service.

The callers were asked for their personal data and told to send documents to a particular number belonging to the ministry obtained from its website for employment in return for money. The caller gave the job seekers a fake name, a local newspaper said.

A police investigation zeroed in on a jobless Saudi in the Al-Qassim region. He was later arrested when mobile devices linking him to the scam were found on him.