People who are looking for overseas job opportunities should be careful as they are the target of many illegal schemes and scams. Many fall into the trap of job scams because they are lured by the attractive promises and sweet tongues of swindlers. Illegal recruiters usually succeed in getting the hard-earned money of unsuspicious individuals by promising jobs abroad with high pay and great benefits.

Listed below are some of the common ways to identify
overseas employment scams:

Illegal recruiters do not have a permanent office address: Many operators of job scams would only provide a post office address or they may have an office address but it would be based on remote locations that it is hard for an applicant to actually visit the place.

Take note that there are also instances when an illegal recruiter would have an office but it would only have a small desk and one telephone. They follow a "fly by night operation" so their office doesn't have complete facilities. 

Agencies that demand advance payment: Illegal operators would usually post an attractive job opportunity in newspapers or magazines or even in online and social media sites. The ad would ask interested applicants to contact a number. Once an applicant contacts it, he or she would immediately be informed that the job opportunity is very urgent and they are perfectly suited for it. However, to grab the job offer, the applicant needs to pay an advance placement fee

The illegal firms are usually eager to get the money that they would suggest couriers that offer one-day delivery or would even be willing to pick up the cash deposit. All charges in sending the money would be at the expense of the applicant. Some of them would promise a refund or money-back guarantee if the job offer does not push through, but of course the promise of refund will not happen.

Illegal firms would ask an applicant to call a third party number: For more information about a job offer, they would usually be ask to call  "900" number operators while other job advertisements would have an "800" toll-free number. The said numbers charges a high flat fee or per-minute rate. The poor applicant, unsuspecting of the call rate would just be surprised when the phone bill arrives. Furthermore, calling those numbers would usually would only be a recorded message instructing jobseekers to send a self-addressed stamped envelope so they can receive a job application form.

How Not To Avoid Job Scams

Do a lot of research: To avoid being a victim of overseas job scams, it is important that one has adequate knowledge about the legal process of obtaining overseas employment and to conduct thorough investigation about a job offer.

Look for references. You should request as many information about the job offer as you could. Ask for the name of the employer and the company where you would be working. Swindlers may usually not be able to provide the information you want by reasoning out privacy concerns.  

Check if the recruiter is reliable. You may do some research to check for any past complaints against the firm.  

Do not deal with firms that only communicate via telephone or mail. A licensed agency would not offer you employment or let you sign an employment contract only thru phone or email. You would certainly need to report to the actual office in person and go through an interview process.

Be suspicious of companies that would meet you in addresses that are different from the ones that are stated in their job ad. Some illegal recruiters would advertise an office address in their advertisement but they would ask the applicant to report to another office address.

All POEA-licensed agencies are allowed to conduct employment activities only in their registered addresses. Any recruitment activities conducted outside their registered office address is considered illegal recruitment unless they have an approved Special Recruitment Activity (SRA) from POEA.

Do some research about the recruiter. These are some of the things you should be curious about:

How long have they been operating: Ideally, a reputable company should have been in the business for a while.

Check the present financial state of the agency:  Some agencies may already be in the brink of bankruptcy that they would resort to illegal activities.

Check out their competitors. There are so many licensed recruitment agencies around so you can check out other agencies that offer the same job openings in your field. Check out their services and choose the one that can offer you the best service.