FORMER OIL INDUSTRY workers are being warned to be wary as scammers pick on the North Sea downturn as the perfect place to target more victims.
insideMoray has this week learned of several people from Moray who were formerly employed in offshore jobs being drawn in to a scam that involves criminals pretending to represent Bunduq Oil UAE.
Emails are being sent out in the hope of drawing in job-seeking oil workers – and follow a similar pattern to those used for several years by Nigerian-based scammers.
Bunduq Oil is a genuine company – however, their credentials have been used by the scammers with the first extortion attempts reported in December.
Scammers claim to have picked up industry job seeker details via an online CV database, with typical emails including attachments that are claimed to be formal job applications to be completed and returned by Email. Later in the process the scammers will seek ‘processing fee’ or similar.
Such is the prevalence of the scam, the genuine Bunduq Oil Company has moved to issue a disclaimer on their genuine website saying: “Please be aware that the only official domain for Bunduq Co. Ltd. is http://www.bunduq.com and all vacancies are published on Bunduq careers website.
“There are many similar fraudulent domains which exist to trap job seekers into bogus job offers. You may receive an email or telephone call offering you a job; it may include a request for payment or a processing fee.
“Please note that Bunduq Company neither ask prospective employees to pay a fee nor authorize recruiters or agents to collect fee on its behalf. If you are doubtful about any email, phone call etc., please do not respond by revealing personal information or send any funds to them as Bunduq shall not accept any responsibility towards their presentation made in any fraudulent communication or its consequences.
“Please be aware that a fraudulent website operating as “bunduqae.com” or others are NOT associated with Bunduq in any way whatsoever and is NOT authorized to act on our behalf in any matters.”
Linda Gorn, who brought the scam to the attention of insideMoray, said: “I have one friend who only just escaped being taken in by this very convincing scam. It is very, very sad but typical of where we are these days that people are prepared to try and cash in on the desparate need of former Oil Industry employees seeking to continue their careers in other parts of the world.
“People need to be very careful in establishing that the company they are dealing with is genuine, certainly they should not expect a genuine company to seek a fee of any kind.”
See also http://www.insidemoray.com/welcome-for-12m-fund-to-help-north-sea-industry-workers/