It is no news that the rate of unemployment in Kenya is high. According to research, the unemployment data reached an all-time high of 2.98% in December 2020. This means that more people are searching for the few available jobs.
Because of the unemployment problems facing people in Kenya, job seekers have become desperate; as hundreds of job candidates apply for a single job posting. Are you surprised?
Yes, the competition has even doubled with the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic. While few companies shut down, others are merely struggling or taking other measures like downsizing staff members.
The truth is that job seekers are currently passing through a lot before they can finally land a job, but some wicked people “fraudsters” are devising different ways to swindle job seekers. These employment fraudsters take advantage of the current unemployment situation to defraud job seekers.
Just like there are real job adverts posted online every day, there are also many fake jobs circulating on the internet. This is why you have to learn to protect yourself from employment fraudsters pretending to the employers and recruiters.
How can you protect yourself from employment fraudsters?
It may not be easy for you to protect yourself from job scammers if you do not know how to identify fake/scam jobs when you see them. This is why we wrote this article; in this article, you are going to learn how to identify fake/scam jobs in Kenya.
These are simply job opportunities that are not legitimate. These job opportunities are fake, but sometimes they appear to be real at the surface, but these jobs are intended to swindle job seekers and rob them of their money, or other valuables.
Fraudsters target job seekers for the reasons above. From the reasons, they can decide what they want to get from the job seekers based on their needs.
These fraudsters know job seekers' are desperate about finding something to do. Therefore, they take advantage of their desperation, post a fake job, and then ask them to pay before getting access to these jobs.
These swindlers post fake jobs just to get job seeker's emails and other information they consider relevant. They do this because they want to market a product or service to the people that they have gotten their emails. Some harvest these emails to sell them to other people that may need them.
Employment fraudsters sometimes send fake opportunities to job seekers via email or SMS. They get the contact of job seekers from other people that sell people’s contact information.
People that are involved with pyramid marketing are usually desperate to get other people to join them. The more people that are registered under them the higher their rank and the money they eventually get.
These people know that people do not like to be part of their scheme, so they go to any length to deceitfully get people to join them.
Employment fraudsters post fake jobs for different reasons, but regardless of the reason, their ultimate aim is to deceive job seekers. Since we have talked about why fraudsters swindle job seekers, we would also look at how job seekers can identify fake/scam jobs.
Everyone looks forward to earning well, but notwithstanding if you don't have what it takes (skills, experience, certification, etc.) to attract a well-paying job, then you should question the credibility of a job offer that is willing to pay you 100, 000 KSh for an internship position.
Some multi-national companies indeed offer great compensation packages, but those kinds of offers come with series and different stages of interviews. Most ‘scam’ jobs don't require you to pass through different interview stages. They give you an offer at the first stages of the interview process.
For example:
Work as an intern and earn up to 100, 000 KSh monthly.
Here the competitive salary is a scheme for these fraudsters to make you click on the job advert and finally apply for the job. These job adverts don’t emphasize the duties and responsibilities of the role, the only information they give you is how much you will make.
When you come across these kinds of job adverts, make sure you do thorough research.
Fraudsters seem to make job candidates go through a different route. They send them job interview invites even when they never applied for the job. When you get an offer for a job that you never applied for, then there is a higher chance that the job is fake.
Although, some companies like to reach out to job candidate directly without making the vacancy open to the public. Even in these rare cases, the candidate will be scheduled for an interview before an offer is made.
Whenever an employer reaches out to you on social media or any platform, always research the company before responding to their message.
For example:
If you get a message like this: “You have been invited for a job briefing/chat at ABC plaza. Contact XYZ on 081xxxxxxxxx ….”
You have to be careful because these fraudsters often use this format to deceive job seekers.
3. When you are being offered a job right away
Landing a job does not come so easy as there are some things you have to do, and some processes that you would have to follow like: the selection process, the interview, etc.
If you get contacted that you have been offered a job without passing through any of the stages, then that offer is most likely a scam job.
These kinds of job offers often come in this message format:
“You have been employed as a manager for ABC Global company, you can come and pick up your employment letter at 123 street…”
This fraudster aims to attract you to the position by making an immediate offer. No legitimate company will hire you without meeting with you first to determine whether you can do the job.
4. Getting an unprofessional email from a company
Most of the times when a legitimate company sends you an email, you can tell from the content of the email and even from the email address. Most legitimate companies have their company domain email e.g. John@ABCCompany.com.
Most fraudsters do not want to go through the stress of creating a company domain email, they rather use Gmail or Yahoomail.
Asides from the email address, many fraudulent employers don't take the time to compose their emails, so you will find many grammatical, punctuation and spelling errors in their emails. A legitimate company will hardly send an email that is full of errors.
If you get an email with these kinds of errors, then it is most likely from a fraudster.
For example:
We have got your CV you have been invited for an interview by the CEO of the company. His name is Mr Paul, and this is his telephone number 081xxxxxx.
Can you notice the following mistakes:
5. If you are asked to give out your personal information
When an employer contacts you and asks you for personal information such as your account number, your ATM pin, or other personal information, then you should be careful. Why? Because it may be a fraudster trying to get your personal information.
An employer asking for personal information at the beginning stages of the recruitment process should be one of the fraud signs you should look out for.
For example:
"We would like you to send your account details as a candidate so that we can send you some money for the cost that you may have incurred during the interview, when you get this money deduct 5000KSh and then send the balance to this account number…"
6. If you are asked to pay for something
Employment fraudsters often offer job seekers job opportunities, but these opportunities usually come with a price. It is either they ask you to pay for software or a working gadget.
These kinds of employers offer you a job on a platter, then they introduce a condition they believe you would be able to afford because they know you would love to keep that job at any cost.
The truth is legitimate companies do not ask you for money or anything. Whatever software or gadget you would need to perform your task would be given to you. So you have to beware if an employer is asking you for something.
For example, you might get a message like this:
"Congratulations John, your interview went well and you are now a part of ABC company. To help you work well we got you a brand new laptop, but as a part of the company’s law, you would have to pay 5000KSh for the headset you need to function as customer support personnel. You can send the money to XYZ…"
Like we have said, these employment fraudsters are everywhere looking for innocent job seekers to swindle. You may not be able to eliminate these wicked individuals, but you can protect yourself from them.
The best way to react or respond to the fake and scam job vacancies is to protect yourself with these tips:
Research the company and the job role to know if the job exists, what the company does, and what people are saying about the company. (You can see what other people are saying about the company on mysalaryscale.com.
Do not pay to get a job.
Avoid giving out your personal information to anyone.
Search for job opportunities only on trusted platforms like myjobmag.co.ke
It is an unfortunate situation to be scammed, but not all hope is lost. You can take note of the tips we talked about earlier to prevent future occurrence.
You can also do the following:
While you need to protect yourself from employment fraudsters, it is good you learn how to avoid working in a ‘bad’ company. Some legitimate companies are not great places to work because they:
A quick tip: Avoid applying for Bogus jobs on legitimate job websites.
We understand that it could a bit challenging to search for a job especially when you need one urgently, but you still have to be careful. If you are wondering how you can get a job fast, then the best way to do that is to complete your profile on MyJobMag. Completing your profile on MyJobMag allows you to be more visible to employers searching for job seekers daily.
Ready to land your dream job? complete your profile by clicking the "complete your profile" text in the advert below.
HOW CAN YOU KNOW Myjobmag itsself is not a scam?
How come you apply enough jobs via Myjobmag hence you haven't been contacted while you had the skills required?
How can we tell that you guys are legit,,,,cause there is a colleague who applied for KenGen vacancy via JobMag, unfortutely when he contacted them, The company said they were not hiring.
With high inflation, high unemployment, increased bank lending rates, devaluation of the Kenyan shillings, dilapidated economy, corruption and lack of will to enforce the law, this is bound to happen.
Is bebee a legit job website