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Common employment traps
Common employment traps
Unlawful work
Perpetrators use various tricks to entice inexperienced job seekers to commit illegal deeds. The most common tricks found in Macao and neighbouring areas are as follows:
Borrowing bank accounts for remittance
Disguising as recruiters, fraudsters claim the job entails simple accounting or clerical work. When applicants start the job, culprits persuade them to either "loan" them their bank accounts, or open new ones for the collection of company's payments. When they receive the money, the perpetrators will siphon off the money from the applicants' accounts into another
Unsuspecting job applicants readily agree to do so, thinking there is no financial loss involved, and they are only helping the company in receiving payments. Only when they are taken to the police station for enquiry do they realise it is a set-up and that their accounts have been used for money laundering.
Transporting / Delivering items
Swindlers claim that an easy delivery job could earn the applicants some money, without telling them what they are supposed to carry. The delivery items are in fact drugs, pirated discs or contrabands.
Telephone or cash betting
Culprits lure students into working as part-time telephone or cash bets operators by offering them lucrative wages. The bets they take are actually used for illegal bookmaking and the illegal operations are normally conducted in relatively concealed areas such as residential buildings to keep the police away.
Unauthorised gaming operation and bookmaking are illegal in Macao. Those who assist or participate in such operations are liable to penalties as well.
Overseas work opportunities
Fraudsters post an overseas work opportunity with good pay to attract gullible job seekers. They are in fact human traffickers or criminal syndicate members. When the employees arrive abroad, they will get locked up and are forced into prostitution or other pornographic work.
Job hunters are likely to be manipulated into working in illegal operations and be held accountable for their related criminal offences; or they are easily tricked into working overseas out of greed at the expense of their future.
Swindling travel documents
Swindlers claim that free air tickets and accommodation are provided for anyone who is interested in delivering items overseas. When job hunters respond, culprits ask them to submit their travel documents in order to buy flight tickets. Without hesitation, job seekers hand the documents over and only realise it is a scam when the "employer" becomes out of reach
Improper charges
Some companies impose unreasonable charges on employees, either during interview or right before the beginning of a job. They are asked to pay expenses either for registration, document processing, administration or work visa etc, with the promise of a refund after probation. However, employers find all sorts of reasons to sack the employees within the probation period and forfeit the deposits.
Perpetrators pitch overseas work opportunities on the Internet, and impose advance fee on job hunters such as introduction fees or visa fees, etc. Perpetrators disappear once they have received the money from job applicants
Theft of personal information
With online recruitment websites emerging, many fraudsters take advantage of this channel to trick job seekers into giving out personal information unrelated to the job application, such as bank account details, credit card numbers, etc. in order to commit illegal deeds. Some perpetrators may even create bogus website to get job hunters hooked.
Pornographic traps
Lucrative pay, light workload, no work experience required and overseas work opportunities in particular, are some of the attractive conditions job hunters might find in a job advertisement. After interviewing and signing contracts, job applicants then find out the job is of obscene nature and they are threatened to surrender a large amount of compensation if they decide to back out.
Devious talent scouts
Swindlers, in disguise as entertainment talent scouts, sweet-talk victims into believing that they have great potential to be models or TV artists, and persuade them into joining the industry. If the victims show their interests, fraudsters will then entice them into paying fees for trainings, beauty treatments and costumes, and assure them that the costs can easily be offset when they become famous.