There has recently been an increase in reported scams and instances of fraud across the recruitment sector in the Middle East.

Jobs and employment scams trick you into handing over your money by offering you a ‘guaranteed’ way to make fast money or a high-paying job for little effort.

These cybercriminals can be quite effective at blending in with real messages from Hays to try to gain your trust. Scams include fake calls, e-mails, WhatsApp and social media messages claiming to be from Hays with bogus job offers, services and requests to click links to verify information. Our IT teams are doing all they can to maintain the highest levels of cybersecurity. As an extra security measure, below we share some tips to help detect these phishing attempts and prevent your data from being stolen.

THINK BEFORE YOU CLICK

Phishing attacks are becoming more elaborate, so it's important to always remain vigilant.
Here are some tips to help you detect and avoid phishing attempts:

	Be wary of messages with an urgent tone, misspellings, incorrect branding, poor design and requests for personal data or the download of an application or file.
	If a message seems suspicious, never reply, click on any links, or download or open any files.
	If you know the sender but the communication still seems suspicious, do not reply to the suspicious message, click on any links or open or download any files. Double-check with the sender via a different channel.
📧 Email
	If the sender's email address doesn't end with our global or country domains (@hays.com/.ae/.es/.nl /.pl, etc.) or with our marketing email domain (@email.hays.com), be cautious.
	The same is true for any other organisation: in most cases, email addresses use the same domain as the company’s official website address.
📱 SMS and WhatsApp
	Always check for suspicious country or area codes of an incoming call, sms or WhatsApp message. More often than not, they will come from unusual locations.
	Be wary of short links. If you didn't request a link, avoid clicking.
📞 Phone calls
	Stay calm and do not share any sensitive information if a call feels rushed or pressured. It might be a scam.
	If you are suspicious, verify the caller's identity. Hang up and call back using an official phone number listed on the official company website.