KUCHING, March 6 ― Wanita PKR vice head Voon Shiak Ni advised job seekers not to be gullible in accepting offers from employment agencies through social media to work in foreign countries.
She said they must verify these with the Manpower Department to see if the employment agencies are registered and the job offers genuine.
She said they can also seek clarification from the Commercial Crimes Investigation Department.
“We have to be alert and not easily accept the offers when we do not even know anything about the agencies and the job offers overseas,” she told reporters after paying a courtesy call to Sarawak CCID head Superintendent Mustafa Kamal Gani Abdullah here.
Voon said she agreed with Mustafa Kamal that more press coverage is needed to create awareness among the people about job syndicates advertising fake offers through Facebook.
She said stories of Sarawakians being scammed by job syndicates to work in foreign countries have made headline news over the past weeks, including the cases of 47 Malaysians lured to work in Cambodia and eight in Liberia.
“What has been reported so far could be the tip of an iceberg as there could be many cases which have gone unreported or unknown,” she said.
According to statistics provided by Mustafa Kamal, Voon said CCID has 38 files opened for investigations and this year alone, there are 13 cases pertaining to job and Internet love scams.
Voon recalled a case involving a Sarawakian woman who was lured to work in South Korea with a promised salary of between RM8,000 and RM10,000, but was forced to return home after realising that the offer was a fake.
“Despite my strong advice, she insisted on going there,” she adding, that the incident happened six months ago.
“She told me she was desperate for a job and that the salary offered was lucrative so she boldly took the offer and paid RM4,000 to the local agent for his commission,” Voon said, adding that the woman had to borrow from her friend to pay the agent.
She said when the woman arrived in South Korea, she paid another RM4,000 to the agent there, but was told there was no vacancy for her.
“The Korean agent, however, asked the woman to work in a factory that fetched RM2,000 a month.
“After deduction for her accommodation and food, there was nothing left for her to take home,” she said, adding that the woman returned home two months later.
