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Just 6% job offers Indians receive are genuine, Indian centre finds

Dubai - The Indian Workers Resource Centre receives an average of three to four job offer letters every day.

Only a total of 24 out of the 362 jobs offer letters received by the Indian Workers Resource Centre (IWRC) for verification are genuine, according to a senior official with the centre. The statistics are from the beginning of this year, and the centre receives at least three to four offer letters, visa documents for verification every day, according to senior manager IWRC Anish Chaudhury. 
He added, "Almost 95 per cent of the offer letters are coming from India. Since the beginning of this year, only 24 of the offer letters are genuine." 
The staff at the centre take a few hours to verify the authenticity of a visa and three to four working days to check the status of an offer letter. "Since we've been doing it for a long time, we check the offer letter as soon as it is received and we try and reply as soon as possible," explained Anish. The centre has been able to thwart these bogus offer letters. 
Other officials in the Indian missions also admitted that there had been a recent spike in the number of fraud job offer scams. Employees usually send an offer letter and a copy of the visa. "Sometimes people get tourist visas, and they are told these are employment visas," explained Chaudhury. The centre goes through a thorough vetting process before thwarting the letter. As for employment visas, the centre checks with Amer websites, etc. 
"We check the company's status on the Dubai government's economic department website, if it is not listed, then there are chances the company does not have a trade license, and in some cases, the licenses have not been renewed," he added. The centre checks GPS coordinates on Google maps to see if the company has a physical location, cross checks the numbers provided on the website, cross checks the current employees status' etc. 
"Sometimes former employees of reputed companies continue to send bogus offer letters," added Anish. IWRC urges Indian job seekers to check with the centre before accepting job offers. "We receive several copies of the letters on our social media platforms as well. Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp are two common sources as people find it convenient to send a picture of their offer letter," he added. 
The IWRC, which was launched eight years ago, has been helping Indian workers fight issues such as non-payment of salary, passport in employee custody, visa cancellation issues, death compensation, end of service benefits etc. Indian diplomatic missions urge Indian workers to reach out to IWRC with their grievances. 
dhanusha@khaleejtimes.com