It might surprise you that even when you are doing something like searching for a job, there are people that will try to take advantage of you. Vacancy and recruitment scams have become a trend today. The situation is even worsened considering that these companies waste your time as a job-seeker, your energy, the transportation fare of going to such scam interviews and worse still, try to extort money from you.
The challenge for job-seekers is, these scammers are becoming craftier in the way they operate, and it’s becoming more and more difficult to know when it’s a scam and when it’s a legitimate job opening. To help job-seekers never fall prey to scam interview and fake recruiters who are out to take your money without any job offer in return here are some expert tips to identifying a scam job interview.
1. Job Offering On The Spot: You are confident in your abilities and you know that you are a qualified candidate, but how does the hiring manager know? Hiring a candidate on the spot is a big sign the job isn’t a real or at least not what you had hoped when you applied. Overzealous employers are generally a tip off that a job isn’t genuine. Actual employers take their time to research and get to know potential job candidates — going through rounds of job interviews — before offering a position.
2. The Job Is Not What It Says It Is: This is very common. Let’s say, you apply for a job in Public Relations (PR) and get invited for an interview, you might find this there: the job is in fact, going door-to-door selling health-enhancement drugs. Some would even sugar-coat or completely change the job description in the hopes of luring you in. Once you're there, he knows it might be hard for you to walk away from an on-the-spot job offer.
3. When They Ask For Money: As a rule, never, ever, ever should you to pay when an employer asks for money for a job offering. There's no such thing as an application fee for a job. Any job offer that requires that you pay a fee in advance, is probably a scam. Most reputable companies will absorb these costs themselves. Another warning sign, is if the recruiter offers to train you for the job, in return for money. NEVER pay money across ever. No legitimate company or recruiter will ask for money upfront. Not for anything. But always use the rule of thumb: if it sounds too good to be true, it most likely is.
4. They Ask For Your Personal Info: You have finally been offered the job position, but then you are asked to supply sensitive personal information about yourself outside your CV — such as your bank account details — please do not do such. While a boss may give you several bogus reasons why they “need” the info to run a credit check, to deposit initial funds into your account — there is never a real reason for a potential employer to ask for personal financial info about you.
5. E-mail/Text From A Non-Business Address: Another popular job scam is when you get an interview invite from a free e-mail services or a private mobile number. Real hiring managers will have their company’s name as the ending of their email address for example name@jobsmaster.com.ng not Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoomail or any other non-company email address. Hiring managers or recruiters will send their correspondence from their business email address, not their personal one and as such, legitimate job related e-mails will come from corporate email accounts.
From experience, we have discovered that some rogue recruiters go from Job Board to Job Board posting fake job vacancies to which hundreds or even thousands of unsuspecting job-seekers fall prey. At JobsMaster, we have instituted a system of rigorous verification of the identity of all employers and recruiters who advertise their jobs on the JobsMaster platform. Job seekers should be careful about applying to jobs they see in some of the unorganised Job Boards that litter the Internet space in Nigeria.
Safe hunting, cheers!
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