BHP Billiton will continue to source workers through external agencies despite a recent legal stoush over a rogue employment scam.
The mining giant was forced to take legal action through an arm of the United Nations earlier this year to combat a scam that solicited workers for BHP Billiton without the company’s knowledge.
According to legal documents filed to the World Intellectual Property Organisation, European-based scammers approached potential employees of BHP Billiton and advised them that the company considered them suitable for employment.
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The approaches were made using the internet domain “bhp-plc.com” — an address strikingly similar to BHP Billiton’s trading name on the London Stock Exchange.
The culprits had no commercial relationship with BHP Billiton, and the company fears they may have issued “phoney employment contracts” that purport to be on behalf of BHP Billiton.
The scam sought to capitalise on an era of severe skills shortages in the resources sector, where most large mining companies — including BHP Billiton — rely on external agencies to help supply labour.
BHP Billiton believes the approaches were an attempt to scam unsuspecting victims of personal information, rather than an unauthorised attempt to supply labour in a freelance capacity.
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