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Don’t be scammed – ignore Facebook page advertising jobs at Pep Stores, KFC and Clicks

Are you looking for work online? Then you might have come across a promising ad on Facebook, posted by a page called “Pep jobs”. 

Despite its name, the page lists jobs from South African companies as diverse as snack food manufacturer Simba, pharmacy group Clicks and fast-food chain KFC. Some of the posts are in isiZulu. 

But the most widely shared posts on the page are for jobs at Pep Stores, the country-wide low-cost retailer. 

A post from 17 February 2021 for cleaners, drivers, general workers and more at Pep has been shared over 50 times, but viewed a staggering 2 million times since publication. 

It follows the same formula as the other job listings on the page, encouraging job seekers to click through on a link to “application forms” and to comment “yes” on the post for more information. 

The requirements for the jobs at Pep Stores are also identical to those for other jobs listed on the page. They are only to have “Grade 9, 10, 11 & 12”, “Good Communication” and “Handle presure”.

There are many red flags in this post and others published by the page that warn these are not legitimate recruitment drives. Is Pep Stores – and all the other companies listed on the page – really offering jobs like this?

Jobscam_False

Warning signs

Africa Check’s guide to Facebook scams and how to spot them explains some of the characteristics shared by pages hoping to scam people. 

The first of these is that these pages are often “badly written”. There are numerous spelling and grammar mistakes in the posts on the “Pep jobs” page, which is unprofessional and would be highly unlikely if the ads were legitimate.

Second, the posts all link to the same website, unrelated to any of the companies supposedly hiring. It is also an unprofessional-looking basic weblog, unlike most legitimate career portals.

And third, the posts ask job seekers to comment “yes” to receive more information. This is an example of engagement bait. The more people comment on posts, the greater the Facebook page’s reach. 

No jobs advertised through official channels

We checked the official Facebook and Twitter pages for Pep Stores, to see if there were any similar job listings posted, but there were not.

The company has previously said on Facebook that it does not “advertise any job opportunities on Facebook” and directed people to its careers page

We looked at the dedicated Pep careers page and found no general job listings like the ones on the unofficial “Pep jobs” page. These posts are hoaxes, and should be ignored.

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