The Engineering Council is aware of three main types of fraudulent claims and activities - relating to our professional qualifications, and applications for them.

Engineering Council Registration Scams

Overseas engineers and technicians should be aware of a fraud that offers Engineering Council registration as part of an offer for a job based in the UK.

The scam typically starts with an email offering an engineering job based in the UK.   (These jobs tend to be with large companies in the oil and energy industries, e.g. Shell). This is the first time you will have heard of the person or company contacting you.  The email might say:

• You must contact the agent offering the job
• You must pay money to the agent and only use their insurance companies (etc.)
• That the UK government requires you to be registered with the Engineering Council to be able to get a work visa. They will sort this out for you (for a fee of £200 or more)
• The emails may provide phone numbers, email and website addresses, even company addresses. You will usually only be contacted by email. The phone numbers usually are message services, and you do not get to speak to a person. The information on the websites is generally untrue. The company addresses are mail drops, which are then forwarded to the people carrying out the scam.

The Engineering Council has seen a large number of emails used as part of this scam and strongly advises anyone who has received and responded to such an email not to pay any money to these people. Nothing they promise can be provided and you will only lose the money you pay to them.

Registration with the Engineering Council can ONLY be made by direct application through one of our professional engineering institutions.

Misuse of Engineering Council Titles

The professional titles, Chartered Engineer, Incorporated Engineer, Engineering Technician and Information and Communications Technology Technician are awarded by the Engineering Council. These titles may only be used by individuals with current Engineering Council registration.  They are protected under our Royal Charter.

If you are aware of anyone using any of these titles, who is not entitled to do so, please contact us by phone or through our contact us form.

If you wish to check whether an individual is professionally qualified, with current Engineering Council registration, please contact us.

Fraudulent Qualifications

There is a huge increase in the number of people claiming to hold academic qualifications - usually degrees or post-graduate degrees - which have not been lawfully gained through study and research. They have been bought from online 'universities' and 'colleges' which do not have any authority in their own country to award degrees.

These qualifications have no academic value and do not contribute towards demonstrating the requirements for professional qualification with the Engineering Council. Anybody applying to a professional engineering institution using a fraudulent qualification can expect to have their application, at the least, turned down for this reason.