Candidates for jobs should be cautious about falling for employment scams as they have the potential to obtain personal information.
Cybercriminals are leveraging social media, which is becoming more and more ingrained in people’s daily lives, to con individuals with fictitious employment offers.
People are especially vulnerable to these employment scams because they are in a frantic search for work, as seen by the rise in South Africa’s unemployment rate to 32.9%.
Cybercriminals are continually changing their tactics to take advantage of the newest developments. Recruitment-related fraud is becoming more likely as social media job searches increase, according to Anna Collard, SVP Content Strategy and Evangelist at KnowBe4 Africa.
varieties of scams involving recruitment
The goal of these kinds of recruitment scams is to trick you into parting with money or personal information.
The first type of scam is impersonation, in which con artists contact victims via email, Facebook, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, or Telegram while pretending to be authentic recruiters.
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“They might trick you into believing they’re from an HR department or recruitment agency by using stolen logos and very attractive people’s profile pictures,” Collard said.
Additionally, there have been scams in which con artists pose as the Department of Employment and Labour in order to promote fictitious employment openings.
In some cases, PEP outlets demanded R250 up front from prospective employees as payment for purported “background checks.”
In a different fraud, job searchers from the North-West region were tricked into paying for their transportation to an interview and a half-day of training in Centurion, only to discover that there were no job offers.
False job postings are a part of the second kind of scam.
Scammers make fictitious job offers on genuine employment boards in an attempt to obtain your personal data.
Collard stated: “Scammers find Facebook especially appealing due to its large user base. They use the Marketplace and Groups parts of the platform to publish fictitious job postings and approach possible victims.
When job searching, you can keep yourself secure by keeping an eye out for telltale signs that a job or recruitment post might be a hoax. These are as follows:
Unsolicited proposals and impolite correspondence
Collard says, “Be wary of unsolicited job offers, particularly if you didn’t apply for them.”
Collard asserts that respectable companies use a structured hiring procedure and don’t message job searchers on social media at random.
Unprofessional communication is another cause for concern; examples include misspellings, bad grammar, international phone numbers on WhatsApp, and email addresses from Gmail or Yahoo.
Well-paying remote employment
Collard added that the job offer’s complete remote nature and extremely alluring compensation should serve as another red flag.
Given that most people like to work from home, scammers frequently use this as a clue that an offer is fraudulent. Additionally, be cautious if the pay seems outrageous for the profession, Collard advised.
It is advisable to conduct research on the salary range of comparable roles prior to accepting attractive employment offers.
“It’s also preferable to confirm the job offer is genuine by getting in touch with the company directly,” Collard stated.
Demands for money or personal information
The biggest red flag, in Collard’s opinion, is when money is requested for background checks, training sessions, or application costs.
No one is allowed to charge job searchers for employment services under the Employment Services Act.
“It is a blatant scam if you are asked to pay anything for your recruitment,” Collard declared.
Similar to this, respectable employers won’t request sensitive personal data from you until much later in the hiring process, including your ID number or bank account information.
According to Collard, “this information is typically only requested after a job offer has been extended.”
It’s critical to exercise caution, follow your gut, and take safety precautions when looking for a job.
