Blog: Blogs Look out for fake job postings!

Looking for a job can be a daunting task. Thankfully, the online space has made this entire rigamarole effortless. Job seekers can contact organisations and apply for jobs through a simple click of a mouse. But this has also made it easier for fraudsters to create hoax opportunities and fake identities for monetary gains.

Understandably, any job applicant wants to comply with recruitment requirements. However, it might be wiser to pause and ensure that the job ad or site you are responding to, is credible. Before you engage further with any job recruiter online, here are a few things that you need to bear in mind.

For starters, always ensure that the job posting has been made by a legitimate source or company. One simple way of doing this is to confirm the details with the ones shared on the company’s official website. Of course, it might also be helpful to reach out to the hiring team.

Recently, we’ve seen an increase in recruitment scams in which fraudsters have pretended to represent Sinar Mas Agribusiness and Food. They have even demanded a fee for transportation and accommodation from candidates. These scams are alarming for our company, as we strive to make joining our business as efficient and stress-free as possible for our prospective employees.

In fact, our Talent Acquisition team has come up with a set of measures to prevent applicants from falling prey to recruitment scams. Here are the top three must-knows that might prove handy next time you click on the “apply” button:

1. We use a digitised or online recruitment process that makes our applicants’ entire journey more efficient. You don’t need to worry about being physically present at the time of the test or interview. This removes the need to make transportation and accommodation arrangements and the need to carry personal stationery for a test.
2. As part of our recruitment process, we don’t demand a fee or a payment of any kind (like, for accommodation and transportation). However, suppose a third party, claiming to be us, expects a fee of any sort or requires you to be physically present at the test or interview. In that case, it’s definitely a fake job posting. So you need to keep away from it.
3. Finally, we have curated a digital recruitment framework to ensure that our online recruitment processes remain fair and thorough. This ensures that candidates don’t resort to unfair ways of securing answers during an online test.

Now you know how Sinar Mas Agribusiness and Food conducts its recruitment process.

Here are more red flags to help you spot a fake job posting or recruitment scam:

1. Applicants are usually listed in a PDF document containing a list of names and manually assigned test numbers.
2. Salary information is provided before the selection process.
3. Candidates are required to transfer money for transportation or accommodation fee.
4. The test is conducted face-to-face, with the candidates bringing their personal stationery to take a test.
5. The selection is held on Sundays or national holidays.
6. Information on the test date is given on very short notice.

These seemingly simple details might prove helpful in alerting you of a posting that isn’t legitimate. Unfortunately, it seems unlikely that these fraudulent activities will completely disappear anytime soon in the online world. But we can dodge these fake posting by remaining cautious of the online sources we interact with while looking for a job.

So, the next time you come across a recruiter online claiming to be Sinar Mas Agribusiness and Food, make sure you look at our official website to validate the details. Feel free to connect with our recruitment team to verify these details or clarify your doubts. We will be happy to respond to your questions.

The Author’s Profile:
Rendy Nataprawira is a General Recruiter Assistant Manager at Sinar Mas Agribusiness and Food. Born in Jakarta on December 15, 1987, he graduated from the Faculty of Psychology, Atma Jaya Catholic University. He started his career with us on September 12, 2011.