June 10, 2020
Be very careful with false recruiters! Here we share their ways of tricking you.
Many Mexican people look for opportunities to work in the United States. But many times, it is difficult to know if a job offer is real or not. False recruiters go to different communities in the country to offer job opportunities without guaranteeing that the job is real. When this happens, workers are vulnerable to fraud that is latent day by day.
False recruiters have adapted different ways of tricking people and luring them in: many promote themselves through fake Facebook profiles, others offer jobs through WhatsApp. Some promote themselves on radios, distribute ads, and set up a recruiting office for a few days. Other times, they simply go to the communities and look for someone there to be a direct contact, like civilians or municipal or government authorities.
Some of the methods that false recruiters use to trick workers are:
Announcements in communities to attract people.
They schedule a fake interview and then begin the recruitment process.
They contact you through WhatsApp to send you a contract, where they describe part of the job offer to hook you in.
They offer very ambitious and well-paid jobs.
They request an initial deposit to the name of a person for formalities or paperwork, or ask for cash payments, and later request additional payments for transportation, visas, for the passport process, etc.
They charge to sign up for a list, or more than $190 USD (fixed cost of the visa).
They usually request that you make deposits to a person or number with an account in Coppel, Banco Azteca, or Oxxo.
They constantly change the departure dates.
If you ask for information about the job, they give you vague answers.
After you make the payments they don’t respond to you, the number they used to communicate with you doesn’t exist anymore or the offices are closed.
Below we share the experience of a worker who was about to be a victim of fraud.
Testimony:
“Through friends I found out about the job offer that the agency Travel City Premier was offering H-2B visas to work in the United States, in construction, in the state of Florida for 8 months, first they asked for our documents to see if we qualified and they asked everyone for $3000.00, and after this they were going to give us a contract and deliver $27,000.00, in total I was going to pay $30,000,00. On July 18th I was at the recruitment agency to sign my contract, when I called CDM to verify that the offer was real, they told me that this recruitment agency did not have a contract, and they didn’t offer H-2B visas. I left the office and I didn’t pay, but my other colleagues did pay because they didn’t believe me in that moment.”
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Fortunately, this person contacted Centro de los Derechos del Migrante (CDM) in time and didn’t pay the amount that they asked for. But there are many other people that have been victims of fraud: remember not to pay or turn in personal documents to any recruiter or recruitment agencies without first verifying if the job offer is real.
What can you do to avoid recruitment fraud?
CDM has created some recommendations to prevent recruitment fraud. You can find the information here. Visit our Facebook page for https://contratados.org/. Our advice is free and confidential.
If you need to verify a job offer you can contact the following numbers:
● Mexico: 800 590 1773
● USA: 1 855 234 9699