A Facebook page named “John Hopkins Hospital” only posts about job offers like this “vacancy available”, a job that supposedly comes with “free visa and ticket, accommodation, great salary”.
The page wants people to think it is offering opportunities at the prestigious Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, in the US. The page even uses a photo of the hospital sign as a profile picture.
But there is nothing to indicate that the positions advertised here are genuine, let alone offer free visas and aeroplane tickets to the US.
No official details or connection to real hospital
Aside from misspelling the name of the hospital – it should be Johns Hopkins Hospital, not “John Hopkins” – there are other signs that the page is not associated with the actual hospital.
The page calls itself an “Employment agency”, and has posted no information about the hospital.
The hospital’s actual Facebook page is verified by Facebook, and provides plenty of detail about the hospital. But even if Facebook hadn’t verified the page, you can be sure it is genuine because it is linked to from the official Johns Hopkins website.
Nor do any of the job offers include details about what sort of work is being offered or what the requirements for application are.
This is in contrast to the careers page of the hospital’s real website, which lists job titles and other details.
Each genuine job listing, such as this one, details what experience or qualifications are required, describes the position, and asks applicants to apply through the hospital website.
This is as you would expect from a medical facility requiring highly qualified staff.
Page not affiliated with hospital
The “Transparency” section of the suspicious page reveals that it was created in November of 2020, and is run primarily by a Nigerian Facebook account.
And the phone numbers which the page asks users to message via WhatsApp in order to apply for a job are not associated with the actual Johns Hopkins Hospital. They don’t match any of the numbers on either the hospital’s contact page or the careers page of its website, and don’t even share an area code with any of the hospital’s official phone numbers.
It is also worth noting that WhatsApp is not widely used in the US.
One of the two phone numbers frequently posted to the Facebook page was even reported to phone directory site EveryCaller as involved in spam calls.
Similar patterns to other scam pages
This fake page is among a number of other suspicious pages claiming to advertise job vacancies at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
At least one other is run by a Facebook account in Nigeria. Some spell the hospital’s name correctly and one gives an address for the hospital, but it’s wrong – it’s to a garden outside a Canadian hospital and not to the actual Johns Hopkins Hospital featured in the page’s cover photo.
The pages ask applicants to message a number on WhatsApp, rather than apply via the hospital’s careers page. They seem to target people outside of the US and imply that the jobs are an opportunity to move to the country.
As Africa Check has reported before, many scams on Facebook prey on desperate job seekers. Many also claim to offer the opportunity to emigrate, such as this scam which supposedly offered a “visa lottery” to Nigerians wishing to move to Canada.
For more information, read our advice on avoiding Facebook scams and if you spot a page that seems to be a scam, report it to Facebook.
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