15/09/2021
JOB SCAM ALERT- PLEASE SHARE ‼️
Desperate job-seekers are falling victim to fake job posts on Facebook, Indeed.com, and other platforms that pretend to offer stable employment.
Thirty-year-old Sandiso Dosini’s job search was not yielding any results. After sending application after application, he was about to lose hope when his aunt received an SMS that Anglo American was recruiting boiler-makers. Excited, he called the contact number and was briefly interviewed.
The person at the other end of the phone was charming and professional. Dosini was told that Anglo American would be happy to welcome him to the team. He just had to submit the required documentation and pay a R650 refundable deposit for accommodation. This was to ensure only serious candidates applied, he was told.
Dosini borrowed money from friends and deposited it at the post office as instructed. The next instruction was that he should wait at the bus station in Mthatha to be picked up to go to Rustenburg on a Monday morning at 10.30am.
At midday he called his contact again to find out what the delay was. He was told that the bus was on its way and that in fact, the company had reviewed his application and found that he was overqualified for the position. He would be hired as a supervisor, if he immediately deposited R500. “That’s when I realized that no man, this is a scam!” Dosini says.
A few months later, he applied for a Sasol job in Johannesburg. He was informed that his application was successful, sent a convincing employment contract, and told to deposit a R497 administration fee. But now he knew better.
A recent job post circulating on Facebook advertised a cashier job at Checkers with a salary of R5,000 per month. We pretended to apply for the job and were immediately informed that we had been successful and that we should pay money to confirm employment. The advertisement was branded with Checkers insignia and the email communication was well-written.
These are the classic forms of job scam, in which applicants are asked for an upfront payment to “secure employment” or for an “administrative fee”.
