Dubai: Dubai’s Expo 2020 may still be several years away, but scam artists are dangling it as bait to sell dubious engineering certifications to jobseekers globally, XPRESS has learnt.
Last year XPRESS revealed how expats in the UAE could buy ‘college degrees’ in any discipline without having to attend classes or write exams from online degree mills.
This time the scammers are using the lure of engineering firms of repute, targeting job seekers with a “once in a lifetime” accreditation. For a special price of $399 (Dh1,465), they are calling their sham endorsements the reference that will make candidates more employable than others in the UAE’s potentially vast Expo 2020 job market.
Ashar Khan, 34, who got an email from the American Board of Engineering Professionals, says he would have fallen for the scam were it not meant for engineers. “I am not an engineer and I could call their bluff,” said the commerce graduate from India, who was asked to pay $399 by February 28 to get a special membership waiver of $2,500 and the ‘prestigious’ Member Engineer and Certified Professional Engineer (CPEng) certification.
A recruitment firm said these bogus associations or certifications could land a job seeker in trouble. Forging academic certificates carries a prison term of up to 10 years under UAE law.
“Due to Expo 2020 there are 100,000+ current Engineering/Construction Job Openings in the Gulf Region. But only ‘Member Engineers’ are preferred for these Jobs and other A-Rated Engineering Projects. American Board of Engineering Professionals Members are given Preference above the Rest!,” reads an email from Dr. Jacob Carter, Director, American Board of Engineering Professionals.
The mail lists some of the key benefits of this certification, but the one that stands out is their claim “100% acceptance with Top Employers in the region.”
“I’m not even an engineer and I received this email as well,” says John Hernandez, a sales consultant who was approached by the Gulf Engineering Association.
UAE-based engineer Orlando Ortiz says he got an email from the Gulf Engineering Board requesting him to pay within two days the amount of $399 or find his slot for the title of CPEng forfeited. “When it is too good to be true it isn’t true,” wrote Ortiz on a public forum.
