*WARNING* BestJobs.co.za is a breeding ground for identity thieves

by Stii

They may have the best jobs in South Africa, but you’ll be without your identity and a whole pile of crap richer if you respond to some of the jobs advertised on there!

A friend of mine in the recruitment business notified me of this scam running on there. He has tried in absolute vain to get BestJobs.co.za involved and to stop it, but they simply ignored his requests and they are unreachable by phone.

Here is what happens:

You see a jobs advertised by the scammer.
You apply for the job and an email are sent to the “recruiter” who advertised the job. Only the recruiter is a scammer and not a recruiter at all…
You receive 2 emails back immediately after your email reached theirs. These two emails are auto-responders.

The one is from a company called Mustangs:

Hello Name Surname,

We received a response from you regarding an advertised, vacant position.

We now need your full detailed CV, a copy of your ID document, reference letters, any certificates or documents that may verify your education as well as an introduction letter from yourself.

Please forward this to us at Fax: 0866591800

Try your best to forward this info to us, as soon as possible, because we will only be able to process your application after receipt of this information.

We look forward to hear from you, as soon as possible.

A very pleasant day to you, and..

Regards

From your Recruitment Team at

M u s t a n g s

Then you receive another from Aggies Recruitment Services:

From: hrrecruiting@aggies.com [mailto:hrrecruiting@aggies.com]
Sent: 10 January 2009 01:20 AM
To: Name Surname
Subject: Your application for vacant position

Dear Jobseeker: Name Surname,

We have received a response from you regarding a vacant position that was advertised.

We want to thank you for this response!

We would like to process your application, but however need the documents, mentioned below, to enable us to do so.

Please send your CV, a good copy of your ID, as well as any other documents, such as certificates and / or reference letters, that can support your application.

On receipt of this documentation we will process your application.
If you are chosen as a shortlist candidate, our office will immediately inform you.

We now await your documents at fax: 0866591791

Try your best to forward it within the next 2 days.

Very kind regards

Lucinda
Aggies Recruiting Service

So what happens is unsuspecting job seekers send them all this sensitive personal information, but never hear from them again. Ever. They now have a copy of your ID, know basically everything about you from your CV and have the perfect setup to run scams with your identity.

If you look closely at the second email, you will see it is sent from a domain called aggies.com. Therefore the name Aggies Recruitment Service. However if you go to aggies.com, you would find that it is just another free email account service. It does make the company Aggies Recruitment Service look legit in a way.

The sad thing is that BestJobs.co.za are not prepared to even respond to warnings about these scammers. They choose to ignore it. So let this be a warning to all job seekers:

BE VERY CAREFUL SENDING ANY PERSONAL INFORMATION TO COMPANIES YOU HAVE NOT SEEN OR SPOKEN TO AT LEAST!