Learn about common scams before job hunting
According to the Labour Department’s Interactive Employment Service guidance, job seekers should beware of job-hunting scams. If you find that a job involves multi-level commission (i.e. pyramid selling), and the goods sold are more expensive than those on the market, or you are required to pay a large membership fee, or are persuaded to recruit members (including relatives, friends and classmates) as downline staff to earn profits, rather than focusing on product sales, you should decline the offer.
In addition, do not readily trust recruitment advertisements that promise “no experience or qualifications required” yet offer “high pay and good benefits”. You should check whether the salary and requirements of the vacancy are in line with reality and market levels.
Protect personal data and avoid unreasonable charges
Some fraudsters use recruitment as a pretext to obtain important personal data from job seekers, such as identity card, bank account and credit card details. During the online job-hunting process, if you need to provide personal data, consider whether the employer’s request is reasonable and whether there is a risk of excessive collection of personal data.
Some fraudsters also use recruitment as a pretext to charge job seekers unreasonable fees under various pretexts and names, such as registration fees, data processing fees, administrative fees and work permit fees. Legitimate companies generally do not ask employees to bear any costs.
If, during job hunting, you are told you do not meet the entry requirements for the vacancy and need to pay for your own training courses or other programmes to improve your skills before being hired, you should stay alert, as this is likely to be a fake recruitment scheme intended to defraud you of money.
Safety precautions during interviews and work
When going for an interview, keep personal safety in mind, avoid attending interviews alone at abnormally remote locations, and pay attention to whether the interview process is overly hasty. Fraudsters may defraud job seekers of property or obtain personal data during the interview, and then steal money from bank accounts or use the obtained data for illegal activities. Alternatively, they may claim to be recruiting for online part-time work, promising job seekers that they can earn service fees or commissions by purchasing online game top-up cards on behalf of others. Once the job seeker provides the top-up card serial numbers and passwords, the fraudster sells the credit and disappears, causing the job seeker financial loss.
If an employer makes unreasonable demands, you should refuse outright, and never perform illegal work for the employer.