Back to Africa Check

Don’t be conned by scam Facebook page offering Naivas jobs

A Facebook page has been sharing adverts claiming Naivas supermarket is “mass recruiting” in Kenya.

The posts on Facebook page “Naivas Supermarket Careers” include links to a Google Form where applicants are asked to sign up. 

But the Google Form format and the positions advertised are the same we’ve seen before in other fake job ads. Are the jobs on this Facebook page also too good to be true?



Same suspicious format, same claims


Very similar forms have previously listed hundreds of vacancies targeting various supermarkets in Kenya.

They usually claim there are open positions across the country’s 47 counties. This seems to be to lure as many unsuspecting job seekers as possible into submitting their personal details. 

It is unlikely that any supermarket chain would be conducting daily mass recruitment exercises.

The qualifications needed are also usually suspiciously few. Often the only requirements are being 18 or older and having knowledge of local languages, all for an attractive salary.

Fee major red flag


One of the clearest signs of fraud is that the page lists a fee for applicants to be considered for the jobs listed.

This particular Google Form asks applicants to pay KSh350 “to cater for Naivas Membership Golden Loyalty Card and training for those who will qualify to work with us”. 

It says this payment must be made to a personal mobile number via M-Pesa. Naivas has previously told Africa Check that no such loyalty card exists. 

Willy Kimani, the supermarket chain’s chief commercial officer, told us they only have one type of reward card, where the supermarket rewards customers one point for every 100 shillings spent.

Naivas also told Africa Check that it uses professional recruitment firms when hiring and posts available vacancies on its official platforms. Interested people can also drop their CVs at local stores. 

Not official Facebook page


As a final check we looked at the “page transparency” section on the left of the Facebook page. The page was started on 18 January 2019 and has only 3,700 followers. 

By comparison, Naivas’s official Facebook page was created on 19 August 2010 and has over 118,000 followers. No Google Form job adverts have been shared here. 

To protect yourself against scams, read our guide to Facebook scams and how to spot them. And report any suspicious Facebook pages or posts by using the “page transparency” section or clicking “report post” on the top right of any post. – Dancan Bwire




 

Republish our content for free

Please complete this form to receive the HTML sharing code.

For publishers: what to do if your post is rated false

A fact-checker has rated your Facebook or Instagram post as “false”, “altered”, “partly false” or “missing context”. This could have serious consequences. What do you do?

Click on our guide for the steps you should follow.

Publishers guide

Africa Check teams up with Facebook

Africa Check is a partner in Meta's third-party fact-checking programme to help stop the spread of false information on social media.

The content we rate as “false” will be downgraded on Facebook and Instagram. This means fewer people will see it.

You can also help identify false information on Facebook. This guide explains how.

Add new comment

Restricted HTML

  • Allowed HTML tags: <a href hreflang> <em> <strong> <cite> <blockquote cite> <code> <ul type> <ol start type> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <h2 id> <h3 id> <h4 id> <h5 id> <h6 id>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
limit: 600 characters

Want to keep reading our fact-checks?

We will never charge you for verified, reliable information. Help us keep it that way by supporting our work.

Become a newsletter subscriber

Support independent fact-checking in Africa.