Jobs scams in Jamaica is so common that if you should type “job scams in Jamaica” via any search engine you will find several articles. Job scams have been going on for years not only in Jamaica but worldwide and every time a particular way or scam pattern is caught some other way is found to deceive individuals seeking jobs. The main reason why job scams will not stop is that people are always looking for jobs both the employed and unemployed and scammers are always finding ways to make money.
My Story of getting Job Scammed
When I first left college I had an associated degree in a particular field and I thought that was enough to secure an average paying job so I went job hunting. I sent out hundreds of job applications and only got a temporary job position in my field at a hotel, after spending time under hard work with a low salary I decided to further my studies because I thought this was the best thing at the time.
Two years later I got a bachelors degree and the job hunt started again, this time I sent over a thousand applications (no exaggeration over”1000 applications”) and I did 5 interviews and secured one job for 3 months because the previous worker was on vacation, any way I did all the work that was required and long story short after my contract had ended I was on the job hunt again. This time I had no job offers however one of my friends told me about a overseas job program and we both did our little due-diligence on the company and although we had some doubts we still went ahead because the company was registered with the Ministry of Labor. We paid over 10k in registration fees and about USD$800 for some other processing fees in total to the registered company and another woman who seems to be a middle person.
When we arrived at our destination we were picked up by a woman who was suppose to receive us and we were brought to her house in a mosquito infested environs. When we arrived, there were other Jamaicans at the house who had gone through the same process and they started to explain that no jobs are secured here for us “its a scam”. When we confronted the woman she started to admit what had transpired because I guess she felt sorry or probable she did not get her cut in the scam at this point. This story goes on……but this will be explained more in another blog.
One main thing I learnt from this is that a company being registered with the Ministry of Labor doesn’t mean they are fully legit and because of the desperation for a job, we sometimes are willing to overlook red flags.
On JobWerld.com I have seen scammers try to post jobs in the Caribbean, with their IP Addresses showing in the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Australia etc and the salary info is out of this world. Some Job scammers love targeting free job posting, classified sites and new papers because they know how vulnerable job seekers are and a number of these websites do not track these listings so job seekers will always get scammed.
How to spot Job Scams
Many Job scams can be spotted but you have to do a proper investigation before getting involved. Although there are different ways job scammers use, these few tips can help in not getting caught up with a job scam.
- You need to pay to get the job first – this is one of the main red flags when a job is not real. Although legit recruiting agencies charge to process jobs, many scam companies that promises job want you to pay first. If you are using a recruiting agency, ensure you find out about workers who have used their service before and can verify that they are legit. Using the ministry of labor alone will not help to verify.
- You need to supply your credit card or bank account information – this is another no no for me, couple years ago I was trying to migrate to Canada and a agency with hundreds of thousands of followers and a great looking site try to scam me this way. STAY AWAY FROM COMPANIES ASKING FOR THESE DETAILS
- Too Good to Be True – Good paying jobs are hard to find. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is for example: You didn’t contact them; they contacted you: They say they found your resume online. They either offer you a job right away or say they want to interview you. Sometimes the scammers will try to entice you by saying that you made the cut and they are interviewing the finalists for the job. The pay is too great: Some times I see scammers trying to post jobs on the backend of Jobwerld offering USD$5000 per month to do little to nothing. You get the job right away. After a quick phone or Instant Message interview, the ‘interviewer’ immediately contacts you to offer you the job.
- Unprofessional Emails – Some emails from scammers are well-written and some are not. Real companies normally hire professionals who can write well. If the email contains spelling, capitalization, punctuation, or grammatical mistakes, be on the look out.
- Online Search Results Don’t make sense – Before accepting any job do your research. If it’s a real company, you should be able to find information about the company by doing an online search. This is not the 90’s, professional companies should have a online presents. Although finding information does not guarantee the company is legit, but if you can’t find anything, you can bet it’s a scam.
- Using free email accounts eg: [email protected], [email protected] etc. Most professional companies have their own websites and use example [email protected]. Although job scammers still build professional websites still be on the look out for free email accounts.
