UN Information Centre Islamabad

The United Nations in Pakistan wishes to inform all business partners and the general public that a number of incidents have come to light in the recent past where unscrupulous individuals have impersonated UN officials for financial gains.

These individuals offer employment or cash grants or trick companies into offering bids for the supply of large quantities of items to the UN. The impersonators frequently use letterheads and official titles that appear at face value to establish their credentials as bone-fide UN staff. In most cases they identify their targets by either directly approaching them or through accomplice intermediaries.

They often call their targeted subject to restaurants, cafés or hotels that are near to a legitimate UN office to convince the targeted subject of their authenticity. The imposters may also use cars with fake or stolen UN registration plates. Eventually, they demand the subject to advance money to facilitate pre-job training, issuance of cheques or establishment of contracts.

The UN wishes to re-iterate that there are no costs associated with an application for a UN job vacancy, or to bid for UN service contracts. A ny reference to cash advances for processing or application fees is a sign that the matter is not a legitimate operation.

The UN has no way to stop such practices. In the light of increasing number of such scams, the UN wishes to advise everyone to observe the following practices to avoid being taken-in by professional confidence tricksters:

Scrutinize all credentials and check for official UN identity cards.
Check references thoroughly.
Get an office address and telephone number and insist on meeting in an official UN office, during working hours.
Never give any money or provide personal data such as family or banking information, past job references or documents that bear your signature.
Do not be pressured into signing anything.