Job Discussion Forums

[One Hot Teacher]

This is being discussed on the Middle East Board. I thought it was important to share because they seems to trying again.
Fake UAE Ministry website targets jobseekers
Jobseekers looking for employment in the UAE are being targeted by an online scam using a copy of the UAE Ministry of Labour's website.

The scam, discovered by the Ministry of Education last week, attempted to lure overseas jobseekers with bogus online job adverts offering lucrative positions in the UAE. The victims were instructed to send personal details to a clone of the UAE Ministry of Labour site, www.uaeministryoflabour.tk and to an email associated with it.

According to a statement from the Ministry of Education, as reported by news agency WAM, the scam came to light when a US teacher approached the Ministry. The teacher had already applied online for a position, but had become suspicious when asked for a fee for a visa.

The Ministry statement revealed "unknown elements copied its website to establish contact with local and foreign applicants, particularly in the fields of employment. They issued what seemed to be authenticated employment forms to applicants, bearing forged signature of UAE Minister of Education Dr Hanif Hassan."

Copying of websites, so that they appear to be official sites, while linking to a different, illicit email or web portal, is an increasingly common tactic used by fraudsters to steal personal data.
The clone website was registered with the domain suffix .tk, the registered domain of tiny Pacific island Tokelau, which allows the domain to be used by Dot TK, an Amsterdam-based free domain registration service.

The site was still online on Friday, although access from the UAE has since been blocked by Etisalat.

The Ministry of Education said that similar fraud attempts had been detected against other Ministries, although no further information was available.

[veiledsentiments]

This has been going on in different forms since last year. See the sticky above:

http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=58448&start=0

Perhaps the MODs should adjust the title of the sticky.

VS

[arabiamark]

The worst thing is that eslemployment.com always seems to be asleep at the wheel policing these scam ads. They allow the ads to be posted and sit there several days before deleting them.

[davester13]

Speaking of scams, what is your opinion of this recruiting web site Jobs4Teachers.com? It's a paid site, yes, but it also advertises teaching positions in the ME requiring no experience with high salaries as well as jobs in Europe for non-EU citizens. I brought the latter to their attention, since they sent me unsolicited information about these EU positions, and this was their response:

"Thanks for your interest. We will send you the login information over
Shortly after you submit your request. You can choose between a 30
Or 90 day database access. You will be able to contact all schools
Directly. Further more you are able to contact teachers who are
Already living/working in your desired location. We have very low
rates because we want to make our service affordable for everybody.
The visa issue is not a problem because the school will apply for
Your work permit as soon as a contract is signed. This process
usually takes about 2-3 weeks and will also ensure that you are
enrolled in the health/medical care system. The work permit card
is valid for one year of time but can be extended after that. Let
me know if there is anything else I can do for you."

Notice the business push at the beginning of the message and then the comment regarding working in the EU at the end, one which is extremely vague. Yes, it says the European schools would apply for my work visa and that "it's not a problem", but this person gives no further information as to why or how it's not a problem. An intentionally vague respose, it seems. I know that the EU has strict laws prohibiting non-EU citizens from working there, similar to those of the U.S. and many, many other countries. It just doesn't make sense.

[MESL]

I responded to the ad several months ago. They didn't ask for money. So are they doing this for kicks or are they using passport numbers for identity theft?