Bahrain raises alarm over bogus job recruitment as online scam rises

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Reported by Zahra Ayaz

Social media users have urged authorities to look into job portals as the Bahrain is struggling to tackle a rise in online recruitment scams offering positions that never materialise.

The method of recruiting people to work has shifted from using agents to approach jobseekers to using online advertising through social media such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and others.

The Daily Tribune earlier reported that in many cases, jobseekers are tricked into sending a “processing fee” to agents promising well-paid jobs in the Kingdom. These end up being money scams where the so-called recruiters don’t show up at the airport and block the jobseekers on social media.

The matter of the plea arose after allegedly fake advertisements began surfacing on many job portals, including prominent ones, seeking prospective employees only belonging to a particular religion.

This issue has sparked an uproar across all social media platforms with the majority of social media users criticising the companies for posting such a prerequisite before shortlisting ideal candidates.

“Culprits should be arrested immediately. I urge the authorities to take steps to identify them,” a social media user said. Many other users called for strict action against the job portals for posting advertisements to prevent them from sharing fake advertisements.

“This is the Holy Month of Ramadan and let’s not share hatred. If it is a genuine company posting fake job advertisements then strict action must be taken against the company,” a netizen said.

“Many people know what they are getting into, they do feel suspicious about such scams but because of financial needs, they chose the risky route.” “As long as there is demand for agents, they will come up with new online methods of taking advantage of job seekers,” said another social media user.