Corporate Affairs

While searching online for jobs is a quick convenient way for women to find employment opportunities, you need to be on the lookout for scams.

“Job scams have been around as long as jobs themselves, but the advent of the internet has made it  much easier and less risky for criminals to practice employment fraud, therefore job seekers need to be aware of what to look out for,” warns Bronwyn Johnson, Head of Marketing at Kalahari Ads.

“There are two main types of scams that may have an impact on you, namely job hunting and employment scams, which may sound like the same thing but they each have a different modus operandi.”

The most common scam associated with job hunting involves the request of a deposit, which is most commonly associated with work-at-home opportunities, Johnson explains. “These types of scams work when an, ‘employer’ or scammer says that a deposit is needed to start working for them. They will probably tell you that the deposit will be used for supplies and training materials.”

“The most important thing to remember is that you should never have to pay for anything to get a job,” she says. “Think about the logic, you work to get paid not the other way around.”

Johnson says that job seekers should also be on the look out for employment scams, which usually involve the scammer attempting to get hold of your personal details and, as with the job hunting scams are usually focused around offering work-from-home opportunities where the scammer offers a job that doesn’t exist.

The ‘employer’ will then ask you to fill out documentation or ask you for your bank account information to set up direct deposit for work done.”

“Once they have your personal information, you are likely to never hear from them again. However, you will most likely find yourself with an identity theft problem.” She says that the best way to avoid falling victim to this type of scam is by using your best judgement and if a job sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

“You must be cautious of any opportunity that requires paying a deposit or a listing that wants your personal information before you know exactly what you will be doing,” she adds.

Johnson cautions to be on the lookout for common scams, ones that state there are only a certain number of openings left, one’s that have strange or free email URL’s or one’s that require you to meet the prospective ‘employer’ at strange times and unusual places.

“In today’s economic climate, many people are tempted to pick up an easy job for extra cash,” she says. “‘Admin’ job, ‘typing’ job, ‘research’ job and data-capture job offers are very common however, there are legitimate companies like The Direct Selling Association who use these classifieds and also use ‘work from home’ as key words.

“The bad news is that the jobs section in classifieds has one of the highest percentages of scams, which averages around 70% however, with our vigorous moderation Kalahari Ads is sitting below 20% and continuously dropping,” Johnson explains.

“In order to eliminate the scams from the legitimate adverts we cut out any cryptic ad and even phone recruiters to ensure they are genuine, we require detailed contact information on adverts placed.

“We will never be able to eliminate scam adverts entirely and that is why we encourage people to always follow our safe suggestions when applying for a vacancy,” adds Johnson. “By keeping the above-mentioned in mind, you are more likely to find a legitimate career opportunity than falling victim to a scam.”

Sharon Knowles, Head of Operations at Kalahari Ads provides some top tips to online job seekers:

Never provide any non-work related personal information such as an ID, credit card number, bank details, home address, marital status, through email, over the phone, in a fax or on your resume;

Double-check the company details of a prospective employer, by calling the company to verify that they are contracted to seek for job opportunities;

Only meet during work hours at a secure location, this would usually mean meeting them at the company location. If this isn’t an option, notify a friend of your whereabouts or better still take someone with you;

Beware of anyone who asks you for money upfront;

Carefully evaluate contact information in the ads, looking out for, spelling errors, email addresses that do not feature company names, inconsistencies with area codes, duplicate adverts for different areas, duplicate adverts with the same contact detail but different description details;

Create a web-based email account to respond to adverts and account for all non-personal communication.

For more information visit:  http://www.kalahariads.com  or facebook.com/kalahariads or follow @kalahariads on Twitter.