Fake job adverts are increasing in number across various social media and messaging platforms and causing confusion
Over recent months Namibia Fact Check has encountered an increasing volume of jobs scams across various social media and messaging platforms.
These online employment scams tap into the desperation of jobseekers looking for opportunities at a time when unemployment is perceived to be very high in Namibia.
The latest recruitment scams that have come onto Namibia Fact Check‘s radar are ones promoting nonexistent vacancies related to the upcoming population and housing census for which the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) is busy preparing and planning.
How to spot a job scam
Employment or recruitment scams have been an issue for a while online, and Africa Check has responded by publishing a guide on how to spot such scams.
The guide states:
“If a scam that uses the name of a real company links to a website, you can be sure it won’t be the company’s legitimate website. It will be a site set up by the scammers.
Job scams often link to Google Forms, a free service where pages are quick and easy to set up but look official. Google Forms is also popular with scams that steal people’s personal information.
Then there are scams that make false offers to lure users to websites that earn advertising revenue for their owners.”
– Africa Check
You can view Africa Check‘s archive of jobs scams here. And here’s an explainer video on the issue:
Namibian social media users should be cautious when engaging with posts that advertise jobs.
When such posts appear in your feed or group, rather take steps to verify the authenticity of the information by:
- Visiting the website of the entity that is claimed to be recruiting;
- Researching the entity to see if it’s a real company / organisation;
- Not giving up personal or private information if you’re not sure of the entity claiming to be recruiting;
- Not paying to be recruited;
- And if it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t true.