My encounter with job search scammers

Job scammers swindling Kenyans using the names of unsuspecting former bosses and referees.

Job search scamming in Kenya is getting more sophisticated by the day.

The scammers have gone a notch higher in their search for potential victims and this is what they do.

Last week, one of my former bosses shared with me a job opportunity via WhatsApp, not knowing that it was a scam that he could have unknowingly endorsed.

The scammer reached out to him and asked him to recommend at least a former employee for a communication and journalism opportunity at the New Kenya Cooperative Creameries (KCC.)

Knowing that I was out of employment and searching for a job in the above field, my ex-boss and referee forwarded the text message and the email address to which I should send my cover letter, curriculum vitae and other credentials.

He simply asked me to send my credentials if I would be interested. Seeing it was a referral from someone I worked under, I hardly had second thoughts and sent my applications to the provided email address; [email protected]. The scammers are so smart that they create emails that, without a second glance, would pass as personalised corporate email addresses.

A day after sending the curriculum vitae, the PKamau texted me to indicate that he had received my CV. He also responded to the email and asked me to send my transcripts and other academic credentials, which I did.

The day ended without any communication. The following day, I found two missed calls from PKamau, whom Truecaller identifies as Peter Kamau KCC.

I called back and he told me that he wanted to talk to me before getting to the board meeting, but assured me it was not all lost, he asked random questions about my academic credentials and assured me that I was going head-to-head with other referred candidates and thus I should be hopeful I could just land the “lucrative parastatal job,” which would be on a “two- to three-year contract basis”- Red flags begin to pop up because he cannot mention the specific salary range, benefits or even his position.

He was so canny and leveraged on my referee to bar me from doubting his now suspicious advances.

“I have been on your matter for three days now and this highlights that the recruitment process is a tight race. I have been lobbying for you but your experience and credentials are also defensible. It is because I know “...” (the name of my former boss) as a close friend that I’ll try my best to see this go through,” he said as I just listened and told him thank you.

The following day, he called at around 8.00 am, sema patience and strategy he he. He told me that there was white smoke and that I should be optimistic that my next job was as good as attained. He told me to be thankful to my former boss for being his trustworthy friend who had made credible referrals in the past.

I simply told him thank you and waited to hear what would happen next.

CRISIS MOMENT.

He then called at around 9.30 a.m. and told me to send him the five “statutory clearance certificates” for HELB, KRA, EACC, Police Clearance and CRB. He needed them immediately. At least by 11 a.m. when he would be back to a “board meeting. I told him that I only had the KRA tax compliance certificate, and would get the HELB clearance certificate within that time.

He acted worried and told me that only the clearance certificates stood between me and the job. I responded and asked what would happen next. Then he said that he would need to help me, just because my referee assured him I would be excellent in the role.

PKamau went ahead to ask me if I knew someone at Huduma Centre who could help me get the Police Clearance, EACC clearance and CRB, and I told him no. He volunteers to talk to a Huduma Centre administrator to help share soft copies, “another red flag.”

He sent the contact information of Mr David, Admin Huduma Centre, who I needed to call immediately to process the clearance certificates.

Being suspicious, I called a friend in the police service and asked him about the fastest time a police clearance “certificate of good conduct” could be processed on a fast-tracked basis and he told me, maybe three days as I needed to fill out the e-Citizen form and go for fingerprints.

He advised me that, if this was needed by an employer, an understanding organization would accept that I share the invoice in soft copy to prove I had commenced the application process.

All through the conversation, one thing was sure, I was not going to compromise my integrity by paying any “facilitation fees.” For processing documents, which ideally should be requested after I have an appointment letter. My wife had read the red flags too, as she was the one helping me get the tax compliance certificate from the KRA website.

She wondered why there was an emergency and why the “director” had not mentioned the need for these statutory clearance certificates earlier.

I told the “Huduma Centre” admin, who quickly recalled that the “KCC Director had called him about my case” and asked him if it was indeed possible to have those documents processed in two hours He said yes but I would have to pay more (precisely, KSh 6,850), suspicious figure for EACC clearance.

From my understanding, the EACC clearance process is comprehensive and done by EACC officers after the form is filled out and an attorney signs it.

I told the “director” that I had talked with the Huduma Centre Admin, and he was processing the documents. Meanwhile, after the Huduma Centre fraud mentioned the weird, extra, facilitation figure, I knew this was over for me, because how would I testify of God’s goodness after bribing for a job, jameni?

The KCC, then, not calling, texted and asked if I had talked with the admin, and I said yes, we had talked, but the only payments I would make would be through e-Citizen. He goes silent.

Later, I sent him an email and “appreciated him for being helpful,” but let him know that I would have to wait for the clearance certificates from Huduma Centre and EACC for at least two weeks. No response.

After digging for KCC job scams online, I found an engineering job seeker, also referred for a plant engineering position at KCC by his former supervisor, where he interned, and was similarly scammed for KSh 10,000. His mistake was sending the money to fast-track and facilitate the quick processing of statutory clearance forms.

So the scammers are patient enough, and all they want is the money you sent to get the Chapter Six Constitutional clearance requirements. After he sent the money, he never heard from them again.

How the scammers know who is looking for a job and get to target them through their former bosses and referees is a question that I have no answer for.

Lessons learned: keep your integrity values intact, countercheck, and reach out to your referees in case the referrals they give you look suspicious and their names are mentioned dominantly as the reason for your preference for the vacancy. Kamau's phone number is 0722823936 and the Huduma Centre fake admin David's contact is 072133295.