The employment scam aims at extorting as high as Ghc 180:00 from each victim
The Management of West Hills Mall has issued a strong note of caution to the general public to be wary of a cunning employment scam currently operational on social media designed to extort money from unsuspecting job-seekers.
A statement issued today by the Mall’s Centre Management advised the public to completely disregard the various communication on the internet, promising a wide range of job openings at the Mall as fake and fraudulent, designed by scammers to extort money from young job-seekers.
According to the statement, the communication came to Management’s attention last week but could have been streaming on major social media platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp for the past few weeks and is enticing people with outrageous job offers including free accommodation, free meals and attractive salaries ranging from Ghc600 to Ghc1,500.
The scam aims at extorting as high as Ghc 180:00 from each victim, starting with the purchase online of a (fake) application or submission form for Ghc 31:00. After the form has been ‘purchased’ and submitted, a further payment of Ghc155:00 is then demanded as charges for work clothing, a special staff ID card and medical screening. The scam uses mobile money (currently an MTN number – 0552624285) for receipt of payments from victims.
‘The Management of West Hills Mall hereby categorically affirms that the job opening being advertised on social Media are non-existent and that the communication conveying it is as fraudulent as it is illegal,’ the statement said.
‘We sincerely sympathise with persons who may have fallen victim to this wicked scam and while we encourage them to report their experiences to the Police, we wish to advise the general public, particularly young job-seekers, to be cautious whenever they encounter such implausible employment offers in the future,’ it concluded.
In recent times, almost every major mall in the country, including Achimota Retail Centre (Achimota Mall) and the Kumasi City Mall, have become targets for such employment scams on social media.
