IN SHORT: Beware, Coca-Cola Kenya doesn’t advertise jobs through random Facebook posts or ask applicants to apply via WhatsApp.
“COCA COLA COMPANY looking for serious individuals who can work as supervisors, storekeepers, loaders and off loaders, manufacturers, suppliers, cleaners, drivers and security guards,” reads a job advert posted on Facebook in Kenya in February and March 2023.
The ad says that applicants should be at least 18 years old and speak English, Kiswahili and a local dialect.
It then gives a phone number and says that for “quick assistance” those interested should WhatsApp or call it, “starting with the word (COKE)”.
The phone numbers given aren’t all the same: different contacts appear on different versions of the same ad.
The ad has been posted here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. Many other versions of the claim were posted in February 2023.
But is this a real offer for jobs with Coca-Cola Kenya? We checked.
Clues of a scam
The poor writing in the ad is the first sign that it’s a scam. A major multinational company wouldn’t send out an ad with random capitalisation, misspellings and odd punctuation.
Another red flag is that those interested are asked to send a message via WhatsApp to a phone number. Reputable companies provide official email addresses.
And the ad doesn’t link to the official Coca-Cola company website. The various phone numbers don’t match any listed by Coca-Cola Kenya.
We confirmed that Coca-Cola Kenya’s verified Facebook page is not advertising any of the jobs listed in the post.
Africa Check contacted Coca-Cola to find out if the jobs were legitimate.
“Kindly note that we post job ads strictly on our social media platforms. Any other site other than ours is misleading. Stay alert,” they told us on Facebook.
The ad circulating on Facebook is a scam.
To help protect yourself against scams like this, see Africa Check’s guide to Facebook scams and how to spot them.
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