Gulf Desi Hub

Most people who lose money to a Gulf job scam are not careless. They are hopeful, and the scam is designed to look exactly like the real thing. Here is how to test an offer before any money leaves your hand — because after it leaves, it almost never comes back.

The one rule that stops most scams

A worker should never pay for a job. Under the rules of the GCC states and the sending countries, recruitment costs — visa, work permit, medical, and normally the air ticket — are the employer’s responsibility. Anyone who asks you for a “visa fee”, “processing charge”, “security deposit”, “training fee” or “commission” is either breaking the law or inventing the job.

Fourteen warning signs

1. Payment is requested to a personal bank account, a mobile wallet, crypto, or through a friend or relative.
2. The salary is far above the normal rate for that trade, with no experience required.
3. You are told to hurry: “only two seats left”, “visa expiring today”.
4. There is no written offer letter with the company name, job title, salary, hours and contract length.
5. The company email is a free address like gmail or hotmail instead of a company domain.
6. The agent will only speak on a messaging app and refuses a call to the company’s official number.
7. The agency cannot give a licence number that you can check with your own country’s overseas employment authority.
8. You are told you will “work on a visit visa and change it later”.
9. The offer letter has spelling errors, a copied logo, or a stamp that looks pasted on.
10. You are asked to send your passport, or the original, before any contract exists.
11. The “interview” happens in a hotel room or a flat, never at an office, and ends with a payment request.
12. You are asked to sign a paper in Arabic or English that nobody will translate for you.
13. The recruiter says medical tests must be done at one specific expensive clinic they control.
14. Nobody can give you the name and address of the actual worksite or employer in the Gulf.

Five checks that take one hour and can save a year’s salary

1. Verify the agency licence. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka each have an official body that registers overseas recruitment agencies and publishes lists of licensed — and blacklisted — agents. Check the name there, not on the agent’s own website.
2. Find the employer independently. Search the company name plus the city. Call the number listed on the company’s own official website, not the number the agent gave you, and ask if they are hiring for that role through that agency.
3. Read the contract before you fly. Job title, basic salary, overtime rate, accommodation, food or allowance, transport, annual leave, ticket, contract length, and who pays what. If the paper you sign at the airport differs from the paper you were shown, that is contract substitution — a violation you can complain about.
4. Register the job the official way. Where your country requires clearance or registration for overseas workers, complete it. It costs little, and it is the only thing that lets your government help you later.
5. Ask the community. Post the company name in Recruitment Scam Alerts before you pay. Someone may already work there — or may already have been cheated by that agent.

If you have already paid

Stop sending money immediately, even if you are told one more payment will fix everything. Collect every receipt, message, voice note and bank slip. Report the agent to your country’s overseas employment authority and to the police in your home district — most sending countries have a specific complaint route for illegal recruitment, and money is sometimes recovered from an agency’s licence bond. Then post the details here, with the agent’s business name, so the next person does not lose the same money. Keep private individuals’ personal details out of the post; name the business.

General information only, not legal advice. Rules differ by country and change; verify with your official overseas employment authority.