The clearest sign of a fake Gulf job offer is a request for money. UAE law prohibits employers from charging workers “for the fees and costs of recruitment and employment”, and Saudi Arabia’s Labor Law puts recruitment, work permit and Iqama fees on the employer. The UAE government’s own advice is direct: “Do not pay. If the hiring company or the agency asks you for money to process the visa or medical test, it is not a genuine company.” Below are ten warning signs, each tied to what an official body or a real employer says, all read on 4 October 2026.
Every job on CareerMENA links to the employer’s own application page. Use this list for messages and offers that reach you any other way.
Ten warning signs and what the official sources say
1. You are asked to pay for a visa, medical test or “processing”
u.ae: “Do not pay. If the hiring company or the agency asks you for money to process the visa or medical test, it is not a genuine company.” Article 6 of the UAE Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 prohibits the employer from charging the worker recruitment and employment fees or collecting them from the worker. In Saudi Arabia, Article 40 of the Labor Law makes the employer bear the fees for recruiting non-Saudi workers, issuing and renewing the Iqama and work permit, exit and re-entry visas and the return ticket.
2. A recruitment agency wants a fee from you
u.ae: “Job seekers are not required to pay money to any recruitment agency as the onus to pay such fees lies with the employers.”
3. A job site wants a commission after you are hired
u.ae: “If you land a job through a job portal, you are not required to pay commission to any party; neither to the recruiting company nor to the company behind the job portal.”
4. The offer comes from a personal email address
u.ae advises you to “Check for the email ID from which you receive job offers. It should reflect the domain name of the organisation.” An offer “from Etihad” sent from a free webmail address fails this test.
5. There is no MOHRE offer letter you can check
For UAE private-sector jobs, u.ae states: “If you are offered a job in the UAE, you must get an offer letter issued by the UAE’s Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MOHRE)”, and “You can verify the validity of the job offer using its reference number through the enquiry service.” After you sign it, the employer sends an electronic entry permit for employment.
6. You cannot find the company in an official register
u.ae: “Make sure that the company legally exists. You can search the company’s English and Arabic name in the National Economic register.”
7. You are told to come on a visit visa and “sort the papers later”
u.ae: “Visit or tourist entry permit/visa does not give you right to work in the UAE” and “Working under visit or tourist visa will result in fines and legal liability.” In Saudi Arabia, Article 33 of the Labor Law states that a non-Saudi may not work before obtaining a work permit from the Ministry.
8. An “offer” arrives without any interview, or asks for bank details
Etihad Airways’ recruitment fraud alert, published on its cabin crew posting, says: “We will never ask for personal information, bank details, or payment during the recruitment process. Interviews are conducted face-to-face or via video/telephone before any formal offer. If you are asked for money, please treat it as fraudulent.”
9. Someone asks to keep your passport
Article 13 of the UAE Decree-Law lists among the employer’s obligations “Not withholding the official documents of the worker”. A request to hand over your passport to secure a job contradicts that rule.
10. In Saudi Arabia, no contract appears for you to approve on Qiwa
HRSD’s Contract Management service lets establishments create and document contracts electronically, and “the employee can approve, reject or request to amend the contract” through Qiwa Afrad. An offer that never becomes a contract in your account has not been documented with the Ministry.
What a genuine posting looks like
- It is on the employer’s own careers site or its applicant tracking system (Oracle, SuccessFactors, Greenhouse, Lever, SmartRecruiters), and you apply there.
- It names the job, the location and the requirements, and some employers state outright that they never charge. The UNFPA and ICRC postings in our records both say they charge no fee at any stage (records verified 27 September 2026).
- Contact comes from the employer’s own email domain, and an interview comes before any offer.
- On CareerMENA, each job page shows the date we last checked the posting on the employer’s site and links to that page, so you can confirm it is still open. Once the closing date passes, the job page shows the status “Closed”.
If you think you have been targeted
- Do not pay and do not send copies of your passport, ID or bank card.
- Keep copies of the messages, the senders’ names, phone numbers and email addresses, and any receipt if you have already paid; a complaint will need them.
- Check the job on the employer’s official careers page. If it is not there, treat the offer as unconfirmed.
- UAE: u.ae says you can “refer to the ministry to check for licensed companies or raise a complaint” with MOHRE, and check a job offer by its reference number.
- If a message uses our name, forward it to [email protected]. Our contact page states: “If you receive a message asking for money in our name, do not pay”.
We could not open an official Saudi, Qatari or Kuwaiti page on job-offer fraud on 4 October 2026, so we give no reporting channel for those countries here. HRSD published a decision on rules for advertising vacancies and conducting interviews on 23 March 2025; its attachment was not readable to us, so we do not summarise it.
Advice: if a recruiter moves the conversation to WhatsApp or Telegram and away from the employer’s official channels, slow down and check every claim against the employer’s own careers page before you share anything.
Read our guide to reading a Gulf job offer before you sign anything. Listings are always free; we never ask for documents or payment to apply. Apply on the employer’s official page via careermena.com.
