PEARL RANTSEKENG
THE City of Joburg has warned job-seekers in Gauteng about the emergence of a job advertisement scam in the province.
This comes after a series of advertisements on Facebook called on jobs seekers to apply for available vacancies at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital.
The advert reads: “Baragwanath Academic Hospital vacancies available call Mr Molefe: 079 380 6416/+2712 5160 835”.
The city says it’s not the only one, but one of many all purporting to be offering jobs.
The common denominator in most of these adverts is that the jobs being offered are either in state-owned entities (SOEs) like Transnet or in government institutions like the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, or the fire and traffic departments.
If you are not vigilant, according to city official Lucky Sindane, you will fall prey as these adverts form part of the well-crafted scams, giving the City of Johannesburg’s Group Forensics Investigating Services (GFIS) Head, Major General Shadrack Sibiya and his team sleepless nights.
According to Sindane, GFIS’s Director: Strategic Stakeholder Management, the job scams are prevalent at the beginning of the year as they are targeting school leavers and job seekers.
“If you look at the ads they target school leavers and are quick to point out – no experience wanted,” explains Sindane.
He says the applicants are then made to fill-in some sort of forms and are then asked to pay a minimal “admin/reg fee” that can be anything between R40 to R200 or even more at times.
“Legitimate companies will never make you pay to apply for a job. If you encounter an employer asking for money know there is no job. In 2019 the City advertised JMPD posts and the number of people wanted was 15 000,” explains Sindane.
“The scammers are smart in the sense that these are the same type of jobs they advertise making it easy for them to have as many applicants as possible. Imagine 15 000 people applying at R200 each, how much money is that? And that is not even the only job being advertised.”
Sindane says last year GFIS arrested owners and staff members who were running a bogus recruitment agency telling people that the City was looking for fire fighters and Metro police.
He says: “It is the beginning of the year and people are desperate for jobs as they want to put food on the table while others need money in order to go to school so they tend to fall for these scams.”
Sindane warns the public to be vigilant and encourages people to verify things. Jobs in the City are advertised only on the city’s website: www.joburg.org.za and go to vacancies.
There are no agencies involved.
Report any fraudulent and corrupt activities through the 24-hour tip-off hotline 0800 002 587 or visit the GFIS offices situated at 48 Ameshoff Street, Braamfontein.
(SOURCE: INSIDE METROS)