Seven ways to identify a fake Job Vacancy

In Nigeria today, it is almost impossible to walk past most street fences without coming across many so-called job vacancy posters by fraudsters asking people to apply for different nonexisting job positions.

These evil perpetrators are very clever and have their deeds well planned out. They take advantage of the rising unemployment rate to lure and defraud desperate job seekers who fall victims to their job scams.

To avoid falling victim to the so-called “job vacancy” these are some of the red flags to watch out for.

1. The offer is too good to be true

As the saying goes, “If it’s too good to be true, it probably is(n’t).” These fake job peddlers know people are desperate for employment, so they use mouthwatering offers as bait to attract their victims. What they do is to put up an offer that will almost be irresistible to you. For instance, you will see something like “Work for 2 hours daily and earn 1,000,000 per month.” 

Once you come across something like this, you don’t need a soothsayer to tell you that kind of offer is likely going to be fraudulent. Be careful with job postings with extremely huge salaries for a job position that usually has a smaller pay.

2. They ask you to pay money

Genuine companies often will not ask you to pay any amount of money before you can be qualified for a job interview or employment. Once you are told to pay a certain amount of money for stationery, registration, and the like before you can be given a job, then you may talk to your legs.

3. Poorly written job poster

Legitimate companies are always intentional about what they are putting in the public space, hence their job vacancy posters are always error-free, simple, and professional, although there may be one or two typos sometimes. But in a situation where the job poster is poorly written, unprofessional and error-laden, then you may need to think twice before applying. 

4. No online visibility

In this digital era where the world is gradually turning into a global village, it is quite hard to find a good company without any online presence. If you are unable to find any information about the company offering the job vacancy online, then you don’t need to waste your time applying or going for such an interview. It is also worth noting that some of these fraudsters are becoming more creative with their evil, to the extent that some of them do go ahead and create a fake online presence. This is why you need to be extra careful and be on the lookout for companies with questionable domain names, have no tangible job description, and so forth.

5. Questionable interview location

Another key tip for identifying these fake job vacancies is the location you are asked to come for the interview. Most of the time, these fraudsters can’t afford to get a good place to perpetrate their evils, hence they often end up using suspicious locations such as uncompleted buildings, forests, hotels, etc.

6. They ask for confidential information

Your confidential information is your personal property and should not be disclosed to anyone. No company will ask you to provide them with sensitive information during the employment process. Once you are asked to disclose sensitive information such as your Bank Verification Number (BVN), ATM passwords, email records, etc, then the people behind such job openings are likely going to be scammers looking for who to defraud.

7. They use an unprofessional email address

Almost all legitimate companies make use of their company domain email addresses to send job interviews and employment letters. For instance, “admin@tribuneonline.ng”  but if on the other hand, you get an interview or employment message from a company that uses a general email address ending like “…..@gmail.com” then there is a high chance such interview invitation or employment letter is coming from job scammers.

HOW EXACTLY THEY PERPETRATE THE EVIL

What they do is to ask applicants to pay a certain amount of money which qualify them for a job exam, after the payment has been made, they will organize a fake exam for such candidates in most cases, at uncompleted buildings, then after the exam is done, job seekers will be handed a fake employment letter to resume work at a specific company. 

On getting to the company they were directed to, the job seeker will be rejected and these fraudsters will be nowhere to be found before the victim returns to the uncompleted building where the fake interview was held. It is at this moment it will dawn on the job seekers that they have been duped of their hard-earned money.

In conclusion, to ensure you don’t fall into the hands of these fake job scammers, make sure you are not too desperate, do the necessary research, be vigilant, don’t attend interviews without letting anyone close to you know the venue, and always trust your guts.

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