Singapore Expats

Today I received a very peculiar e-mail

Dear Ms.Barbara,

I am Subhashri from Aptitude Professional Services, Singapore. I understand that you are looking for job in Singapore. Since our company's core service is placement/recruiment, we can help you source a suitable job in Singapore.

Currently, we have a opening with our prestigious client for Marketing/Sales position and your profile is closely matching with their requirement.
Kindly assist us to provide the below information to proceed further.

1) Are you in Singapore now.
If not, Are you willing to come to Singapore to attend the interview.


Thanks & Regards,
Subhashri
Singapore

I mean, IS THIS FOR REAL? No phone address, no real address, no website, no surname, no nothing No details of the job, no information on where they have found my resume. And the form itself seems rather... unprofessional. I tried to look for the company's site, but I just found some broken semi-existing page with 2005 date on in.

Is this some kind of scam, or does recruitment in Singapore really work like that? Pleas, tell me what you think about it, because I am really confused

I had an email from the same person a couple of weeks ago. I'm guessing you've got your CV/Profile on sites like Monster, Jobsdb etc.

Your CV could have even have to "sold on" by another agency that you've already sent your CV to recently.

yes, I have uploaded my resume on JobStreet, but I am seriously lost here Is there any use to even reply to such e-mail? It seems somewhat ... fishy.

Personally, I'd be a little suspect. What is the return e-mail address? It could be (call me paranoid) and additional part of a "phishing" scam".

One tip - when using jobs, monster, or anything, use a "disposable" e-mail address - always keep your "real" e-mail address cloaked to public view.

HTH, P

Hi All,

Personally, I am a headhunter specialising in positions within the IT/Telco/Digital Media industries.

May I say that the email does seem fishy as it is NOT a common practice for headhunters to send any emails without contacts for you to reach.

Also, CVs are not "sold on". If you have placed your CVs on the employment sites, chances are, professional headhunters have state of the art research technologies and registered accounts to search through CVs available. So don't worry, your resumes are not on the market for any form of monetary exchange.

Hope that helps in your queries about the local headhunting scene!

Cheers!

For the record, the named Employment Agency, if it, in fact, actually exists, is not registered with the Ministry of Manpower and has no Employment Agency License at least as of 27 May 2008. (It could have gotten a license since that date but all correspondence is required by law to have the Agency License number display in the correspondence). Neither is it a license holder that is currently under investigation nor is it an agency with a revoked license. So it's either a phishing expedition or an unlicensed/unprofessional agent so do not get involved with them.

sms

Yes it does sound rather "scammy". Did "Subhashri" leave any contact details such as office number or mobile?

SMS is right. If this Co. is not listed in the Yellow Pages or Registrar, then it certainly sounds very dodgy.

What you could do is if there is really a number provided, give this guy a call and see what he's up to. If there're no authentic-looking contacts, then skip it.

Good luck!

I'm not sure where is Hithnar from, but in case some of you are aware of this piece of news.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6961880.stm

CV may not be sold by companies, but they might be hacked. There are alot of scams going around, so do be careful whenever you respond to anything...

Hey why not verify the company by checking singapore yellow page website or google the company's name? if it's registered,then u can surely relax =)
good luck!

ryce wrote:Hey why not verify the company by checking singapore yellow page website or google the company's name? if it's registered,then u can surely relax =)
good luck!

Hey why not read the thread? You would find that my reply indicates that I've already checked with the MOM who does the licensing.

The easiest way for somebody to acquire your e-mail address is for you to simply reply to an unknown party. When I receive 'invitations' from people I don't know to be friends, job offers, cut-price holidays, told I have won something and so on either by way of facebook, messenger, yahoo or e-mail I simply delete the message and where possible block the sender.

Companies without websites and no contact numbers have clearly got something to hide so I agree with all the doubts posted above.