Fraudsters target municipal learnership applicants
On Saturday via their Facebook page, the Nkomazi Local Municipality warned people interested in applying for traffic officer learnerships that fraudsters were targeting them.
MALALANE – Criminals in the area are once again taking advantage of people trying to find work by pretending that they can secure a job in exchange for a bribe.
On Saturday, the Nkomazi Local Municipality posted a warning on their Facebook page stating that people applying for the traffic officer learnership programme were being targeted.
The fraudsters are reportedly taking bribes and promising people that they would be among the successful applicants.
The vacancies were advertised on the municipality’s website and their official Facebook page. Interested parties were invited to send their application letter, CV and other required documents to the municipality’s Human Resource Manager via the postal service or hand-deliver it to the municipality’s offices in Malalane before Friday (January 4).
Job seekers are reminded that no legitimate company or recruiter will ask for money to ensure a job interview or application. This is fraud and should be reported to the nearest police station.
Scams involving job opportunities regularly come under the attention of police or the institutions that fraudsters impersonate.
In June, a social media scam involving job opportunities at Eskom prompted the energy-supplier to stress that jobs can only be searched and applied for on their website.
In August 2017, several cases of fraud relating to job opportunities, bursaries or learnerships were reported in Tonga.
READ: Tonga SAPS warns against fraudsters
In these cases, the fraudsters posed as government officials or employees and offered people high-paying jobs or in the case of students, bursaries or learnerships. If the person does not have the right qualifications, the criminals promised to help them obtain it.
The victims were asked to transfer money and once they did so, the fraudsters disappeared.
In June of the same year, the Nkomazi Local Municipality called on the Hawks for assistance relating to similar cases, after community members were swindled out of thousands of Rand.
READ: Nkomazi residents lose thousands of Rands in job scam
Criminals pretended to be employees of the municipality and contacted their targets with news of vacancies. The applicants had to email their CV’s and deposit money into a bank account to get the jobs. Once that had been done, the victims were notified that they had the jobs and should report to an official at the municipality. When they arrived, they were told that there was no such official.
At this time, the municipal spokesman, Cyril Ripinga, reminded the public that the municipality was required to advertise the vacancies, applicants would be interviewed and successful ones contacted with an offer.
Job seekers are urged to verify if a company, job offer or employment opportunity is legitimate before committing to it or paying any money. This can be done by visiting the company’s website, comparing contact numbers and email addresses and doing a web search for more information on the company and their activities.
READ: Criminals use government details for scams
