IN SHORT: Skilled and unskilled labour needed at a good salary? Don’t fall for this common job scam looking to steal your valuable personal information.
An amateur-looking website offering jobs at Bovas Group, an energy company in Nigeria, is getting social media attention.
“ATTENTION! ATTENTION!! ATTENTION!!! Bovas Oil and Gas company is Recruiting both Skilled and Unskilled Labour with good Salary Payment. It is no longer news. APPLY NOW,” reads a message posted on Facebook.
The posts include a link to a webpage headed: “BOVAS OIL AND GAS JOB RECRUITMENT 2023.”
Poorly written text below reads: “BOVAS Oil and Gas is recruiting both Skilled and Unskilled Labour. Every Individual of all Nationalities can Apply Applicants are to fill the form bellow and click on Apply.”
It includes an “application form” that asks for personal details such as name, phone number, email and the country of residence.
The site, with the URL oilandgasrecruitment2022.soundits.co, has been posted on Facebook groups with thousands of members.
But are the job offers, and the website, legit? We checked.
Malicious link
When we clicked on the link, our computer antivirus program immediately warned us that it was potentially malicious. We took the risk – not recommended – and opened the site.
We deliberately left the “application form” blank and clicked “APPLY NOW”. Suspiciously, we were still allowed to proceed to the next stage.
Just like a similar website we debunked before, the next stage required us to validate our name – which we had left blank in the previous stage – and indicate our level of education.
After filling in a random name, a message popped up congratulating us that we were qualified to work in the company.
But it required us to share the link with five groups or 15 friends on WhatsApp. This was the only way to get to the “appointment” page.
This is a clear example of an engagement bait. These are usually social media posts that ask people to interact by liking, commenting or sharing. It increases the post’s reach but offers no reward. They may also attempt to steal valuable personal information.
No such vacancies have been advertised at the company’s website. The company has also stamped the advert as fake.
“DISCLAIMER NOTICE!!! This is to notify the public that the attached recruitment portal link does not emanate from BOVAS. It is FAKE. Kindly ignore the site and beware of unscrupulous scammers,” it posted on Facebook.
To help protect yourself against online fraudsters, read our guide to Facebook scams and how to spot them.
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