Last January I applied to a Vacation Notice appeared through JOOBLE job portal for a position of Administrative Officer issued by UNSDGsF. I started a correspondence which entailed the exchange of several forms to be filled up all printed out on the Organization letterhead along with 26 Behavioral Questions as part of an online interview. The long detailed Questionnaire was not reporting suspicion question. After submitting the answer I waited for a reply that did not come even after a couple of follow up attempt.
On last May the 29, after several months of silence I received on the same email account reported above, an official Letter of Appointment along with a Confidentiality and a Declaration of Loyalty all to be signed and returned to the sender. This started a new wave of intense correspondence of many dedicated documents-forms-questionnaires all strictly related to the several phases of the recruitment process (request of Visas for US/NY in order to accomplished an Orientation/Induction course, Hong Kong Visa form, several form related to life and medical insurance, request for an official lasseiz passer, medical report from local doctor, certificate of current residence, etc.). None of the mentioned document was containing suspicious question. Nevertheless it emerged on my side the need for an accommodation in Hong Kong and I asked whether they were in connection with a local organization in charge to provide accommodation to diplomatic and/or semi-diplomatic personnel. Their positive answer was followed by a proposal coming straight away from the Hong Kong Housing Authority (on official letterhead) offering a range of apartment of different size/bedrooms. I chose the one-bedroom for an amount of 1,585.00 USD and I transferred the amount to the account reported in the invoice which was not though on the HK House Authority letterhead but on a plain paper sheet and the beneficiary was a man with chines name living in China motherland.
After that I received a new bunch of forms including the Salary Distribution Request Form, a Travel Authorization Form and the Relocation Grant Request Form (to afford the relocation expenses). This was followed by their request to pay the first installment of the maintenance for the booked house in HK to which I firmly opposed claiming that I still not lived in the house and such request is against the best practices on the matter across the world.
After that a week/ten day was marked by their silence even despite some request for legitimate answer over some question such the flight ticket, the point of exit etc.
On last July the 9th I sent an email asking for information in the light of the approaching Starting Duty Date (next August the 3rd) asking about the receiving of the grant in order to start to pack and move my stuff delivering them to the shipping company informing them that I had already terminated my tenancy contract with the landlord of the apartment in Budapest where I live. Their reply was avoiding all questions referring to several difficulties they were experience for the COVID-19, that a meeting would have been held on that weekend and that I would have received detailed answer on next/last July the 14th 2020.
So far, as per today July the 20th I did not receive their reply nor the promise grant which prompt me to start a detailed online search to verify the authenticity of the entire matter.
To my disappointment, I found several information, especially those contained in a UN official site dedicated to warning of possible scam in which one line was dedicate expressively to occurred job scam made under the fake cover of the UNSDGsF.
Let me add that my suspicion is reinforced by the fact that at the beginning of July 2020 I received a couple of notification from Google that someone was using my email account.
What probably happened, according to my humble reconstruction is that after a possible genuine Vacation Notice and the unsuccessful attempt, they hackered my email account noticing the occurred application and started to create a fake procedure. Very wisely and professionally because they never asked explicitly for money but left that prompting from my legitimate desire to get certain matter done (the accommodation). Very skilled criminal with a combined set of competencies such information technology, psychology and law of international organization, exploiting people in need of a job, maybe after a long time, which definitely diminish in them ( and myself) a clear and sound judgment capability.