Warning - recruitment scams

It might just be a coincidence (one of those random or perhaps seasonal things) but we've had a surge in the number of recruitment scams in the last couple of weeks.

The pattern is always the same.

1. The victim posts his or her CV on a recruitment web site. These sites are usually genuine but a little shifty.
   
   
2. They victim receives an email from what seems to be a large, well-known international company, often in the oil or mining industries like Shell Oil, saying that they have seen their CV and offering them a job. Note that they never mention what particular skills the potential recruit was marketing because they've never actually read it. This is a real example:
   

   "We refer to your earlier forwarded information for job engagement with relation to SHELL OIL COMPANY MALAYSIA. On the above subject matter, SHELL OIL COMPANY MALAYSIA management hereby congratulates you on your successful emergency based on detail recruitment by our recruitment manager: Dr. David Mark, further details are as follows:
   
   Designation: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGER.
   
   Salary: $4,900.00 (Four Thousand Nine Hundred USD Only) Monthly/take home after (tax), Starting on Euros equivalent depending on home country and currency preference.
   
   Benefits: Travel Insurance, Medical Insurance, 5 Bedroom Duplex, Free Education for your children both home and abroad (if any), Official Toyota Camry 2012 with 5 years experience Driver and 10-15 Days break/leave after every 90 business working days in the company."

3. The victim doesn't notice that although the offer appears to come from "SHELL OIL COMPANY", in fact it comes from this email address: "hr.shell.gas.oil@live.com.my". Surely Shell Oil would be emailing form an address like "xxx@shell.com"?
   
   
4. The email also includes something like this:
   

   "Please be advised that your Working Visa, Residential/Work Permit papers will cost you $895 only as Indicated in the Appointment Document attached with this Email.
   
   Make Sure you sign the Appointment Document and return back to us This AFTERNOON and also Contact MR. KAZEEM ABDULLAHI immediately regarding the transfer of the $895 and details he will be needing from you for the WORKING VISA,RESIDENTIAL & WORK PERMIT."

5. Of course that's what this is all about, the $895 that they're asking for. That's the "advance fee" that these scammers are looking for. The "Working Visa, Residential/Work Permit papers" are just a cover to get the money.
   
   
6. If a victim is sufficiently gullible that they send this money for the fake papers then the scammers will just string him along with more and more demands for various fictitious fees until he either realises that it's a scam or he runs our of money.

The facts are simple. Real companies don't recruit this way. Real companies interview people, either by phone or Skype first and then they insist on a face-to-face interview. Always. Real companies use landlines, real email addresses and use English of reasonable quality. Most importantly, companies that recruit internationally pay for everything, not the potential recruit.

If you see a job offer like this or your friend, relative, colleague or neighbour gets one then let them know.

It's a scam and scammers don't have consciences and NEVER give refunds.