Monday, November 22, 2010

Fake job offers purporting to be from Qatar Airways

I got the following email today. My first thought was that it was spam. But I wanted to be sure because I had a profile in Naukri.com before and I was approached by a head hunter in Dubai a few weeks ago.

A quick google search revealed that its quite the scam and a number of people have let go of real jobs in the hopes of getting a high-paid tax-free job elsewhere.

Here are a few indicators as well as pointers to stay away from such emails:
  • Beware of weird domains in contact email ids. Given that the official website of Qatar airways is qatarairways.com, email ids from any other domain should cause suspicion like the one in this email from career@qatar-airwary.co.cc.
  • The footer of the email says something about PI Industries. If you visit that website, there is nothing in there that even remotely connects it to Qatar airways. So why would one company use another company's address in the footer ?
  • Since there is a name given here, you can run a quick check of the name in LinkedIn. Legitimate head hunters, recruitment agents are usually listed in such networking sites.
  • Quality of email - Although making language mistakes is not such a big deal, I have never seen a job query that says "Free feeding" !
  • Inspite of all this, if you are still in doubt, just call the concerned company (using its contact information online, not the one in the email) and confirm. Qatar airways itself has issued a warning in this regard.
Above all, if something looks too good to be true, it probably is ! So exercise caution !


Confidential!

Dear Job Applicant,

QUESTION REF: Q.A-UK-09/014

VACANCIES: UNLIMITED FOR THOSE IN THE (AVIATION INDUSTRY, IT,
PROJECT MGT. ADMINISTRATION, HOSPITALITY, MANAGERIAL OPENINGS)

CONTRACT DURATION5 YEARS (RENEWABLE, PROSPECTS OF SECURING PERMANENT POSITIONS).

CONTRACTOR/ EMPLOYER: QATAR AIRWAYS.

AGENT/ RECRUITER: QATAR AIRWAYS CAREER DEPARTMENT.

CONTRACT/ JOB LOCATION: LONDON.

Sequel to the job advertisement made, we have reviewed your CV/Resume
sent by our labor consultants http://www.Naukri.com for a possible job
engagement with us and we also wish to inform you that you are
eligible for a Job position in QATAR AIRWAYSGROUP U.K

Please answer and submit the Official Online questionnaire alongside
your credentials/photo graph for QATAR AIRWAYSGROUP U.K which will be
used to ascertain your final eligibility for a Job position in
reference to your cv/resume as posted prior to this interview by
http://www.Naukri.com
*Note: Only Successful and Short-listed Applicants will be contacted
Either On Phone or Email!

Good Luck!

1. Briefly describe your ideal job?

2. Why did you choose this career?

3. What goals do you have in your career?

4. How do you plan to achieve these goals?

5. Can you work well under deadlines or pressure?

6. Tell us about a time when you failed to meet a deadline. What were
the repercussions?

7. Do you have reference list?

8. Why do you want to work here?

9. Why should we hire you over the others waiting to be interviewed?

10. What is your Current Monthly Salary Package in US Dollars?

11. How soon can you travel down to start your new Job?

12. What job position/s are you currently holding with your current employer?

13. What three Specific Job Positions do you target from QATAR AIRWAYS
GROUP U.K?

14. Give us full details on the Following;
(A.) Full Name :
(B.) Permanent Mailing Address
(C.) Current Mailing Address
(D.) Tel/Mobile Number(s)

15. What is your Country of Nationality? Is it different from your
Present Location? If yes please state your Current resident Country.

16. What is your Future Plans for QATAR AIRWAYSGROUP U.K?

PACKAGES
Compensations and Benefit packages for these positions remain
Competitive and Comparable with those available in leading Aviation
Industries across the globe & negotiations
are allowed.

CRITERIA FOR EMPLOYMENT
Contract Awards/ Employment will be based mostly on merit and will be
considered on experience and Profile.

TESTIMONY
Over the years, The best recruited Expatriates have been selected via
the Internet and the selection has proven to be unbiased & based on
merit since our Clients require the best expertise in various fields
to enable them deliver within specified frames of time and harness the
opportunities in the operating environment.

BENEFITS AVAILABLE TO SHORT-LISTED JOB APPLICANTS

* FREE ACCOMMODATION

* FREE FEEDING

* OFFICIAL VEHICLE WITH COMPANY DRIVER FOR LOCOMOTION

* FAMILY STATUS PACKAGE + 75% FOR COMPLETE FAMILY WELFARE

* FREE TO & FRO TRAVEL TICKET

* REIMBURSEMENT FOR PROCESSING OF TRAVEL PAPER(S), VISA ETC * UPFRONT
PAYMENT OF FIRST MONTH'S

SALARY +BENEFITS BEFORE RE-LOCATION TO JOB LOCATION

Many more incomparable benefits.............

IMPORTANT INSTRUCTION FOR JOB APPLICANTS

All Completed Online Interview Questions should be submitted to the
Human Resources Department of QATAR AIRWAYS at:
career@qatar-airway.co.cc to enable them ascertain your eligibility
for a Job position and make possible considerations for Job offer in
her Company.
*Note: We need only twenty candidates, and we have received more than two
thousand emails and CV's so far waiting to be short listed and Only Successful
and Short-listed Applicants
Will be contacted Via Email! And will be contacted,
invited for a Job position and a mandatory Orientation/ Training
Program scheduled 3 weeks on confirmation of Job Offer from QATAR AIRWAYSGROUP

U.K

Sincerely,
ikennaoy Ekam.
Recruitment Manager.
QATAR AIRWAYS.
--------------------------------------------------------------
This message, including any attachments contains confidential
and privileged information for the sole use of the intended
recipient(s). If you are not the intended recipient, please
notify the sender by return e-mail and delete this message
from your system. Any unauthorized use or dissemination of
this message in whole or in part is strictly prohibited. PI
Industries Ltd. shall not be responsible nor liable for the
confidentiality & integrity of this communication nor that
this communication is free of viruses, interceptions or
interference.
---------------------------------------------------------------
PI Industries Ltd., 403 Millennium Plaza, Tower A, Sector 27,
Gurgaon 122 001 (India) Ph. 91-124- 5081244-46,
Fax 91- 124- 5081247, Website: www.piindustries.com

5 comments:

  1. Ah..brings back some bad memories(scars :P).. had been a victim of another online fraud and lost some money.. Looking back, i cant believe how naive i had been to let someone cheat so easily.. I was too embarrassed to even speak about it !

    Its incredible how greed/sudden rush of blood can do to otherwise well-educated and rational people!

    Cheers,
    -Anand

    ReplyDelete
  2. @Anand
    oh well...live and learn logic! And I think you should definitely share that story in an appropriate forum (and you can retain anonymity). I was shocked to see how many people had fallen for this fake-offer-from-Qatar scam, I figured I would do what I can to warn people !!

    ReplyDelete
  3. thanks for the tip. I can tell you, spam is getting really smart now...

    ReplyDelete
  4. There is a another issue in Dubai where, so called recruitment agencies would post job offers in newspaper classified or job websites such as Dubbizle posing as a MNC company itself.

    When the innocent job seekers contact them , they are lured to their offices,then asked to pay the registration fee. After a couple of days, they would call them back, telling them that their job is secured and ask for more money, prolly around 300-500 AED. Excited jobseekers with clouded judgement, gives them whatever they have. Just for the sake of it fake interviews will be arranged, most of them would be through phone and the job package will be purposefully made unattractive to discourage the jobseekers. Later... it slowly dies out. If the jobseekers tries to follow up, the fake agency will become hostile and start threatening them.

    Also note the point, these scams are not a small group of people, it is actually a growing industry :O!!! I am pretty sure, that there would be a one owner with a chain of recruitment agencies opened all around the gulf. If not eliminated, this criminals will surely go out of control and start harming innocent people, just for the sake of money. :(

    ReplyDelete
  5. thanks for the post.

    ReplyDelete

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