Gulf News

Beware of job offers from this ‘hospital’

It exists only in the virtual world; all content stolen from Dubai’s Cedar Jebel Ali Internatio­nal Hospital

- BY MAZHAR FAROOQUI Staff Writer

Scam artists targeting health profession­als with bogus job offers have become more brazen.

In the latest incident, they plagiarise­d the website of Dubai’s popular Cedars Jebel Internatio­nal Hospital (www. cedars-jaih.com) to lure people into “high-paying jobs” at the fictitious Chiron Hospital (chironhp.com ), supposedly located in Jumeirah Lake Towers. As it turns out, there is no Chiron Hospital in Dubai or for that matter anywhere in the world. The only place Chiron Hospital exists is online.

Yesterday, Gulf News reported about a similar scam where con men stole contents from a private hospital in Oman, and created a website for the non-existent Al Kaka Hospital with a purported Abu Dhabi address, to scam jobseekers.

Several people, including a doctor based in Spain fell for the racket. Dr Z.E. is among many others who ended up paying Dh9,860 towards a ‘visa processing fee’ and other charges for lucrative jobs at the fake hospital. But now the con men, apparently from the same gang, have picked a ‘ghost’ Dubai hospital.

Same modus operandi

While the setting has changed, the modus operandi of their well-orchestrat­ed recruitmen­t scam remains the same. Yet again, scores of job seekers worldwide have received offer letters promising them attractive salaries and a slew of perks including monthly entertainm­ent and recreation allowances.

Dr Emile from Uganda for instance, has been offered a monthly pay of Dh20,500 plus Dh15,500 in allowances for a general practition­er’s position at Chiron. Similarly, South African Kalonji Mbula, Indian Asha S. and Filipina B. Lihat have been lured with a bait of Dh16,500 each for nurse’s positions.

Additional “benefits” include a weekly allowance of Dh1500, Dh6,000 monthly towards car maintenanc­e and travel, and Dh19,000 annually for home furnishing. If this were not good enough, all employees have been offered fully free, furnished accommodat­ion including threeand five-bedroom villas.

To avail of these dream jobs, candidates have been asked to make a refundable security deposit of $1,190 (Dh4,355) with Chiron’s Hospital’s logistics agent — in this case, a recruitmen­t agency supposedly located on ‘Biryani Street’ in Palm Jumeirah. This money, candidates are told, will cover their visa applicatio­n and residence permit fees.

If previous scams modelled on similar lines are anything to go by, the candidates will never hear from the Chiron or its “logistics agent” firm once they make the bank transfers.

 ??  ?? The job offer from the fictitious Chiron Hospital.
The job offer from the fictitious Chiron Hospital.
 ??  ?? The plagiarise­d website of Dubai’s Cedars Jebel Internatio­nal Hospital.
The plagiarise­d website of Dubai’s Cedars Jebel Internatio­nal Hospital.

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