Vryheid KZN – Municipality warns of job scams

With the high rate of unemployment, a lot of people fall prey to job scammers and many institutions become targets for these scam artists.
A recent scam has seen unsuspecting victims being promised jobs at Ulundi Local Municipality, while demanding money from the innocent job-seekers.
The municipality says a lot of people have been coming into the municipal offices to ask about job opportunities that the municipality was not aware of.
Municipal Manager Nkosenye Zulu said he was concerned by these job scams doing the rounds under the municipality’s name.
“It seems as if this trend of job scammers is rising more than before. There have been a lot of reports coming into our offices where people have already been scammed out of their money after being promised employment in the municipality.

Also read: Labour department warns of a scam doing rounds on social media

I would like to emphasise that there are currently no vacancies at the municipality. People should not let these criminals swindle them using the municipality’s name. When there are job opportunities at the municipality, we announce those vacancies and we also advertise those vacancies. Those who have become victims of this scam should go to the police and open a case so that those criminals can be arrested. There is no job offer that requires you to pay first before you get employed,” said Zulu.
Tips to spot a job scam:
• Spelling errors – A poorly written advert could be a red flag for you to know it’s a scam.
• Paying to be placed for a job – According to South African law, applicants cannot be asked to pay to be placed in any job position. No company should charge you for giving you a job, ie red flag.
• Give us your banking details – Companies and hiring managers are prohibited by law to ask for your financial details. Job scammers and criminals will ask for your banking details, claiming they want to do a credit or reference check on you. You must know that this is completely illegal.
• No experience required – When you come across an ad with “no experience required”, just know it’s a job scam. A scammer is waiting for you to react so they can make cash from your misfortune.
• Emails from non-business addresses – So you’ve applied for a job at “hello youth” and suddenly you receive an email from a Gmail account. Don’t even read the mail; move it to a spam folder immediately and carry on with your life.
• Jobs abroad: outside of South Africa – This has become a common practice among criminals to smuggle and traffic people abroad. They usually target young adults, promising them modelling contracts and so on. Avoid such ad posts, as they’re mostly job scams.
• Remember that when it seems too good to be true, it more than likely is!

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