A scammer in Australia offering ISO 9001 in only “5 days” has been identified as Zain Jafar of Edara Systems.
Jafar operates a series of scammer websites, one of which claims to represent the company “ISO9001 Consultants” in Sydney that says users can “Obtain Your ISO 9001 Certification In 5 days Guaranteed Using Our 99% Done For You Service.” That page then claims that certification is eventually issued by a JASANZ accredited certification body, but the page includes a counterfeit certificate from the defunct certification body SAI Global.
The certificate appearing on Jafar’s website has a photoshopped expiration date of 2026, but SAI Global was sold to Intertek in 2021. The forged document then includes the signature of former SAI Global accreditation head Alex Ezrakhovich, who left SAI in 2011.
Jafar’s fraudulent claims then insist that users will not have to do any work to obtain his fake certificate:
Our ‘done for you’ service involves developing and implementing industry-specific systems and documentation so your business meets ISO standards. You could be ISO 9001 certified with a highly-reputable JAS-ANZ accredited Certification Body in 5 days, guaranteed… while doing almost none of the work yourself.
Nowhere on the ISO9001 Consultants page does Jafar identify himself as the operator, and there appear to be no business records in Australia filed for the company. Oxebridge identified Jafar as the owner through alternative means.
Jafar does, however, claim to own another ISO consulting company, Edara Systems. That company does appear to be registered in Australia, as Edara Pty Ltd.
On LinkedIn, Jafar makes the fake claim that Edara is responsible for “7,000+ certifications. Across every state. Australia and New Zealand.” According to the most recent ISO Survey report, those two countries only hold over 16,200 certificates between them, so Jafar’s company — which appears to only have himself as the sole employee — would have certified 43% of them.
The Edara site does have photos of the diminutive Jafar with actual clients, so he appears to have had some success either duping companies or finding scammers to partner with. An image with logos of alleged clients includes many companies in the Australian construction industry, but only includes about 70 companies, a far cry from Jafar’s fraudulent claim of having certified “7,000.” It is not clear if the companies whose logos appear even hired Edara.
Jafar’s LinkedIn profile suggest he originates from Dubai, but moved to Australia sometime in the early 2000s.
The website for another Australia-based certificate mill, Meridian Accreditors, appears nearly identical to the ISO9001 Consultants page, but claims to offer certification in “10 days” instead of five.
That company also claims to operate out of Sydney and hides its management. LinkedIn, however, lists its manager as another Middle Eastern transplant, Fouad Arnaout, but the similar design of the two companies’ websites, and nearly identical marketing suggests they may be linked.
Australia has seen a flood of Indian and Middle Eastern scammers enter the market, often falsely claiming accreditation by that country’s official accreditation body JASANZ, who seems either powerless to stop the problem or wholly incompetent. JAZANZ underwent a radical management change and the new executives seem uninformed on basic accreditation practices and how to address the growing problem of fraudulent certificate mills in Australia and New Zealand.
