File photo: Nigerians
Unemployment in Nigeria as far as many can remember has always been
a problem. It is a challenge that is as old as the concept of job
creation. A lot of people believe that hunger is the worst part of
unemployment, but research has shown that it is not. The worst part of
unemployment is the idleness; the minute you wake up in the morning
without a defined purpose, unemployment slams you right in the face.
Idle minds are therefore known as the devil’s playground, because out of
it springs trouble. For Nigeria, one of the recent troubles brought
about by the unemployed idle is job scam.Fake recruiters and employers cause a lot of pain to job seekers,
because they prey on their psychological and emotional intelligence.
These intending job seekers invariably fall victim because of their
desperation. The promise of a job lets them forget to question the
integrity of the supposed employment agency or company offering
employment.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the rate of
employment in Nigeria skyrocketed in the year 2016, leaving qualified
persons hopeless, demoralised and desperate. While economic recession
was a contributing factor, unemployment in the opinion of Mr Clement
Ekah, a Human Resource officer, is a problem that Nigeria has never
truly tackled. This has given rise to job scams in Nigeria.
Though job scams have been around for some time, recently, their
tactics have included more exotic and elaborate details that draw the
unwitting victim in.
Whatever their technique is and how they go about it, their goal is
always the same; to separate their victims from their money. These
fraudsters are becoming more and more crafty in the way they operate,
and it’s becoming more difficult to differentiate between a scam and a
legitimate job vacancy.
All around Lagos, you see posters, banners and people sharing
flyers of dream jobs, saying salary starts from a very attractive
amount. In other cases, these job adverts come in via text message like
this that a respondent showed to one of our respondents:
“F/C Limited invites you for a career chat/interview by 9:00am
on Friday, 10/2/17 at 92 Ikorodu Road beside First Bank, PalmGroove,
Lagos. 0816*****27 REF No:FC/35/CN”
According to the intended victim, “I knew it was fake because I
had never applied for a job. Immediately I finished NYSC, I got married
and went into business. I served in the East, so it could not have been
from my NYSC days. Where did they get my number? I think Nigeria as a
whole is just a very insecure country. I’m sure they bought numbers in
bulk.”
While some are after extorting money from their preys, others
simply claim to be what they are not. The worst of them all however are
kidnappers who masquerade as employers. These ones hold their victims
captive till their families pay some sort of ransom or are caught.
Another popular scam involves the fraudsters posing as an agency
where they demand outrageous sums of money to help job seekers secure
good employment.
An example is the impersonation of the Peace Corps of Nigeria (PCN)
in January 2017. This started with unconfirmed reports of how the PCN
allegedly compelled job seekers to pay a fee of N48, 000 to be enlisted
into the Corps instead of the usual fee of N1, 500 for its official
recruitment form. Though the scam was later exposed, many had fallen
victim.
Sadly, there are many others. Kayode, a former employee of United
Bank of Africa, UBA, shared a story of how he fell victim of one such
job scams.
“I was a teller at UBA, and I resigned to pursue further
education. When I finished my HND, I didn’t have a job, so I began to
apply any and everywhere. I called all my old customers at the bank.
This was last year (2016). One day, I saw a very nice message saying I
should come for registration and processing in Opebi. Me, I didn’t even
check the name of the company, but the address was there. I was so
happy, because they said I should come the following day. I just thought
it was one of the companies I had applied to, or someone that sent my
details to them. I got there the following day and I discovered it was
all these multilevel marketing nonsense. The stupid people even wanted
me to pay five thousand to start again.
“I was so angry, I just told them to give me my CV that they
collected when I got there. I cannot waste my CV on them. I wasted
transport fare and time. The next time I got that type of text message, I
replied it with a curse. Stupid people. I had told my whole family that
I had gotten a job.”
Kayode is not alone in his frustrated debacle. Taiwo Ajayi, a
horticulture graduate of University of Abeokuta explained that she was
working at an agricultural produce firm at Ogba where she was earning
N46,000. She went further to share that she got a message to come for an
interview somewhere in Agege.
“When I got to the place, everything looked nice. They even
served us some drinks, which they said was also one of the products they
sold. At the end of the entire interview, I realised that it was just
like network marketing, but they told us that it was not like that. They
even said I did not have to come to work everyday that I would simply
market the products, and that there was a market for it. Since I was
desperate for a better job, I quit my job in the agric firm and joined
them. The products I was to sell are still in my wardrobe at home. I did
not get a dime. They kept asking me to get numbers of people so that
they can come and join the company. It is just a scam.”
Some other scams include recruitment in obscure, out of the way
places. A lady who refused to give her name explained that the last
interview of that sort that she went for put the fear of God in her
heart.
“When I got to the address sent by a Mr. John at Anthony where
the interview was supposed to take place, I kept looking for it but I
couldn’t find it. So I called the Mr. John again, and he directed me to
one bush path that looked like a goat trail. That’s how I started
walking till I got to one shop. The woman that was there said she didn’t
know any office in the area, that there was no office around.
Immediately she said it, I wisened up and ran back. The Mr. John kept
calling till I got home.”
Not all multi-level marketing are scams Stephen, a multilevel marketer explains. “The
only reason we communicate through text messages is so that they
believe it is real. If we tell them it is marketing, they wont come. But
when they come and we explain to them, those that are interested are
allowed to join and others are free to go. That is not a scam. We start
with a seminar to prepare them. It is after that we inform them of the
amount they need to pay to register. It is not as if we force them.
Those that are hard working eventually get results.
“We always need people to join the downline, so we can never
stop recruiting. I have seen people buy cars, build houses with
multilevel marketing, so you people should stop saying it is a scam.”
In a proactive manner, some ‘resourceful’ Nigerian graduates have
also taken to the streets in desperation to search for jobs. It has
become commonplace to find a lone youngman or lady standing at a
strategic, visible location with an inscribed board begging for a job.
While some laugh, the evidence is said to be in the results they
generate.
But is this what the future of Nigeria holds? A generation of
graduates desperate enough to peddle their resumes on the streets in
search of a job?
An online jobs website that gives employers access to the most
relevant pool of qualified job-seekers recently released a list of
things to watch out for in job related scams.
- The golden rule is never part with your money. Any job offer that requires that you pay a fee in advance is probably not real. Most reputable companies will absorb these costs themselves. If the recruiter offers to train you for the job, in return for money, walk away.
- A recruiter or company that corresponds from a free e-mail account such, as Yahoo, Live, Hotmail or Gmail is likely not authentic. Legitimate jobrelated e-mails would come from corporate e-mail accounts. Though there are exceptions.
- Do a Google search on the company name and see what information you can find. Compare it to the information that you have been sent. Take a look at their website, if they have any. When you Google them, and you find nothing, only job postings, or warnings, they’re most probably not real.
- Always remember that reputable companies are not going to offer you a role without interviewing you first. Flattering as it may seem that they were so impressed with your resume, that they have offered you a position without meeting you first, the reality is, that you are probably being duped if this happens. Never, ever accept a job offer that has come through via e-mail, when you have never had a telephonic or face-to-face interview.
- If you receive an offer in your inbox for a job that you never applied for, and it sounds too good to be true, then it is too good to be true.
- Salaries that are way over what you would normally earn is another pointer. Getting paid a really high salary is not the norm for all job seekers. Any legitimate employer will evaluate your skill set and experience, before deciding on what you are worth. If the company offers you a salary that is completely out of your range, and experience, you are probably in the process of being scammed.
- Be cautious of e-mails with grammatical and spelling mistakes. They often use fake URLs to mask themselves as large well-known organisations. Double check the URL, or the web address of the company. You may think that you are on a well-known company’s website, when you are actually on a malicious website. So always check the website URL first.
- Vague sketchy job descriptions are also key signs. If you read the job description and at the end of it, you are not really sure what the job actually entails, or when you analyse it and the role states that there is no specific skill necessary for the job and anyone/everyone would qualify, you are probably about to be scammed. The majority of jobs will require at least some experience or qualification. Most of them will need you to start immediately. Their requests are very urgent, so you don’t have time to wait. That means they don’t want you to take the time to think about what they are asking or to do any research before you respond.
It would be foolhardy to believe that just because these scammers
and fraudulent people are in the wrong, they are stupid. They are
actually quite smart and develop new techniques everyday. They adapt and
evolve unlike the job seeker. So it takes constant vigilance without
desperation not to fall victim like many others have.
Job scams can be very devastating for already cash strapped job
seekers. Before falling prey to unscrupulous scammers, do your homework
and checks very carefully. If the opportunity seems “too good to be
true,” it is probably a scam!
***
Culled from Independent News
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