KUCHING: The Sarawak Patriots Association (SPA) reminds members of the public not to be deceived by any job offers via online from unknown or suspicious sources or parties.
SPA chairman Datuk John Lau Pang Heng said there are many types of job scam these days to lure those who are eager to earn supposedly high salaries.
“The scammers will continuously follow up with their unsolicited text messages through social media applications, offering high rewards if a victim responded to their initial job offers.
“Most of the time, victims would be convinced that they were asked to do legitimate work as they would receive commissions and profit at the onset.
“However, the victims would eventually discover that they have been scammed when they did not receive further commissions,” said Lau when contacted by New Sarawak Tribune today regarding the case of six Sarawakians stranded in Cambodia after they were scammed through online job offers.
He added that people need to be mindful and wary of the presence of global job scammers targeting at lower to middle income group to entice them with opportunities to earn high salary overseas.
“Members of the public should be wary of any red flags when receiving unexpected messages on job offer from unknown sources.
“Certain groups would offer easy jobs with lucrative commissions that are simply too good to be true.
“Unsolicited messages advertising job offers usually sent from unknown numbers or unknown foreign numbers.
“If these so-called employer requests to transfer funds to bank accounts belonging to individuals they had not met in person, know that this is a scam,” Lau advised.
He also advised the public to take precautionary measures to prevent being scammed, such as do online research, get help from trusted individuals or speak to authorities on the matter.
He also said that legitimate employers would never ask individuals to pay to get a job, and they never send cheques.
“Do not accept dubious jobs that offer lucrative returns for minimal efforts, never download applications from unverified sources and never send money to anyone whom you do not know or have not met in person before.
“If any family relatives who are already being cheated, lodge police reports with details of the job scam.
“Also, seek help from lawyers to write letters to the necessary authorities, such as the embassy and consulate, and assistance from non-governmental organisation,” he advised.
“We like to advise members of the public to be more careful in accepting any online job offers.
“The best prevention is to reject online job offers from suspicious persons with a criminal intent.
“We all have a duty of care for our fellow Sarawakians, let us help one another so that there will be no more job scams targeting us.”
