By : Bikram Vohra

Does this ring a bell, have you heard it before?

Of course you have.

Attractive Salary+Commission+Car.

Including over time with food and accommodation.

Free zone visa will be provided.

Transportation also will be provided beside other annual benefits.

Handsome package for right candidate

Preferably on visit visa.

Immediate hiring.

Any nationality may call for more information.

Now, it probably asks you for AED 200 non refundable as processing charges and promises you the moon on a generic e-mail. It is right what you want.

You get fooled. You send your CV with two passport sized photographs. Nothing happens. No way will it. It is a con game.

One of our readers, angered at being taken for a ride says the media should not carry such advertising without verifying it. Hello, you are getting a car and all these perks for a pittance of 200 AED in advance …wake up, smell the coffee.

Look at the flaws. Transportation and a car.

Overtime and commission.

No mention of what sort of accommodation. What annual benefits?

Why the accent on the visit visa?

What verification is needed?

That is also an impossible task since verifying something has to have a yardstick. It is not for media to judge the accuracy or otherwise of an offer if it is correctly and legally couched and if the advertiser declares his intent.

Don’t let your greed or despair or desire compel you to pass the buck onto another source. Maybe he is giving you a job for an initial down payment of 200 AED. Media cannot know. But you can … your instincts are sharp. Like if someone is promising to get you Canada and Australia and asks you to fork over 500 AED and gives you a shady address and another generic e-mail would you not think twice before sending the money?

Similarly, all scams have a smell about them. If you want to be naïve and believe it is possible this one is honest that is your call.

It is very easy to play the innocent one and act like you have been taken for a ride by some huge conspiracy and so you lash out at everyone except yourself for being so gullible. Jobs are not got by advancing money or unless you have checked out the bona fides of the employer. A good company will have an address, not just a PO Box number.

Take the innumerable scams that come your way. From little old ladies in Nigeria with pots of money to lucky mobile numbers worth a million to bank lotteries of which the bank is not eve aware and you get them on your computer and your mobile and you don’t respond to them. So, why don’t you use the same yardstick when applying for a job.

The guidelines are simple. If money is asked for in advance and there is no contact number, turn the page. If there is a contact number, call them and ask for an appointment. If the offer stinks of contradictions forget it.

There are also placement companies that charge a fee for getting you a job once they have met with you and they make no promises but they try seriously because their income depends on word of mouth responses. So, if you feel their 200 AED demand is like fishing and you want to give it a shot if it doesn’t work don’t fly off the handle and call it cheating.

Of course, there are cheats out there, too, but have you noticed that if it wasn’t for the likes of you who get so easily conned they would have packed up their tents and gone a long time ago.

Here you are looking at a mobile number and giving them your details and it does not strike you that a mobile number is okay for ordering pizza but not for getting a job, and yet, when it all goes wrong and you have lost the money you say, okay let’s blame the media for everything. Media does not endorse the advertising, it simply places it there under a code of ethics and if you have been cheated then you should complain about that mobile number or to whomsoever you gave your money. By now everyone is smart enough to know a fly by night operator from a genuine one … the sheer wording and content is a flag. Green or red, up to you.

 
 
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