Adeola Adeyemo
In this era of improved internet technology, many job search sites abound on the internet. Some are genuine, while some are some are fake. Job seekers have therefore been faced with the dilemma of discerning between the real and the fake ones.
Every year, the country’s Ivory towers keep churning out graduates in their thousands to fight for the little available jobs while the larger percentage of the graduates roam the streets for the non-available jobs. This rising rate of unemployment in the country has exposed the desperateness of many to get jobs, with many scammers exploiting the situation.
Since everything is fast moving to ‘Online’, many online Job sites are fast spurning out on daily basis. And so, there is a daily increase in online job search. Investigations have revealed that a good number of them are actually fake, set up to dupe unsuspecting job seekers. Many graduates have fallen victim of online job portals demanding for money before they can be linked with any company without getting the jobs being promised.
Last year, it was discovered that there was a fake online recruitment portal for the recruitment exercise of the Nigerian Civil Defence and Security Corps (NSCDC) which was totally different from the genuine site. Many unsuspecting Nigerians who were desperately looking for jobs were duped in the process.
While revealing his experience with online job scammers, Kola Moses, a graduate said; “I can’t even remember the exact number jobs I have applied for online, they are really much. One day I received a job offer in my email. I was told to come and resume for a job and I will be paid ninety thousand Naira per month, but I should pay five thousand Naira to one account so that they will facilitate my papers and sort out some things for me. After paying the money, I didn’t hear from them again. All efforts to reach them on the phone number they provided and email address proved futile”, he narrated.
Mr Moses’ story is just one out of many of Nigerian youths that have fallen victim to online job scammers. Another graduate who reveals his name as Chris Chidi said; “My own case was not really a dupe case, but what I met was far beyond what I expected. I got a text message to come for an oral interview at a certain place in Ikeja last week. When I got there, we were made to write a ten minutes test and after that, they began a seminar. At the end of the day, what they really wanted was people to join their network marketing program by paying eight thousand five hundred naira each. After paying that money, we will then be required to look for other people to pay this money, and these people would also look for more to move up the ladder of the network marketing. If they had mentioned in the text message that they were looking for people to join their network marketing scheme, I definitely wouldn’t have shown up.”
But just as there are devious people taking advantage of the growth of online job sites, a good number of them are genuine ones which have helped job seekers get their desired jobs.
Tara Kamson, a graduate of Business Administration said she submitted her CV to an online job site for a job in a telecommunication company after seeing the advert posted online and was eventually employed. According to her, no amount of money was demanded from her during and after the recruitment stages.
Another graduate who identified himself as Damilola Adeshina said he has had two job offers since completing his NYSC programme and they were both genuine ones gotten from his applications on online job sites.
Speaking on the disturbing trend of scamming unsuspecting job seekers, Tonye Ibifiri, a Human Resource Manager at an Insurance company said job seekers should be smarter and able to discern the real ones from the fakes. “No genuine employer or recruitment site would request for money before employing anyone,” she warned. “It is sad that lots of dubious people are preying on job seekers. But I don’t think that’s any reason for them, especially graduates, to allow themselves to be duped. Being desperate does not mean one shouldn’t be smart.”
This article was first published by TelegraphNG
