How to spot recruitment scams and protect yourself

Scammers will advertise fake jobs or pose as recruitment agencies to obtain your personal and/or financial information.

Employment fraud happens when a fraudster claims to be a recruitment agent, hiring you for a job that does not exist. Unfortunately, these job scams and phishing in the recruitment sector is increasing, and we are aware that scammers are unlawfully using the Robert Half name and logo in an attempt to obtain individuals data.

Whilst job scams are becoming increasingly sophisticated, the best way to help prevent yourself from becoming a victim of a job scam is to educate yourself on things to look out for during your job search.

We have set out our top tips to help you spot a potential job scam.

You are asked for money, an “administration fee”, “security fee” or an “accreditation fee”. Robert Half will never ask you to pay any type of fee, transfer cash or provide credit card information.

Poor spelling or grammar in communications.

The job description is vague or poorly written.

Communications are from generic addresses such as Gmail or Hotmail accounts.

You are asked for unnecessary personal information before submitting your application.

You are asked to click unsolicited links or attachments.

You are offered a job offer immediately or without an interview.

You are instantly offered a high salary.

Remember if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

If you are unsure if a Robert Half advertisement or communication is legitimate and/or you have been requested to attend an in-person meeting, please contact your local Robert Half branch or email [email protected] who will assist you as far as possible to verify the information you have received.

Robert Half email addresses take the format of [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] or [email protected] (or country equivalents). If you are contacted by someone whose email address varies from this format, please do not respond.

Please click on the drop-down menu in the footer below to see the list of countries Robert Half operates in.

Robert Half do not make job offers to candidates or request candidates to send applications through instant messaging services such as Telegram and Whatsapp. We also will not ask for any banking or payment information on any instant messaging services.

Take a screen grab or note of the fraudster’s details and report them to Action Fraud (see Resources below)

If you have given them any money, contact your bank immediately and let them know.

Warn the operators of the website/social media site through which you were contacted and let them know that their site is being used by fraudsters.

You can report cybercrimes online through the following channels

the eCrime website - Dubai

Aman service - Abu Dhabi Police

Dubai Police’s website

the ‘My Safe Society’ app launched by the UAE’s federal Public prosecution (the app is available on App Store)