A bogus overseas employer is ripping off UK recruiters by failing to pay the wages of ‘fake’ temporary staff sent to work for them, according to police.
The City of London Police has warned that a fake foreign company will contact agencies looking for temps with specific skill sets, such as multiple languages.
The false employer will then send the recruitment agency a sham CV matching the specific skillset, which secures the worker a job at the non-existent company.
The agency pays the wages of the temp, but fails to get any money back from the overseas company.
City of London said the criminal behind the scam is thought to have earned more than £300,000.
A spokeswoman told Personnel Today: “The crime only comes to light when invoices to recover the wages are sent to the false company and not reimbursed.”
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The fraudster involved has used the same aliases in several crimes and companies are being asked to check their records for the following names:
- Antonio Almeda, Anotnio Almeida or Tony D’Almeda or similar spelling
- Bero Venturi or Berodo Venturi or similar spelling
- The company names ‘Myers and Myers’ and ‘hhi tekno’ have also been used.
DC Kevin Ives said: “City of London Police want to warn others so they can avoid becoming victims and encourage the industry to ensure robust vetting procedures and ID checks are carried out on new clients”.
