Recruitment fraud is still a huge headache for Anglo American. In the latest scam jobseekers are requested to pay money into an account to secure Red Tickets for job opportunities in the company.
One very disappointed young man who was caught, Mr April Mtsweni, said all his dreams for a brighter future were stolen by the men who promised him a job.
“I was looking for a job as a general worker on one of the mines in eMalahleni and was delighted when a man, who introduced himself as Mr Mkhwanazi, contacted me and told me to fax all my particulars to him,” Mtsweni said.
Mtsweni said the man contacted him again and confirmed that he received the fax.
Mkhwanazi then gave the young man his assistant’s number. The assistant known as ‘Robert’, told Mtsweni to deposit R1 500 into an account, afterwards he would give the jobseeker more information about the Red Ticket.
Mtsweni was excited when he received a reference number from Robert and early on Wednesday, August 27 he waited in the Central Business District where they were supposed to pick him up to take him for medical as required by all the mines.
But his excitement soon turned to anxiety when he realised no one was going to pick him up.
“I waited and waited and tried calling Mkhwanazi and Robert but they did not answer their phones,” Mtsweni said.
“People are misrepresenting themselves as Anglo American or Anglo American employees via fraudulent websites, lotteries, and advertisements or by posing as agencies representing Anglo American. They make unsuspecting victims believe that they have secured offers of employment with Anglo American. These are fraudulent and aimed at extracting either money or personal information,” said Mr Moeketsi Mofokeng from Anglo American.
Mofokeng said any genuine offer of employment from Anglo American will always be preceded by a formal application and a professional selection process including face-to-face interviews. He further said communication from Anglo American will come from an email address in the following format: first name.lastname@angloamerican.com and Anglo American does not ask for bank details until the formal offers of employment have been agreed by both parties.
“Anglo American never asks for money from either job applicants or successful applicants for any purpose like visas or work permits, housing, training or personal protective equipment,” he said.
“If you haven’t applied for a job at Anglo American and gone through a face-to-face selection process, then any job offer will be fake and if the email or job offer asks you to deposit any money into a bank account to cover any kind of fees, it will be a fraud,” he said.
Treat any suspicious job offers with caution, Mofokeng urged.
Anglo American is committed to take every available step to expose these fraudsters for who they are and to put an end to their unlawful and fraudulent activities. If you have any queries please send them to recruitmentfraud@angloamerican.com.
