"My Painful Experiences with 2 Job Scammers - Part 2"

Sometime in 2016, I was waiting in my car outside a building near a bank in Benin City. It was not yet time for the bank to open for business. Then I noticed a poster on the wall. It was about a company in Benin City that needed to recruit staff for various positions in a multinational company. Now this wasn't the regular black and white photocopied A4 poster that many people use to advertise vacancies. This was much bigger like an A2 poster and it was coloured...I think purple or brown. Those interested were to send an SMS to a certain number. I decided to give it a try and right there in my car, I sent an SMS to the number.

Some days later I received an SMS from this number inviting me for a job test the next day by 9am. You know, when you are looking for a job, such an SMS can be more powerful than a bank alert SMS. I replied the message asking for permission to come a bit late because I already had an appointment for that time by the next day. I didn't get a reply, so I decided to go for my initial appointment but to try and hasten things up so I can go for this job test.

I was fully suited up with a tie on. I learnt a long time ago how important it is to dress well when going for a job interview; such that in 2009, I went to drop my CV in an organisation that was recruiting for a hotel in Warri, and I was commended and told to make sure I dress the same way when coming for the test. Well, back to the story. I hurried up my appointment that morning then rushed to the address for this job test. It was along Airport Road. I think I didn't even have my breakfast that morning. I located the place around 10am and I saw a bit of a crowd there. We were to show our SMS before entering, then we were to register in an office before going to where we would write the test. It seemed like there were two or three different rooms where the test was going to be conducted. After waiting for about an hour, someone came in and told us we would be starting soon. Then the test question sheets were brought and we had about one hour to finish it. 

Some of the questions were not clear because of the poor photocopy that was done, so the examiner had to read out the questions that were not clear so that we could correct them. This was already irritating me, but I was like 'ok, let's go on'. There were questions about different subjects from IT, to quantitative analysis, to your personality and psychology. I think there were some current affairs too. When we were done, we were told to wait for the next stage. They taught us how to 'clap' to introduce the next person that was to come and take us through the next stage. A young lady came in and said she was going to tell us some things about the organisation. So she began with the vision, mission and some other things. I noticed she was very motivational; quoting many authors and telling us how her life has been changed since she joined the company; which she later said was less than a year before. According to her, she was invited from the Asaba branch of the company for the test or training she was doing for us. She said when she is through, her boss will be coming around to conduct the final stage of selection for the job. She really hyped her boss a lot, claiming he taught her everything she knows now.

She spent about an hour also and then her boss finally came. It was now between 1 and 2pm. I will just reserve some of my comments about the boss for now and go straight to what he said and did. Yes, we had to do the funny clap again before he came in. We could overhear the clap from some other rooms too at certain times. So, the boss came in and just like the lady before him, he was very motivational. Of course he said some nice things but ...... I think he was trying too hard when he should have just gone straight to the point. There is one quote he gave that I remember. He said "it is often believed that you can force a horse to the river but you cannot force it to drink, but in this company we will force you to the river and if you don't want to drink we will dip you in the water and drown you so you will eventually drink by force". Haha! Ok,.. I reserve my comments about that. He spoke a lot about how our school certificates were not as important as knowing how to seize opportunities and make good use of them. He then began to talk about how much he had benefited in this company of his and how he was being paid in dollars every week. 

Then he said it was time for him to make the selection of those who will get the job. Guess what he said? He said there is a training we need to get after which we would be given a certificate from two multinational health care providers in America. This certificate will make us able to gain access into big hospitals and organisations to conduct trainings for the multinational health care providers who will be paying us in dollars. He then told us the fee. I think it was N8,000 or so. He said whoever was interested in paying this money for this training and certificate should stand up and by that we would be accepted into the organization. Are you serious? So what about the test that we wrote? Why didn't you just tell us this at the beginning instead of wasting our time like this? It was between 3 and 4pm at this time. 

I think almost everybody stood up indicating their interest, but I didn't stand up. The boss then asked me if I wanted to stand up and I said no, so he asked me to make use of the door and I gladly did; regretting the almost 6 hours of my precious time that had just been wasted. I really wished I had taken the phone number of one of those who sat beside me so I can keep in touch with them to know how they are faring with the company now. Well...

so that was it! What do you think?

 

I have heard of many organisations that use this format to dupe people or lure them into ponzi schemes or multilevel marketing especially in Lagos. I recently heard of some kidnappings taking place via this medium.Too many people are being taken advantage of because of the high unemployment rate of our nation. As we hope and work towards things getting better, more enlightenment is needed to protect many people from getting hurt. I really hope this both informs you and helps someone at the end of the day.