Pay attention folks. Set your scam detectors to “high!” An organized crime operation is targeting job seekers in Saudi Arabia.



Everyone enjoys the convenience of using online recruitment sites to search for jobs. Without even considering the consequences of revealing so much personal data, millions of resumes have been loaded to accounts at Bayt.com, Monster Gulf, Naukri Gulf and other job sites. Those recruitment sites are now tempting silos of information that it’s impossible for criminals to resist.



Saudi Gazette spoke with Saudi manager, “Abu Talal,” who has been on a month long odyssey, receiving repeated phone calls from fraudulent job recruiters. Yesterday they telephoned his mobile seven times.



The scams are sophisticated. In the beginning, Abu Talal was telephoned by a man who identified himself as a representative of the Middle East’s leading job site. The man mentioned that they had several job opportunities that would be suitable and they were at an even higher salary than Abu Talal had indicated on his application. The caller asked if a representative of the recruiter could call back and conduct a phone interview. Abu Talal agreed. While waiting to hear from the recruiter, Abu Talal checked the job site and found several jobs quite similar to the parameters of the supposed jobs on offer to him.



“When the interviewer called, it was clear that he had my resume. He asked many questions verifying my employment background, my education and some personal details,” said Abu Talal. “I never for a moment thought it was a scam attempt.”



The next day though the supposed recruiter called back excited, but with a message to deliver. The companies loved Abu Talal but without a Master’s degree, none of the positions could be his. Next came the pitch for Abu Talal to pay for an “experience only” degree that was special to job candidates from that job site. Very suspicious, Abu Talal called the job site’s Saudi office, and they advised him that the entire scenario was a scam.



After a few weeks, Abu Talal forgot about the incident. Then last week a telephone call came from California from “Ideal Recruiters.” Once again, the recruiter began speaking to him about an executive position they had on offer. Ideal Recruiters called three more times to convince Abu Talal to agree to an interview. Once he did, they conducted a 56 minute, very detailed phone interview. Once again it was obvious that they already had his resume and knew many of his personal details.



Soon an email arrived advising Abu Talal that he had cleared the initial interview to be the general manager of operations for a FMCG company’s branch in Jeddah. The company’s headquarters were in London and Rotterdam.

Abu Talal was to respond to the email if he wished to move forward with the recruitment. It wasn’t long after he replied that another email arrived and shockingly, it stated that he would need a Master’s degree in order to qualify for the job. He had been awarded a scholarship so there was no fee for the “experience only” degree and all Abu Talal would have to pay was $500 for the “shipment/documentation process.”



After his previous experience, Abu Talal realized that the recruitment was part of a degree fraud scam. Sadly, he is very unhappy knowing that criminals have a treasure trove of personal information about him and even some information about his employers.



“I wish I had been more careful in posting my resume online,” said Abu Talal. “I should have put less information and I never should have revealed my mobile number. When the recruiter wanted to interview me I should have asked that he first send me by email all his contact details, the job responsibilities and the candidate requirements. Everyone needs to be alerted that these criminals are active now in Saudi Arabia.”