Saturday, January 24, 2009

Jobs And Lottery Frauds. Beware!

Job Recruitment Scams

We have been aware for some time that various companies are purporting to be acting as agents on behalf of the British Embassy in recruiting Visa nationals to work in various industry sectors in the UK. The latest ploy is to make the e-mail look as if it is coming from the e-mail address of the Embassy itself and in the Ambassador’s name.

Please note that these companies are in no way connected to the British Embassy, nor are they acting on our behalf. Please note that these advertisements are not genuine. Most companies do not recruit people in this way and people should not pay any money to these companies.

Job recruitment scams

* Genuine UK companies are registered and can be checked on Companies House website.

* Anyone approached about a 'UK' job should phone the 'company' in the UK - they usually have fake numbers or check their address here.

* The British Government does not send unsolicited emails with job offers, either directly or through agents. Any such approach is likely to be from fraudsters. Government vacancies are advertised on our official websites, in the UK or in Bahrain on this website.

* There are many attempted frauds at present, often by email, targeting anyone, faking a UK connection.

* Most offers sent unsolicited by email are fraudulent.

* People who send share offers by email are often fraudsters.

* Anyone who asks for bank account details online or by phone are usually fraudsters.

* Any offer of cash - released in exchange for cash or bank account details - is likely to be fraudulent.

LOTTERY SCAMS

* All genuine UK lotteries are registered and have websites.

* If you did not buy a ticket, you cannot win a lottery.

* UK lotteries do not email winners or mention amounts won.

* You may get in touch with the Gambling Commission, who might be able to help you. They work with the Office of Fair Trading and other agencies to give advice on lottery-related frauds.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

In 2008 I received an email from a so called British Lottery system, with the announcement having won a large sum of money. I hadn't heard about scams or stalkers on internet at that time, just beginning to explore the virtual world. I was asked to pay about 50BP, so that they could transport the money to my home country etc. etc. This is a strange thing of course, my instinct agreed to that and I replied to them, telling them I hadn't bought a lottery ticket and that I didn't accept having to pay a sum of money in order to receive payment of my price and that they could use part of that price to follow the necessary procedure.

They replied by giving me a tel.nr. of one of the winners, so that I could verify the truth (ahem!)I was curious and called that number. An Arabic sounding woman came on the phone, with a lot of party-sounds and music on the background. She was exuberant and praised Allah for having had the luck to win her price. "I've bought the most beautiful Cadillac this week" she said. "My family and friends are celebrating with me now, we're so very happy. Inch' Allah sister!" I felt half convinced and half laughing about the behavior of the woman, a bit over the top.

I decided to ask my employer about this strange event and he laughed hard, telling me that this was a scam. He gave me a few websites, where I could read about the nature of scams and how it's done. That was an eye-opener for sure!

I read, that when a group decided to set up a scam, they organized an office with telephones and arrange some sort of theatre-script, each one taking up a role, related to the person who "fell" for this scheme. Just like the woman who played a tape with a party-recording on the background as soon as she took up the phone, chirping and praising Allah in the conversation with the "winner to be".

That's how it works. They receive the money and you're standing with empty pockets.
It's an hilarious story and I'm grateful for my employers awareness of scams to this day ;)