Makause informal settlement residents Saphokazi and Nomvula Maqala are urging domestic workers to be on high alert.
This comes after Saphokazi advertised in the GCN that she is looking for domestic employment.
A week later she received a call from a man regarding her advert.
“My sister doesn’t have a phone so she put down my numbers in the advert and I received a call from a man who refused to mention his name,” said Nomvula.
“The man said he is from the Edenvale Hospital and if my sister wants a job at the hospital she must deposit R450 using the money market system.”
Nomvula said the man alleged that the money would be used to pay for a uniform and that it was urgently needed before 1pm that day.
“I told the man that I don’t understand why one has to deposit money when looking for a job. I also told him that we don’t have the money needed,” she said.
“I found it strange and spoke to my sister about it.”
Saphokazi said she was also shocked that you would have to pay in order to get employment at a public hospital.
“While my sister and I were discussing the next step to take, the man called again asking if we had deposited the money yet,” said Saphokazi.
“When I told him we hadn’t he passed the phone to another man who also said the money was a matter of urgency.
“He further instructed me to inform him once I had deposited the money and to travel to the Edenvale Hospital after the deposit had been made.”
Nomvula said they were sceptical about depositing the money until the second man involved the GCN’s receptionist.
“The man told my sister that the receptionist at the newspaper is his wife,” said Nomvula.
“This convinced us to go borrow money from our neighbour as we didn’t have it.
“Before our neighbour gave us money she advised that we first go and confirm the information with the receptionist as there are a lot of scams going on.”
The two siblings didn’t hesitate to make their way to the GCN offices, where they discovered that the receptionist had no knowledge of who the two men were.
The receptionist called the two men in an effort to get answers and clarification but as soon as they were asked questions they put down the phone and never answered the phone after that.
“We were shocked and disappointed to see how far people are willing to go to defraud job seekers,” said Saphokazi.
“What would have happened had we deposited the money?
“Although we never deposited the money, we just ask ourselves how many people fall prey to such cruel people.”
Nomvula said all job seekers should be careful and check their facts before following instructions from people they don’t know.
“We want our experience to be an eye-opener to others out there,” she said.
“You must know that something is wrong when a random person demands money in order for you to get a job.
“It is also inappropriate that they are involving the newspaper’s name and employees in their sick scams.
“Please be careful. And if you are going to meet your potential employer, please don’t go alone. Take a friend or family member with you, and put your safety first.”
The GCN is not affiliated to these men, nor has the newspaper ever had dealings with them and strongly warns the public not to fall for their scheme.
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