The labor department warned jobseekers planning to work overseas on the proliferation of fake social media pages and accounts offering local and overseas job vacancies.
The alert was issued following a report received by the DOLE Information and Publication Service (IPS) from a jobseeker named ‘Mary’ who claimed to have discussed a local job opportunity with a certain Arthur Villena allegedly working at the labor department.
Mary said she got the details from a supposed ‘DOLE Job Assistance-Local and Abroad’ Facebook page bearing various posts for interested applicants for deployment in Canada, Australia, Singapore, London, and local jobs for Calabarzon and Mimaropa as nurses, caregiver, managers, restaurant staff, and others.
The page also uses the official logo of DOLE, posting pictures of trainings, and a photo of former Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz.
Eager to grab a job and secure a slot, Mary called the certain number ‘0935-743-0054’ posted on the page and was instructed to send a P1,000 for the reservation fee through a mobile remittance service.
After sending the payment, “Arthur” said he will meet with Mary at the DOLE Central Office in Intramuros, Manila to assist her for the job application. However, upon arriving at the DOLE, no one showed up and the scammer no longer answers the phone.
This prompted Mary to seek assistance and report the incident to the labor department.
Upon verification, no ‘Arthur Villena’ appeared on the official roster of employees of DOLE and the said Facebook page was found to be a fake account.
The DOLE IPS has already reported the page and coordinated with the management of Facebook to shut down the account to prevent job seekers from being victimized.
The DOLE said it 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 (POEA) to illegally recruit, scam, and extort money from job seekers.
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.
