A North Sea operator and an Aberdeen-based engineering firm claim fraudulent recruitment emails have been sent out in their names.
Nexen CNOOC and Sparrows Group issued warnings on their social media channels yesterday about the activity taking place.
Nexen said they had been made aware of false recruitment advertising and emails going out promising employment at their firm. The operator said the correspondence is being sent out in a bid to solicit personal information and payments.
Legitimate emails from Nexen end in @nexeninc.com or @nexencnoocltd.com and the firm said any others should be treated as fraudulent and reported to the police.
The company said: “Nexen is aware that individuals and organizations are using the Nexen logo and names of executives to solicit personal information, request payment, promise employment or award monetary prizes. These emails are fraudulent. Nexen will forward all information relating to these frauds to legal authorities for appropriate action.
“Anyone who believes they may have been targeted is advised to contact their local police department.”
Warning signs include requests for money, spelling and grammatical errors and requests for personal data. Others may claim urgency, such as an offer only being valid for 24 hours.
Nexen said that some fraudulent emails may contain viruses which will infect computers.
Meanwhile Sparrows have also issued a recruitment fraud warning, saying that there have been recent incidents of organisations and individuals sending emails with false job opportunities.
The firm said these may include requests for money.
Sparrows said that it will never ask for cash at any point in the recruitment process and neither will any recruitment firm acting on its behalf. In a statement the firm said: “Should you be asked to make a payment, you should assume that the requester is not providing genuine services and that any offers made are false.
“During the Sparrows recruitment process, you will always meet in person a Sparrows employee for an interview at our premises before any job offer is made.”
Sparrows added that any job offers can be verified by contacting its HR Department at careers@sparrowsgroup.com