LOGIN | SIGNUP

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Upfront Payment or Fee to Apply for Job is Scam

We wish our users to note, that there should not be any employer or recruitment agency asking for upfront/advance payment for any fee related to the processing of job application. If you find any job vacancy advertisement anywhere that is asking you to pay sum of money, it's a scam!
The most common modus operandi of these fraud, the scammers pose as HR department from "Hotel in London", "Oil Company in Nigeria", or from any other companies, posting "job vacancies", mostly on internet, and targeting foreigners.
While it doesn't mean that all jobs with similar nature with the ones I mentioned above are scam, it is important to recognize the signs of such scam:
  1. If the "HR Department" is using Yahoo mail, or Hotmail, or any other email addresses that is not from the company's domain, you should be more alert.
  2. Some scammers also using sub-domain email address that makes it look real, like e.g., HRDept@hilton.maindomain.com
  3. The "HR Personnel" is asking for upfront payment with many reason, processing fee, document handling fee, visa application fee, ticket fee, etc. No company asks for payment from the applicant to get the job.
  4. The scammers usually requesting for payment with sense of urgency, trying to make shortest possible time to think to make use of people who is too excited and think illogically. For example, "Please make the payment within 2 days of this letter, failing which, we will consider the offer void".
In Singapore, it is an offence for a company to recover any recruitment related expenses from their foreign worker (commonly called kickback offence).
If anyone has any information of such malpractices or would like to report such offence, you can contact Ministry of Manpower at +65 64385122 or email mom_fmmd@mom.gov.sg

Labels: , ,

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

a Mr. James Taylor HR of Shaftesbury Hotels in London posted recently an ad for employment in Shaftesbury Hotels in london. Job-Q sent me an email stating last week stating that there is an employer who wanted to see my profile, and so i allowed it knowing that Job-Q is a trusted website for job seekers. To my excitement to find a job, i search on such hotel and found its official websites, and the scammer's email ad seemed authentic so I continue on emailing them my personal info not until I found out tonight that it is infact a scam. Is Job-Q not aware of this type of scam? Are they not checking if it is true or not? Why do they allow these scammers to victimize their members? last week, I also had an interview by a Recruitment Agency in Suntec City, Singapore, thought an employer will interview that day but it isn't... it's the manager of the recruitment agency! the first part of the interview was about my educational and employment background, then some personal infos were asked and later part, he asked me if his staff briefed me already about the payments to made -- S$300-500 for the interview done by their client/employer whether I will pass the interview or not, and 3 terms of S$1800/payment that is the agency's fee. I am very disappointed with all of these people. And I just hope Job-Q will be more careful and vigilant. Thanks a lot. God bless.

February 26, 2010 at 2:19 AM  
Blogger mobius said...

Thank you very much for your feedback. We are sorry for your unpleasant experience.
We noticed that there are 'scammy' vacancy postings from time to time, and we have put some measures to protect our job-seekers by following actions:
- Posting of WARNING (this article).
- Monitoring our site closely. Such bogus vacancies are normally removed at the same day (almost immediately).
- Permanent ban on the IP address of the party posting the vacancy. It seems that they are operated by quite a big syndicate as the IP addresses were (proxy) from various countries (Philippines, Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa, US, Iraq, etc.)

As for your experience in Suntec City 'Recruitment Agency', you may want to call Ministry of Manpower at 64385122 to check with them if such practice is legal.

March 8, 2010 at 11:08 AM  
Blogger mobius said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

March 8, 2010 at 11:24 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Be careful with this company, VIRGO SHOWBIZ INTERNATIONAL Ltd., This company usually posts jobs in India and the Philippines for Office Assistants. This is a SCAM. The company will lure the job seekers with ridiculous amount of money for Office Assistants. Does it sound logical to you an Office Assistant makes 4000 to 5000 GBP ? It sounds fantastic to you doesn’t it, because it is !! The scam is they will connect you with bogus UKBA e-mail address such as: processing.unit.gov.hq@ukvisas-ukba.org.uk, after that this supposed to be UKBA in turn will take your application on line, first they will ask entry clearance payment fee using Western Union ( where Western Union never check the payee ,they will just ask for code) then this bogus UKBA will ask for UPS shipping fee supposedly to ship your visa, visa approval letter, once you send this they will ask for Medical Clearance fee, Insurance fee. This will go on and on. REMEMBER NEVER SEND ANY MONEY USING WESTERN UNION, A REAL GOVERNMENT AGENCY NEVER USE WESTERN UNION, THEY USUALLY USE BANK DRAFT ! BECAUSE IT EASIER TO TRACE, PLEASE POST ABOUT NEVER SEND ANY MONEY USING WESTERN UNION IN YOUR PORTAL. This company using number 447024010293 This number has been traced to Nigeria not United Kingdom. To all job providers please be careful posting for this company because it is not located in UK but Nigeria ! If you live outside United Kingdom you have to apply UK visa in UK embassy in your country, not by e-mail. UKBA has nothing to do with you if you live outside UK . Remember if it is too good to be true, it usually is. Beware.

October 30, 2011 at 4:58 AM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home

 HOME | ALL JOBS | BROWSE COMPANIES | EMPLOYERS | LOGIN | CONTACT US
TERMS OF USE | PRIVACY POLICY | LEGAL POLICY
By using any service in this website, you indicate that you agree to be bound by the Terms and Conditions of the site
Jobs in Singapore by Job-Q.com - Singapore Business Registration Number: 53065983B