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Kenya Wildlife Service warns of ‘fake and deceitful’ job ad circulating on social media

A document advertising jobs at the Kenya Wildlife Service is doing the rounds on Facebook and WhatsApp.

“Kenya wild life service is a state corporation that was established in the year 1989 to conserve and manage Kenyan's wildlife,” it reads.

“The cooperation do hereby advertise for the job opportunities to be filled by suitable qualified candidate for the mass national wild recruitment dated 26th January 2022 in all counties.”

The listed vacancies include legal officers, auditors, communication officers, receptionists, accountants and centre guides.

The advert tells job seekers to send their CV, an application letter and copy of their ID to a Gmail email address, and forward them to www.kwsapplications.co.org by 25 January 2022.

But Africa Check couldn’t find the document or the advertised jobs on the careers section of the Kenya Wildlife Service website. Is it legit?

KWS_Scam

Signs of a scam

The first sign that the ad is bogus is its many grammatical errors – unlikely for an important national agency, and often a sign of a scam.

For example, the agency’s name is written as “Kenya wild life service”, not Kenya Wildlife Service. It also speaks of “national wild” recruitment instead of “nationwide”, and mixes up “corporation” and “cooperation”. 

And the contact emails given are not those of the Kenya Wildlife Service.

See Africa Check’s guide on how to spot job scams.

‘Fraudsters who are inviting job seekers for KWS recruitment’

On 9 January the Kenya Wildlife Service posted the job ad on its official Facebook and Twitter accounts – stamped “FAKE”.

The service also posted a public notice on social media and its website, describing the advert as “fake and deceitful”.

“Kenya Wildlife Service Management’s attention has been drawn to actions of fraudsters who are inviting job seekers for KWS recruitment,” it reads.

 

 

“KWS publishes all job adverts in the mainstream media and on our website www.kws.go.ke. KWS wishes the general public to verify any advertisements they see on WhatsApp and Social Media sites by checking out the official service website; www.kws.go.ke.” 

The fake ad may be an attempt to steal people’s valuable personal information.

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