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27 May 2005
Nigerian employment scam hits IT contractors UK IT contractors are being warned to ignore a bogus on-line job advert that requests candidates to send their passport and $900 to a client in Nigeria, with promises of earning $60,000 in six months. This warning was reported in the on-line contracting publication, www.contratorUK.com. The report stated that Nigerex Communications Company is calling for "experienced and reputable" IT experts to forward a copy of their passport with "procurement" fees, to be considered for the $10,000-a-month job. The company says their associate Rowland Recruiters will manage the hiring process, using the sent sum of $900 to finance "working and residential" permits essential for the contract. Org Geldenhuys, a co-founder and director of IT recruitment company, Abacus Recruitment, said that while there are currently no similar on-line scams operating in South Africa, this doesn’t mean it won’t happen – or hasn’t. “People should be weary of offers that sound too good to be true, because they probably are. And you can bet your bottom dollar that if e-mail scams are starting to happen in the UK this is going to trickle down to South Africa. This is going to be a new phenomenon. "People should also be very wary of employment companies which offer to find work for them overseas and then demand certain up-front payments. Unfortunately many of these companies never deliver and the hopeful job-seeker can generally kiss his 'investment' good-bye. It is also unethical for any agency to take up-front fees on the back of job promises. Fees should only be asked once a job is actually secured and delivered." Commenting further on the latest scam in the UK, Geldenhuys said the Nigerex offer also stated that successful candidates "will enjoy first-class accommodation, two weeks paid holiday during the placement and an overtime pay of $100 per hour". Similar schemes demanding up front cash for Visa permits have been hatched to defraud oil, gas and engineering workers, but it seems fraudsters are now focusing on the UK IT industry as their current target. |