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The recruitment process can be costly for candidates - paying out for new interview attire to impress your assessor, splashing out on expensive portfolio materials that screams professionalism and the ludicrous cost of the commute to the interview venue all add up fast.
While these costs can be largely anticipated, there is one cost that candidates never expect: transferring money to prospective employers to speed up interview procedures.
The South African arm of Coca-Cola Beverages (CCBSA) has publicly warned jobseekers to be aware of recruitment scams that have been carried out using their employer brand – highwaymail.co.za reports.
It came to the attention of the drink’s manufacturer that bogus recruiters, claiming to be representatives of the company, were offering fraudulent employment proposals in exchange for money transfers - which was sought to speed up the recruitment process for hopeful candidates.
The company have since published a statement confirming that these activities were unauthorised and not linked to recruitment or employment procedures of the CCBSA or any of its existing entities.
The statement read: “It must be emphasised that neither CCBSA nor any of its entities would ever ask for upfront fees or payment before, during and/or after the recruitment process.
"We pride ourselves on the formal recruitment process we have in place – which meets all legal and industry requirements. Should an individual be successful in gaining an offer of employment from the company, this communication would originate from a verifiable CCBSA source.
“CCBSA would like to assure the public that we are taking this matter extremely seriously and are investigating all claims received in this regard.
"We will be working with the relevant authorities to end this fraudulent activity.”
Sadly, this isn’t the only instance that unsuspecting candidates have fallen victim to bogus recruiters. Last year, Recruitment Grapevine reported one jobseeker, Patricia Sepulveda, who noted a job opening on Facebook. It went down hill from there.
The candidate explained that she applied for a job and went for two interviews before being asked for money in what she claimed to be a recruitment scam.
She told kmph.com: “As far as the [interviewers] went to tell you all the benefits...everything you have to do, explaining what the job is you know, it seemed legit.”
The job promised her “state of the art equipment...a benefits package, make $18 a package”. She explained that the perks seemed promising.
“But you have to send us $100 iTunes card, gift card, so we can activate your tracking so we can track your hours,” Sepulveda was reportedly told.
She has since dubbed this scam ‘elaborate’ and ‘convincing’.
And with an up rise in the internet and online technologies, Chair at SAFERjobs, Keith Rosser, told Recruitment Grapevine that cyber scams are largely increasing because of how easy it is to defraud people from behind a computer screen.
“SAFERjobs frequently receives reports about fake recruitment websites, fake jobs pretending to be from well-known employers, and recruitment scams all advertised on social media.”
He added: “Many job boards are now sharing intelligence and vetting job adverts via the SAFERjobs Online Vetting system but this does not happen in the realms of social media.”
