Job Discussion Forums

[Thwartley]

A couple of months ago I applied at a uni in Riyadh. I knew beforehand that I was unlikely to get the job as I was lacking the usual credentials necessary for successfully gaining employment there. Anyway, I went ahead as I thought there was nothing to lose. Had a good telephone interview with a friendly chap who worked there and a few weeks after that received the inevitable polite e-mail saying thanks but no thanks. Fair enough. It was good practice regardless.

Yesterday I received an e-mail from the contact person at that uni (the one who had sent the rejection e-mail) requesting my documents and asking that I fill out the enclosed application. I assumed it was an error. I had applied through one of those online job search databases. With the volume they had received and the ease of mixing up names and e-mails in a person's inbox, I thought nothing of it and sent out a quick message advising them they must be mistaken.

Anyway, something twigged in my mind and I decided to check the original rejection e-mail I had received a few months ago (I rarely discard e-mails!)

Well, sure enough, the name is almost identical with the exception of one letter. But the main giveaway is that the address of the most recent recent e-mail is "gmail" while the original uses an address with the university's name after the "@" symbol.

Obviously someone trolling in the hopes of getting scanned documents they can then use, or worse, someone who might string a person along and then ask for some kind of payment.

I am not listing the name of the uni here. No need to soil their name by association.

The disturbing things is that this person knew I had applied there and has my e-mail address. It's not just some random attempt to scam people. Perhaps they registered as an employer at the same website and are then able to look at my history of applications?

Anyway, heads up to anyone who receives a similar e-mail.

[veiledsentiments]

Have you contacted the university to inform them? They may want to warn future applicants to beware.

You may have noticed that we have a running thread of the various scam operations... most of them had seemed to be working on the Emirates due to the current popularity of Dubai.

Check out: http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=58448

VS