The Voice (Francistown)
23 October 2007
Francistown — The more the graduates, the higher the unemployment rate, and the worst thing is, chances are that the unemployed may be vulnerable to genuine website job scams.
MISA (Media Institute for southern Africa) award winning Voice journalist, Chedza Simon, exposes a website job scam, made up of crooks masquerading as United Nations (UN) training agents.
Just last week, the University of Botswana (UB) and the Botswana College of Agriculture (BCA), held a glittering graduation ceremony for more than 4000 graduates.
Their faces harbored a portrait of discontentment and desperation because they knew they cannot find jobs. As they wore their mortarboards, bowing in front of President Festus Mogae and the UB Chancellor, one could tell that it was just a formality.
Any advertisement, in print or electronic, is a source of hope for these graduates and any other unemployed citizen. The internet which is the most popular medium of them all is dangerous, because crooks camouflaged as genuine agents are making away with millions in different world currencies from unsuspecting people.
A week before the UB graduation, I received an email entitled "UN JOB VACANCIES." At first I treated it as spam, but out of curiousity, I opened it to see what it was about. The United Nations (UN) agency, The World Health Organisation (WHO) was advertising jobs. Anyone, knows they can't go wrong with the WHO or UN. People have faith in these organisations.
I became suspicious because I know the UN uses the e-staffing system. Jobs ranging from Directors, Project Officers, Program
Officers to Administration vacancies were advertised with lucrative and attractive remunerations. All that was needed as entry requirement was a Degree or Diploma in any field.
The email had an employment/interview form which had to be completed and sent to
I did as was required. The following day, I received a reply announcing that my application was successful. This email was written by one Dr Adam Rogers at The Employment Department, US Committee for UN, Two UN Plaza, 24th Floor, New York, NY 10017.
The email was entitled "Training Approved". It had an opening statement, "Join Us Today to Promote a More Peaceful, Prosperous and Just World".
It suggested that as a pre-requisite to employment, I had to undergo year long training in one of the selected three centres in America, London or China.
Two options were envisaged in this email. Either I train in London full time or online.
Dr Rogers referred me to their Training Consultant, Dr Smith Greg at the London Training Centre, Recruitment, National Audit Office, 157-197 Buckingham Palace Road, London, SW1W9SP.
Dr Greg sent me an email in the next 24 hrs demanding that for me to successfully go through training in London, I should pay £635 (P7 808,43) as of this Wednesday's currency exchange rate) or pay £775 (P9 529,55 as of this Wednesday's currency exchange rate), to train online.
He wrote in his email that candidates who pay training fees are guaranteed employment after training and that they would be paid an annual salary of $180 000 (P1, 089,591.95) as of this Wednesday's currency exchange rate).
He also said at the end of training and prior to employment, candidates will be paid 30 percent of their annual salary (P326, 877, 59) cash as start-up salary.
How generous! This was indeed tempting. The payments were demanded promptly for me to immediately start training. There were threats that my application would be dismissed because I am reluctant to pay. Prove of payment was to be sent to
I asked for the bank details. Dr Greg replied that I should send the money to NATWEST BANK, 24 Deansgate Bolton, BL1 1BN, UNITED KINDOM, ACCOUNT NAME: G. ONUWAJE, ACCOUNT NUMBER: 63592622: SORT CODE: 013099.
I was surprised that all of a sudden, the Dr Greg I suspected to be a Caucasian, was now using an African Indigenous name, sounding more central or north African. Since he had left a phone number in one of the emails, I picked up my phone and dialed the same number. On the other end of the line, answered a voice with what seemed to be a Nigerian or Ghanaian accent.
I asked to speak to Dr Greg and the voice, seemingly in a panic, replied: "speaking." I asked about the training, and the 'Dr Greg' claimed he was busy and would send me an email.
I immediately phoned the British Council in Gaborone, to enquire about the London Training Centre. A kind lady who identified herself as Boitumelo offered to help me. She could not find the centre in their search engine www.dfse.gov.uk.
I personally tried to search and hit a blank. I tried Live Search for the directions of the addresses and they were non-existent.
157-197 Buckingham Palace Road, London, SWW1W9SP, could not be found in the UK Live Search engines.
Having established that Dr Greg and Rogers could be up to something dubious, I logged onto the UN website www.un.org to confirm my suspicions. After accessing the site, I clicked into the employment section, which to my surprise had a red warning:
WARNING TO APPLICANTS: THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, TRAINING OR ANY OTHER FEES). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON BANK ACCOUNTS.
"There we go," I said out loud. My colleagues may have thought I was going crazy. No fees to pay! I became sad for a moment that my fellow countrymen and women looking for lucrative jobs overseas could have fallen to this scam. Not only that, there are other desperate people in the world who may have paid fortunes to these crooks.
I logged onto the UK National Audit Office website, www.nao.org.uk, which had an ominous warning: Although rare, Internet fraudsters sometimes use the names of NAO staff, including the Comptroller & Auditor General, Sir John Bourn, or derivatives of "National Audit Office", in an attempt to defraud people through email scams.
Should you receive an email that you are suspicious of, we would be grateful to hear of it. Please forward the message to our
The same address that Dr Greg used is that of the UK National Audit Office.
Such scams go the same way as those in most of your PCs, about penis enlargement, cheap Viagra and some people purporting to be millionaires, who want your assistance for them to transfer large sums of money from their parents' offshore accounts. You will be promised millions as your share of the transaction. Before anything would be done, you will be requested to pay thousands as contribution to pay fake barristers and attorneys for the transaction to be legal. This is tempting, but, please, don't try it. BEWARE...
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