Madelein Smit | HR expert and MD | HR Company Solutions | mail me |
Recruitment scams are becoming a horrible and worrying trend in South Africa.
One of the fastest growing recruitment agencies has recently been hit by a recruitment scam and we would like to warn job seekers that scammers are using company names to defraud job seekers.
We were alerted to this phenomenon when we started receiving calls from people asking us about their jobs.
The scammer asked job seekers to pay a fee in order to secure a job interview using the name of one of our employees.
Unemployment
With the rate of unemployment going up quarterly, scammers are also hard at work. Scammers are taking advantage of the thousands of unemployed South Africans who are in desperate need of work.
We would like to increase people’s awareness and knowledge regarding these recruitment scams to ensure that job seekers do not end up losing money and their good names.
Tips on how to spot a job scam:
- Recruitment agencies can not charge a candidate any amount of money to assist them in finding a job.
- We live in the digital era, where every business has a website. Thus, the company or person should be able to provide you with their website address. Ensure that you look at their website.
- If the person who contacted you stated that you have been ‘shortlisted for a job’, and you haven’t applied for any jobs, this should also raise a red flag as you cannot be shortlisted for something that you haven’t even applied for. If you have been applying for jobs, ask the person for the specific details of the job so that you can determine if this is indeed one of the jobs for which you have applied.
- Remember that sending your CV to someone, gives them access to important personal information which can be very dangerous and lead to things such as identification theft. Thus, before sending your CV to anyone make sure that the person or company is legitimate.
- Unfortunately, if something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. So, beware of people who can ‘guarantee’ you a job in exchange for R300 – recruiting doesn’t work like that.
- When applying for jobs advertised through Gumtree, Indeed, etc, be sure to read through the job descriptions and specifications, make sure there is a valid contact number and company name before applying.
- When searching for a job, use platforms such as PNET, Careers24, Indeed etc. Recruiters and companies who advertise a job on these platforms must present relevant business documentation as well as pay a monthly fee before they are able to post job vacancies. Note – only recruiters pay a fee, applicants are not charged anything. This ensures that the positions you are applying for are legitimate.
- Before uploading any of your personal information or your CV to websites or other platforms that require you to do so, make sure these are trusted and legitimate.