Facebook scammers skin the vulnerable

Published Jan 23, 2016

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Johannesburg - Facebook is fast becoming a playground for tech-savvy criminals who swindle money from desperate, unsuspecting job seekers by misusing the brands of established companies to hook people.

One of its latest scams involved falsely representing Mediclinic as looking for staff

The Facebook page called Learnerships, Job and Bursaries redirects people to the website www. learnersnetwork. co.za.

Once on the page, prospective applicants are required to pay a non-refundable application fee of R150.

The page was set up in December 2012 with the regular posting of fake jobs, and is still operational.

Lika Tolken, Mediclinic’s spokeswoman, said yesterday it had come to Mediclinic’s attention that their name was being used in this social media job scam.

Mediclinic became aware of the scam when many of the people who had applied and paid the application fee called them to enquire about their “jobs”.

“The modus operandi of such scammers,” said Tolken, “includes the solicitation of money through informal channels, such as money market counters to cellular telephone numbers, as part of the application or training process.

“Mediclinic would never require an applicant to make a payment as part of the application process.”

One of many other fake applications on the Learnerships, Job and Bursaries Facebook page this week was for posts at the Joburg metro police department. However JMPD spokesman Wayne Minnaar said these jobs didn’t exist and he warned the public to be vigilant.

“We did have posts available but they’re closed. We advertised in the newspapers and have no affiliation with a Facebook page in advertising our posts. These sites put information on social media with the intention of making money from unsuspecting job seekers,” Minnaar said.

Efforts to find out who is behind the Facebook page and the website turned up dead-ends, with the only real-world information linking them to a block of flats in Vos Street in Sunnyside, Pretoria.

Danielle Graham, communications manager at PNET, one of the country’s leading online e-recruitment service providers, said people fell for these job scams because they were desperate.

She said fraudulent companies and job scammers usually request upfront payment or banking details as part of the application, and their contact numbers are cellular numbers as landlines are “out of order”.

“People must never send any payment, never give out their bank details, and never provide these sites with any further personal information.”

She said another clear way to notice a scam is if you are made a job offer without applying for that particular role.

Some of the alleged jobs offered on the Facebook page include pharmacy training, secretaries at the Department of Correctional Services and Eskom learnerships.

Graham said people should trust their instincts.

“Very often if you are suspicious that something is a scam, it is,” she said.

“If the company is legitimate but you are suspicious, get the phone number from their website and call their HR department to verify the advert.”

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Saturday Star

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