Employment scam

Nelson Narayan, Lautoka

I totally agree with our honourable Minister for Employment Relations and Productivity Parveen Bala’s warning to members of the public regarding a scam relating to overseas employment (Fiji Sun 09/01/19). A group has been soliciting money from people in Taveuni in return for travel and work visa overseas.

Scammers have targeted this group of people and taken travel documents making false promises to provide employment in the USA.

I was offered a job as a “Customer Service Agent,” for Coca Cola Baltimore USA with a package deal of US$65,000 with free accommodation via email.

Luckily, I found out about the truth from the rightful trademark company of Coca Cola based at Atlanta, USA that the recruiting agent was a fraudster.

This appears to be a form of fraud known as “Phishing,” where perpetrators attempt to develop relationships with victims in order to obtain personal and financial information. Common signs that a message may be a part of an email scam or phishing campaign include:

Spelling and grammatical errors in the email, improper use of company trademarks, sender’s use of free and non-corporate email accounts (such as Yahoo!,

Gmail and Hotmail), requests for personal information and the promise of quick financial gain. Overall, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is. Do not reply to these emails with any information.