Fraudulent recruitment offers
Beware of fraudulent emails!
We wish to alert individuals and organisations that fraudsters are known to be contacting job-seekers and offering bogus employment opportunities that purport to come from AMEC. We treat such abuses seriously and refer them to legal and enforcement agencies as appropriate.
By publishing details of such abuses we aim to reduce the opportunities for the fraudsters to profit from their activities and to prevent individuals falling victim to their fraudulent practices.
What is a fradulent recruitment offer?
A fraudulent recruitment offer is an attempt to obtain cash from victims by offering lucrative employment opportunities which do not exist. Such frauds are conducted via the Internet using either faked company websites, or by sending unsolicited emails purporting to be from an AMEC employee or from our company careers site. The communications request personal data and ultimately a request to forward cash on the pretext that this is to finalise the bogus employment opportunity.
How do I recognise a fraudulent recruitment offer?
Typically a potential victim is contacted after displaying their CV on the Internet seeking employment opportunities, or by responding to a job offer advertised on a bogus company website.
Fraudsters search the websites looking for job seekers and potential victims. Once identified, a series of bogus email messages are forwarded culminating in what appears to be a lucrative employment offer. The emails are sophisticated and often include the names of genuine company employees in an attempt to add credibility.
The victim is asked to supply sensitive personal and financial data and complete fake employment documents such as application forms, visa forms, banking details, employment terms and conditions, etc. The forms provided often display AMEC’s company name and trademark without authority. Fraudsters often urge victims to speed-up completion of documents provided.
Once the victim has accepted the employment terms offered, the fraudster demands a transfer of cash supposedly to facilitate employment in the country offered. They state that money is required to cover visas, documents for immigration purposes, clearance with border agencies, passports clearance, accommodation, transportation, etc, and that payment is necessary to facilitate the victim’s entry into the destination country. In some instances they appear to pass the individual to the immigration authorities, emulating their email address and logo, and again often using a real person’s name. They also sometimes state that the money paid will be refunded on arrival in the country of destination (which it won't be!).
The contact numbers provided by the fraudsters are typically mobile telephones starting with +44 (0) 70 or message forwarding types, rather than official company telephone numbers.
You should be aware that genuine correspondence from AMEC originates from an amec.com domain; it is never sent from a Google, Yahoo, or other internet hosted account. All our emails and internet pages are hosted via amec.com. Particularly sophisticated fraudsters can even clone the amec.com address to make it look as if their email has come from AMEC. However, when hitting the Reply button, the domain address showing in the browser switches from amec.com to a similar looking address. Therefore, to be sure you are emailing a genuine amec.com address, don’t use the Reply button but instead type in the address manually.
What you can do
If you receive unsolicited emails offering employment opportunities with AMEC you may contact us via careers@amec.com (note: if the suspicious email appears to have come from careers@amec.com then manually type in the address rather than use the Reply button). We will require the following information to investigate the incident:
(a) The original email content including subject line
(b) The full ‘header’ and ‘router’ data in order to trace the email's path through the internet to your email system (this is only available to the original recipient). This data can help in tracing the location from where the email originated. The ‘header’ and ‘router’ data is generated automatically for every email sent, but systems do not normally display such data on the front screen. (To see how to retrieve the ‘header and ‘router’ data follow the link shown in the column to your right).
(c) Forward the complete unedited email message to us; do not change or alter the message content in any way.
(d) Retain all subsequent messages received from the perpetrators to assist any future investigation if necessary.
e) You should consider making contact with your local police and provide all the information received from the sender.
What you should NOT do
(a) DO NOT send money to further employment opportunities. AMEC never request money for such purposes.
(b) DO NOT Respond to unsolicited offers of employment from people you are unfamiliar with
(c) DO NOT supply personal or financial data to persons you do not know
(d) DO NOT continue to communicate in any way if you suspect the originator may be fraudulent