Don't fall for fraudulent job adverts

Fraudulent job offers promising lucrative work abroad are again appearing in Slovakia. How can you spot such fraudulent practices and what to look out for to avoid falling for them?

Registration fee before travelling? Well, no!

You must have come across foreign job offers that promised a high salary without the need for experience or language skills. The only condition was to pay the registration fee before travelling abroad. Many people paid the fee, but their journey to a good job ended at the local bus station. The “intermediary” was suddenly unavailable – phone off, not responding to emails.

Remember that no agency can ask you for money upfront. Reliable and successful agencies with years of experience will not charge you any registration or referral fees at all. And definitely don’t pay a fee to be included in the database – paying is not a guarantee of employment.

Why do they advertise on Bazos?

Fraudulent job offers are not usually advertised on official job portals. Such portals usually require a fee for posting a job offer or undergo a check by the operator. Scammers most often post their offers on free electronic bazaars. We have also come across cases where these “job offers” have been found in the advertising newspapers that are regularly delivered to your mailboxes.

Always look for jobs on well-known job portals. Wherever a job offer is posted, always try to find out who created and posted it. You will not trust an offer from a person/company that is not willing to disclose their identity.

Who is the job broker?

Always take note of the contact information provided when making a job offer. As a rule of thumb, a reliable broker has no problem disclosing their name/company name, phone number or email. We do not recommend responding to advertisements with only a phone number or a questionable email address (e.g. pracavnemecku@gmail.com). If the name of the company is mentioned in the advertisement, find out as much as you can about it. Check that the agency has all the necessary licences to provide employment. Meet the agent in person at the agency’s premises, find out about the job offer in detail, and read the agreement or employment contract carefully before signing it. You can also use Google to search for information about the intermediary – you will get a lot of useful information. If you are lucky, you will also come across a discussion with real experiences of the broker’s clients.