New Job Scam Which is Not So New
By Zul • Apr 28th, 2008 • Category: All Things Malaysia •
You don’t need your own vehicle; you can be 99 years old and blind as a bat. But fret not; you are only RM200 away from your dream job. Housewives, fresh graduates and college students flip through the classifieds daily looking for ways to make some pocket money.
Data entry, envelope-stuffing and box-folding sound easy enough, especially if you can earn a minimum of RM50 a day. But there is one catch. The dream job does not exist. Bogus employment agencies are making it all up. And the number of victims falling prey to these scams is on the rise. - NST, 27 April 2004.
That is what NST reported yesterday. According to the report, a new breed of job scam is on the rise after the scratch-and-win contests was banned last year. This so-called “new” scam offers the job seekers opportunities to do part time data entry, envelop stuffing, box folding and so on. But there’s a catch. Before you can even begin with the job, you are required to pay a certain amount of “administration fees”. This fee could be in the region between RM50 to a few hundred ringgits.
In actuality, this type of scam is not new at all. It is old. In fact, it is older than the scratch-and-win scam, and only slightly younger than the stone age. It’s been going on for years. But since the modus operandi is mostly done mainly through online, it is difficult to track the culprits, let alone bringing them to justice. These scammers are extremely good at playing the invisible game.
Here are some of the teasers in their advertisement:
- Work from home, you own time, only a few hours per day
- No experience needed. Fresh graduates welcome. Grandmas also can
- Academic qualification not necessary
- Generate >RM3,000 per month, and achieve financial freedom soon
- No traveling, no transportation need
It sounds easy enough, isn’t it? In fact, they sound so simple that the job outcome is pretty much the same if your cat does the job instead of you. And because the job sounds fantastically easy, innocent (and short sighted I must say) job seekers are willing to part with their pocket money (”Alaa… RM50 je…” they reasoned), duped into believing the day has come for them to savour victory. Why not, since they have been spending months and months of trying and applying for jobs. The cavalry has finally arrived. Their unemployment seems to have finally ended. So it seems.
But things don’t turn out as expected. At the end of the day, the victim is left a no happier person, and to add to misery, he or she is somewhat poorer too. There’s no date entry to be made, no envelops, no boxes. Only false hope. The next thing they know is they’re at the front door of Consumer Claims Tribunal’s office. But not before the scammer has gone up in the smoke, untraceable with their victim’s money.
So be wary of the job scam cow boys.
Image: Tonee.com
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