The Job Mail team would like to take this time to inform you about a new scam that is targeting Job Seekers.  Be on the lookout for a job scammer who is trawling South African classifieds websites. There is a trend going around. This scammer has been making money off innocent job seekers. He creates hundreds of fake e-mail addresses and uses them to place adverts for non-existing  jobs.
When a job seeker replies to one of these addresses, they receive 10 e-mails from non-existing recruiters prompting them to fax their documents and certificates to a given 0866 fax number. This scammer has been around for the last 7 years and he is still creating new addresses and fake recruiter names every week. One of our employees browsed one of our competitor’s classifieds websites and there were tons of fake adverts posted by this scammer. Our employee tested a couple of them and within minutes he received the same e-mails from many different “recruiters”. None of them offered direct contact details (only a 0866 fax number). There were also other job blogs where people complained about the same thing.  We have noticed that the scammer’s modus operandi is still the same and he never seems to get caught.
Job Mail reported this person to our competitor. Eventually they blocked the “sender”, but because he is using such a lot of different addresses, he can get away with it every time. The scammer just switches between sets of free e-mail addresses and place his fake ads in all the cities, small towns, from Putsonderwater to Lichtenburg – name a place, and you will find one of his scam ads there!
The following e-mail addresses are involved in this scam:
hr-staff@websurfer.co.za
consultants@workmail.co.za
ecrecruiters@homemail.co.za
dreamjobs@mailbox.co.za
careerchoice@ravemail.co.za
employment@therugby.co.za
workinc@exclusivemail.co.za
perfectjobs@thepub.co.za
directcv@magicmail.co.za
hrplacements@therugby.co.za
permapeople@webmail.co.za
recruitdept@websurfer.co.za
exclusiveads@therugby.co.za
tech@mailbox.co.za
skycv@magicmail.co.za
plan@starmail.co.za
hr-careers@homemail.co.za
staff202@therugby.co.za
ecpersonnel@executivemail.co.za
The scammer previously used a group of addresses which were verified on whois.co.za as belonging to the same person and having the same contact telephone number. He must have caught wind of being tailed, as he deleted / discontinued that group of e-mail addies and cleverly started using new ones.
Job Seekers reading this post should not get caught by this scam. We have warned Job Seekers on the Job Mail blog about the new Fax Ploy. This scam works almost the same. If you encounter a recruiter that is only using a 086 Fax Number as contact details, please report them to our Job Mail Consultant via e-mail at rosep@jobmail.co.za or telephonically on 012-3423840 x2620 (during office hours)
Henno Kruger
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Hi there. I decided to write this little article, since it might help your readers:
I’ve been a recipient of the scam CV-emails for a while now. I immediately thought it was an attempt of identity theft, as I haven’t applied for work for quite a number of years. At the same time that I started receiving these mails, I also started receiving calls from an unidentified number. As soon as I answered these calls, the person on the other end just hung up, so I started rejecting calls from unidentified numbers.
Last week though, I received a call from a number listed as ‘+2321′ and decided to answer. ‘Hallo, is this Mia Roets?’ the gentleman on the other end asked with a thick african-french accent. ‘Yes,’ I replied slowly. ‘What are you doing?’ he asked. ‘I’m sorry, what do you mean?’ I replied. ‘What work are you doing?’ he said. ‘I’m a mother currently,’ I responded, ‘why?’ ‘No..you know…for an interview…What did you do before then?’ he stuttered. ‘That information is personal, may I ask who is speaking?’ I asked. ‘It’s Timothy. Someone gave me your number.’ At that point the line became bad, and he said he would phone me back from another line. He didn’t of course.
I knew it was a scam because of the following reasons:
1. He called me by my maiden name.
2. He didn’t identify himself immediately. A professional person will immediately state their full name, where they are calling from, and what the reason for the call is.
3. Someone who has been referred to you by a friend or a colleague won’t say ‘someone gave me your number.’ A professional will say something like ‘(persons name) thought you might be interested in (available position) we have available.’
If the line didn’t start breaking up I would have proceeded to ask the caller a line of questions in order to verify the authenticity of the call. As a job-seeker you should have these questions ready before you receive a call from a recruiter or possible employer, in order to weed out scamsters like this. Your identity is your most precious commodity, you have to know how to guard it because you can’t replace it!
Hi Mia – Thanks for your comment and making your views about this known
Thank you for this article on your blog.
I have been looking for work for the last year, and make use of yours and other sites to search. I have stopped counting the 086 numbers that replied to me. I felt unsure about sending so much info about myself to an 086 fax no so I have not done so. Something upsetting though is that somehow one of these scammers has infiltrated my email account and is using my details to send spam to people. I know this because of the non delivery messages I keep getting for emails I did not send.
Please keep filtering scammers out so that when I apply for a job I am actually applying not just sending my CV to scammers.
Thanks,
John Botes
thanks a lot for warning us re: this matter, because we ss despareate job seekers we fall for any scam that come across without noticing that its a scam.
would you consider hiring me to help keep scammers out? Here are some more such addresses and the opening lines to the emails.
jobs@hardwork.com 0866912219
directjobsresponses@gmail.com 0866563804
jobnetresponse@gmail.com 0862250254
no-reply@worknet.com 0866526176
“Thanks for responding to our advertised position.”
“We received a response from you regarding a vacancy that was advertised.”
“Thank you for responding to our advertised vacancy.”
“We have noticed your interest in a vacant position that was recently advertised by us.”
“Notice that no reference is made to which job you apparently applied for. Only that you applied for a job? No verification, no human presence except that a human typed the generic reply.”
Thnks again,
John Botes
Hi John – Please forward these details to our consultant Rose. You can reach her via rosep@jobmail.co.za or telephonically on 012-3423840 x2620.
Hi Abegail – Thanks for your feedback. Please forward these details to our consultant Rose. You can reach her via rosep@jobmail.co.za
Hi, we need companies like JobMail to stand up and protect their clients by opening a case at the police please. Please note that me as end user or individual can’t make money off fax2email, it’s only companies. Telkom partnered with three companies, so it’s either one of them posting the fake ads or a subsidiary. Here is the contact details of the companies: http://business.telkom.co.za/enterprise/value-added-services/voice/call-features/fax2email/contact-us.html
Come on Jobmail, we DEARLY need you to get out of your cozy office and go to the police and report this fraud! PLEASE!!
Hi i did no longer reply to the people who do not tell me which postion i applied for only to those that do and that state their company name but they also state NOT to send a id copy, thats how i know they are not scams but they also have 086 fax nommers most fax have an 086 so are you saying i should’t send my cv to those who i think and know are not scams?
Hi
The way this scam works is that every time a fax gets sent to one of these 086 fax numbers, the reseller of that 086 number gets a small commission. This may only be 50c per page, but if there are thousands of faxes being sent every day then the commission can amount to thousands of rands per month. What needs to be done to stop this is to track down the company that is responsible for paying the commission for these 086 numbers to the scammer, and get them to hand over the commission account details (ie: bank account name etc.)to the police, as there is clearly a paper trail that can be followed to the scammers bank account.
The following numbers are presently in use for this scam:
0866594172
0866523964
0866930371
0866593346
0866563804
0862250254
Thanks for your feedback Michael. Please forward all this information to our consultant Rose via rosep@jobmail.co.za. You can also reach her telephonically on 012-3423840 x2620.
I did post this on the other post, but would rather give warning in as many places as possible.
They have a new Modus Operandi! And here are some of the new email addresses:
One of the ads that I applied for suggested I SMS Admin1 to a number. A few minutes later I received this sms:
+2782003502636181: Thanks, Send CV to ALL new openings (langverwachtpeoplepleasers@gmail.com) or (mnsesourcing@gmail.com) or (divarissolutions@gmail.com).
I duly emailed my CVs to all 3 and didn’t get a response. The next morning, beginning at 3am I started receiving the emails as per this scam. I think I’ve received from every single one listed above so far, all over the weekend, and at all strange hours.
I’ve goggled the three company names above, and the only place they show up is on job listing sites. There are no company websites, or other info on them.
The ads all look genuine, they are detailed, and there doesn’t seem to be much repetition between the 3.
I did think it was strange when the CV asked me to send my CV to 3 companies.
I didn’t fax anything, as in this day and age I was confused as to why they wanted it faxed, not emailed. Thanks to this post I now know why! I also felt it odd that they wanted a photo.
I hope that this information protects others from possibly being scammed in the future.
If I do get a genuine response from any of the companies above, I will be certain to update this post.
Hi Bianca – Thanks for letting us know Blu. Please forward these person’s details to our consultant Rose via rosep@jobmail.co.za or telephonically on 012-3423840 x2620.
Hi guys. Iv been a victim of the086 scam many times. Until i read it here that it is a scam. Thanks jobmail.
However i am a bit concerned about the advert of EDUK LIMITED, email address info@eduk.co.za and principal@eduk.co.za teachers, students, marketing sales people wanted in UK Tier 4 visa and sponsorship arranged, it sounds too good to be true. Check the websites relating to it, and it doesnt look good, infact if you google search it you get results of edukorg.co.za. im afraid a lot of people will be scammed by this if at all its not genuine.
Thanks for sharing Nomv.
Been ask to fax may cv to Rouchelle” Fax: 0865258364
Sounds like a scam, thanks for sharing Bally