The Department of Labor and Employment yesterday urged Filipinos to be cautious of job opportunities being offered on different social media platforms.
The DoLE said that jobseekers should only transact with accredited recruitment agencies or with the appropriate government agencies to avoid falling prey to illegal recruiters.
“The DoLE has encountered numerous social media accounts and pages which publishes unauthorized local and overseas job vacancies using the logos of the Labor department and the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration to illegally recruit, scam, and extort money from job seekers,” the Labor department said.
“The public, particularly jobseekers, are encouraged to visit the official website of DoLE at www.dole.gov.ph, the PhilJobNet – www.philjobnet.gov.ph for local job posting, and of the POEA – www.poea.gov.ph – for overseas job orders, and verify licensed and accredited recruitment agencies in the country,” it added.
The DoLE issued the advisory after it received a report from a jobseeker who claimed to have “discussed a local job opportunity with a certain Arthur Villena allegedly working at the Labor department.”
The DoLE said that the applicant viewed the job opportunity from a Facebook page “DoLE Job Assistance-Local and Abroad” that offers deployment in Canada, Australia, Singapore, and London as well as local jobs for Regions 4-A and 4-B as nurses, caregiver, managers, and restaurant staff, among others.
The Labor department said that the applicant contacted the cellphone number posted on the Facebook page and was “instructed to send a P1,000 for the reservation fee through a mobile money transfer ‘Smart Padala.’”
It said that after the applicant had sent the payment to Villena, he said he will meet the applicant at the DoLE main office in Intramuros, Manila and promised to provide assistance.
“However, upon arriving at the DoLE, no one showed up and the scammer no longer answers the phone,” said the Labor department.
The DoLE said that the Facebook page was found to be a fake account and that no certain Arthur Villena appeared on the official list of employees of the department.
“The DoLE IPS (Information and Publication Service) has already reported the page and coordinated with the management of Facebook to shut down the account to prevent job seekers from being victimized,” it said. (Analou de Vera)
