To prevent Filipino workers from being victimized by illegal recruitment, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) provides a list of top 12 ways that illegal recruiters operate. Recently, there is an addition to this list as the POEA Chief; Hans Leo J. Cacdac revealed another illegal recruitment scheme practiced by fly-by-night immigration consultants- that is the visa interview coaching.

According to the POEA article on its official website, this scheme starts when an unsuspecting jobseeker receives an unsolicited email offering job opportunities for nurses and caregivers in valid and prestigious medical facilities in Canada and United States of America (USA).

In the email that was forwarded to the POEA, the letter claims to be from Stevenson Memorial Hospital, a well-known medical facility in Ontario, Canada. The bogus email informs that the sender was selected for a certain job position and provides procedure on the application and payment process.

Applicants may find it hard to ignore this email because it is complete with tempting offers such as “No placement fee, No processing fee, No salary deduction, No show

Money and No experience required. What’s more- the sender specifies benefits such as free accommodation and food allowance. Apparently, the only fees that they would collect are for Php3,888.00 for “visa interview coaching” and Php5,000.00 for medical tests.

However, close examination of the email would reveal that it has all the elements of a scam. For one, it sounds too good to be true. The free email account used by the sender is also a sign.

Cacdac said, “But by examining the e-mail, one can easily conclude that it has footprints of an employment scam. The introduction of the letter was copied from the actual website of Stevenson Memorial Hospital. The sender, David R. Purvis, used a hushmail.com free e-mail account instead of the hospital’s internet domain name smhosp.on.ca.”

He added, “These scammers have access to personal data of applicants in job search sites and any e-mail informing an applicant of  being selected for a specific job he or she did not apply for is undoubtedly a recruitment scam.”

The POEA chief also stressed that immigration consultancy companies are not allowed to engage in the recruitment of Filipino workers abroad unless they have a license from the POEA.

Cacdac also reminded aspiring workers to Canada that employing the services of a consultancy company for advice on working visa is not necessary.They can get this advice for free at the website of the Citizenship and Immigration  Canada: http://www.cic.gc.ca.

The said website informs, “All the forms and information that you need to apply for a visa are available for free on this website. If you follow the instructions in the application guide, you can complete the application forms and submit them on your own.”

Cacdac is encouraging jobseekers who have received such recruitment emails to forward the same to info@poea.gov.ph for verification and proper action by the POEA.