Fake UAE job offers have a house style: polished PDF offer letters, WhatsApp "recruiters", visa copies that exist only as images. In August 2026 MOHRE warned jobseekers inside and outside the country about exactly these patterns, and Dubai Police have run their own warnings through 2026. The good news: the UAE hiring system is unusually verifiable, because every genuine private-sector job offer and employment contract is registered with the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MOHRE), and every check here is free. For candidates abroad and residents changing jobs alike, it covers verifying the offer, the company and any visa claim, the law on recruitment fees (you never pay them), and where to report a scam, as of August 2026. It sits within the wider work guide.
At a Glance
| What to verify | Official channel | What you need |
|---|---|---|
| Offer letter / e-contract is registered | MOHRE website (Services → New Enquiry Services → Enquiry Services → Enquiry for Job Offer), smart app, or call centre 600590000 | Transaction number and company number printed on the offer |
| Company exists, licence valid | National Economic Register — Growth platform (growth.gov.ae) | The company's registered business name |
| Visa or entry-permit claim | ICP / GDRFA — see how to check a UAE visa status | Passport details or file number |
| Recruiter or agency is licensed | MOHRE — ask for the licence number and confirm on 600590000 | Agency name and licence number |
| Any request for money | Illegal — Article 6(4), Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 | — |
| Report a fake offer | MOHRE 600590000; Dubai Police eCrime or 901; Abu Dhabi Aman 800 2626 | Screenshots, receipts, the documents sent |
One rule sits above the others: in the UAE, the employer pays every recruitment cost. A "recruiter" asking you for money has already answered the question.
The Five Verification Checks
Step 1 — Verify the offer letter in MOHRE's systems. A genuine UAE private-sector offer is not a free-form PDF: employers must issue it on the MOHRE standard form, it is filed in the ministry's systems before you sign it, and official offers carry a serial number and barcode checkable through the ministry's website, smart app or call centre on 600590000. The self-service route is the enquiry section on mohre.gov.ae (Services → New Enquiry Services → Enquiry Services → Enquiry for Job Offer): enter the transaction number — the alphanumeric code printed under the MOHRE logo — plus the company number and the contract dates or permit type, and the system returns the registered offer to compare against your copy. Two instant failures: a letter with no transaction number and no company number was never filed, and an offer whose registered details differ from your copy has been doctored.
Step 2 — Verify the company exists and its licence is current. Every legitimate UAE employer holds a licence from an economic department or free-zone authority and is registered with MOHRE — that is what the company number on the offer letter is. Look the company up on the National Economic Register — the Ministry of Economy's licence database, rebuilt as the Growth platform at growth.gov.ae and covering business licences across all seven emirates — by the company's registered business name. Gulf News reports that the licence enquiry is reached through a UAE Pass login, so candidates abroad without one should ask for a trade licence copy and confirm it with the issuing economic department or free-zone authority. Refusal to share licence details is a red flag in itself — they are public information. One caveat: Dubai Police have flagged 2026 scams trading on the names of real, well-known companies, so a valid licence proves the company exists, not that the vacancy does.
Step 3 — Verify any visa or work-permit claim. A classic scam sequence is a fake "approved visa" sent as an image to justify a fee. Never pay against a picture. Entry permits and residence visas can be checked directly with the immigration authorities — the federal ICP portal for most emirates, GDRFA for Dubai — using your own passport details; the walkthrough is in how to check your UAE visa status, within the wider visa guide. There is also a free sequence check: MOHRE approves the signed offer letter and work permit before an employment entry permit exists, so a "visa" that arrives before you have signed anything registered with MOHRE is out of order — and almost certainly fabricated.
Step 4 — Verify the recruiter. Under Article 6(3) of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021, recruitment and employment mediation may only be carried out under a MOHRE licence, with the conditions set out in Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022. A genuine agency states its licence number without hesitation — and never asks you for a fee. Treat "freelance recruiters" on personal numbers and free email accounts as unlicensed by default, and confirm any agency's licence with MOHRE on 600590000 before engaging.
Step 5 — Confirm the vacancy through the company's official channels. Find the employer's website independently — not through links in the offer email — and contact the HR address or number listed there to confirm the vacancy and the named recruiter. Ask for a video interview with the actual hiring manager too: genuine employers interview before they hire, and a process that never leaves a chat thread is one of MOHRE's red flags. MOHRE's own warning tells jobseekers not to pay money, transfer funds or share personal or banking details until the offer has been confirmed as authentic; going to the company direct is the step that defeats the real-company-name scam, because only the company itself can tell you whether the vacancy exists.
The Law: Workers Never Pay to Be Hired
Article 6(4) — every recruitment cost is the employer's
The legal position is unusually clean. Article 6(4) of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 (the UAE Labour Law) states that "the employer is prohibited from charging the worker for the fees and costs of recruitment and employment or collecting them from him, whether directly or indirectly." That covers agency commissions, the work permit, visa costs, medical tests and Emirates ID — the whole recruitment stack sits on the employer's side of the ledger. "Indirectly" matters: deducting those costs from salary after you start is just as illegal as an upfront fee — worth knowing alongside your wider labour law rights. For domestic workers, Federal Decree-Law No. 9 of 2022 separately bars agencies from taking any commission or expenses from the worker. The prohibition even survives a job change: under Article 9(3), when a worker moves employers during probation, the new employer compensates the old one for recruitment costs — a bill settled between employers, never out of the worker's pocket.
What violators face
Penalties rose sharply at the end of August 2024, when Federal Decree-Law No. 9 of 2024 amended Article 60 of the Labour Law. Fines for the offences listed in Article 60(1) — among them employing a worker without a work permit — run from AED 100,000 to AED 1,000,000, up from AED 50,000 to AED 200,000 before the amendment. Article 60(2) covers fictitious employment in the same range, multiplied by the number of fictitious employees; Article 62 caps worker-count-based fines at AED 10,000,000. Outright job-offer fraud is a criminal matter for the police rather than the ministry, which is why the reporting channels split in two. There is no legitimate version of "pay us AED 3,500 for visa processing". None.
What a Real UAE Hiring Flow Looks Like
Scammers invert the real sequence: they promise a visa first and demand money to "release" it. The genuine flow, as published on the UAE government portal, runs the other way — formal job offer, then employment contract, then work permit, then work visa — and each stage leaves a record you can check.
| Stage | Who acts and pays | What you sign or receive |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Job offer | Employer issues the MOHRE standard offer form | You sign; keep the copy with the transaction number |
| 2. Work permit application | Employer applies to MOHRE, signed offer attached | Nothing — no fee ever reaches you |
| 3. Entry permit / employment visa | Employer-side processing via immigration (ICP/GDRFA) | An entry permit verifiable against your passport number |
| 4. E-contract registration | Employer registers the MOHRE e-contract | Terms that must conform with the signed offer |
| 5. Residence formalities | Employer processes medicals, Emirates ID, residence stamping | Your Emirates ID and stamped residence |
| 6. Salary | Employer pays via the Wage Protection System (WPS) | Bank-credited salary, not cash promises |
Three features of this flow are verification gold. First, the offer letter precedes everything — an "employer" who cannot produce a MOHRE-registered offer but claims your visa is ready has the sequence backwards. Second, under Ministerial Decree No. 46 of 2022, the contract must be concluded on the standard offer and contract forms the ministry approves and publishes, and the employer must use the approved standard contract "that conforms with the job offer" when applying for the work permit — extra benefits may be added in your favour, but terms are not cut back or renegotiated at the airport, and what a compliant contract contains is standardised. Third, no payment ever flows from you: government fees are paid by the employer through official channels such as Tasheel service centres, never by transfer to a personal account. A genuine employer may ask for documents — attested certificates, or a home-country good conduct certificate under the 2026 rollout — never for money. WPS mechanics, including the 2026 WPS rule changes, are in the payslips guide.
If the offer is genuine: read the split before signing
A real offer states basic wage and allowances separately, and the split moves money. End-of-service gratuity accrues on basic wage alone — 21 days' basic pay per year of service for the first five years, 30 days beyond, under the rules on the UAE government portal — so a package of AED 15,000 split 9,000 basic and 6,000 allowances earns nearly double the gratuity of the same total split 5,000 and 10,000. Banks, by contrast, typically size credit cards and loans on the full transferred salary. Housing, transport and schooling allowances are usually where the negotiating room sits; the basic wage is what carries the statutory entitlements.
The Fake-Recruiter Red Flags Playbook
MOHRE's seven red flags
In an August 2026 warning to jobseekers inside and outside the UAE, MOHRE listed the patterns that identify fraudulent offers: requests for payment to secure employment; unusually high salaries for the position; pressure to pay or share information immediately; email from free or non-official domains; interviews conducted only through informal messaging apps; requests for bank details, passwords or verification codes; and refusal to provide an official offer that can be independently verified. Most fake offers trip several at once. Legitimate employers create urgency around start dates, not around payments.
The money ask
Every variant of the fee request means scam, because the law makes all of them the employer's cost: "visa processing" fees, "medical file" fees, "work permit deposits", "registration" or "training" fees promised back after you join, ticket booking through a chosen agent, refundable "security deposits", payments to "release" an approved visa. The demand is usually urgent — pay today or the visa lapses — because urgency is the scammer's only defence against the checks above. Dubai Police warnings through 2026 add a newer variant: fake part-time, task-based "jobs" on social media that harvest an activation fee or banking details — in reported cases victims' accounts were then used to move stolen funds, turning the target into a money mule.
The documents and the salary
Fake files betray themselves: no transaction number or company number, a visa that exists only as a JPEG, spelling errors in a supposedly government document, a single round salary figure instead of the basic-plus-allowances split genuine UAE offers use — and pay pitched at two or three times market rate, especially for unskilled work, is bait, not generosity. Genuine employers recruit through their own domains and the structured routes described in the job hunting guide; anyone "from MOHRE" or "from immigration" demanding payment over a chat app is an impersonator, because ministries collect fees from employers, not candidates.
Reporting a Fake Offer
Step 1 — Stop all contact and preserve evidence. No further documents, data or payments. Keep the offer PDF, chat threads, phone numbers, advertisements and any payment receipts.
Step 2 — Report through the right channel. For anything touching employment — unlicensed agencies, fee demands, fake MOHRE documents — report to MOHRE via its website, smart app or call centre on 600590000 (also a 24/7 WhatsApp channel). For the fraud itself: in Dubai, the Dubai Police eCrime platform or 901 for non-emergency assistance; in Abu Dhabi, the police Aman service on 800 2626; elsewhere, the police of the relevant emirate. The channels get used — MOHRE received nearly 2,100 public reports of labour-market violations in the first half of 2025 alone.
Step 3 — If you already paid, move fast on the money. File the police or eCrime report first, then ask your bank or transfer service to attempt a recall with the report reference attached — recovery odds fall as money is moved on. Report even small sums: the report is what feeds enforcement.
If the offer turns out to be genuine, read the employment contracts guide before signing the e-contract.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I check if a UAE job offer is genuine?
Run the job offer enquiry on mohre.gov.ae with the transaction number and company number printed on the letter, or check the offer's serial number and barcode via the smart app or call centre 600590000. A registered offer comes back with its details; a fake one returns nothing. Then confirm the company's licence and any visa claim in the official systems.
Do I have to pay for my UAE work visa or any recruitment fee?
No — never, for any role, at any stage. Article 6(4) of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 prohibits charging workers recruitment and employment costs, directly or indirectly: the employer pays for the work permit, visa, medicals and any agency commission, and salary deductions for those costs are equally illegal. A request for money in exchange for a UAE job is the defining mark of a scam.
The recruiter says the AED 500 "registration fee" is refundable once I join — can that ever be legitimate?
No — and a MOHRE licence creates no exception. Article 6(4) bars collecting recruitment or employment costs from workers directly or indirectly, so no candidate-paid fee — registration, processing, training, "medical file" — is legal, whether promised back or not, and an agency charging one is either unlicensed or breaching its licence. A genuine employer never has anything to refund, because you never pay. Keep the demand as evidence and report it to MOHRE on 600590000.
How can I verify that a UAE company actually exists?
Search the National Economic Register at growth.gov.ae — the Ministry of Economy's unified database of business licences across all seven emirates — by the company's registered business name. From abroad without a UAE Pass login, ask for a trade licence copy and confirm it with the issuing economic department or free-zone authority. Because 2026 scams have traded on real company names, also confirm the vacancy through the company's own website.
Is a job offer sent only on WhatsApp legitimate?
Treat it as fake until verified. Real recruiters may use WhatsApp for scheduling, but a genuine offer always exists as a MOHRE-registered document, written by identifiable staff from a company domain. Messaging-app-only interviews, free-email recruiters and refusal to provide a verifiable offer are three of the seven red flags in MOHRE's 2026 warning.
A recruiter wants my payslips and bank statements over WhatsApp before any offer — is that normal?
No stage of the genuine flow needs your bank statements: lenders ask for them, employers do not, and MOHRE's 2026 warning lists bank-detail requests among the marks of a fraudulent offer. A question about current salary can be routine; documents proving it, sent to a personal number, are raw material for fraud. And the job board an advert appeared on verifies nothing — run the same checks whatever platform the approach came through.
Someone sent me a copy of my UAE visa — how do I check it is real?
Never treat an image as proof. Check your passport number directly in the official immigration channels — ICP Smart Services for most emirates, GDRFA for Dubai — as walked through in the visa status guide. If the official system shows nothing, no visa exists, whatever the PDF says.
I am in the UAE on a visit visa — can I take up a genuine offer without leaving the country?
Signing a MOHRE-registered offer while on a visit visa is fine; working before the permit exists is not — employment without a work permit sits in the Article 60 fine band. Once the permit is approved, status is adjusted inside the country through ICP, or GDRFA for Dubai, with no exit required. Separately, the jobseeker visit visa described on u.ae runs 60, 90 or 120 days with no host or sponsor, for MOHRE skill levels one to three or recent graduates of the world's top 500 universities.
Does MOHRE verification work from outside the UAE?
Yes. The enquiry services on mohre.gov.ae and the smart app work from anywhere, the Growth licence register is online, and MOHRE's WhatsApp channel on 600590000 operates around the clock. Most fake offers target candidates before they board a plane — running the full check from your home country is exactly how the system is meant to be used.
I already paid from outside the UAE — how do I report it and can I get the money back?
Distance does not block the report: MOHRE's 600590000 channels work internationally, and the Dubai Police eCrime platform takes fraud reports online with no station visit. Then follow the money steps above — a recall request to your bank or transfer service with the report reference attached — and file with the police in your own country as well: the transfer left their jurisdiction, and a local report supports the recall attempt.
