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Writer's pictureLow Ming Jia

Youth Job Seekers at Risk

Updated: Mar 22, 2023

By Low Ming Jia – February 27, 2023


KAJANG: Today's youth are the next likely targets of job scammers due to their increased exposure to various job scams via social media.


Young adults between 18 to 59 lose more than five times as much money to job scams compared to older adults, The Federal Trade Commission data show. The FTC has received 22,325 reports of job scams during the third quarter of 2022, with an average loss of US$2,000.


Young adults lose more than five times money to job scams and employment agencies as the older adults. – image by The Federal Trade Commission


Concern over scamming is widespread after incidents like the recent job scams in Cambodia. Police secretary Datuk Noorsiah Mohd Saaduddin announced officially on 2022 August 19 that 238 Malaysians had fallen victim to overseas job scam syndicates since 2021, with 168 still in the clutches of these gangs.


Evidently, most of the people who fall for Cambodian job scams are youth. The Malaysian Ambassador to Cambodia Datuk Eldeen Husaini Mohd Hashim said that the victims are those with tertiary qualifications up to diplomas, and those without qualifications who age between 10 to 30.


Face the Job Hunting


Job scams are now targeted to the youth.


The job offers in Cambodia are usually spread through social media such as Facebook, Telegram, and WhatsApp, Eldeen Husaini declares. Hence, the youth who actively use social media platforms are being exposed to higher risks to fall trapped in different kinds of job scams.


The interviewed students at UTAR Sungai Long share that fake jobs in social media, work-from-home scams, and easy job scams with higher wages are the type of job scams that they observed.


(Lai Hao Yu, 22)


Lai Hao Yu, who used to look for part-time jobs via WhatsApp said that he has observed some of the patterns of job scams.


In the WhatsApp group, he noticed that some of the hirers will send a long passage to persuade people in applying a job. “They may list down all the benefits that we can get in the job such as the chance to travel overseas or the monthly wages even go up to RM7000 to RM8000,” he shares.


Continuing, he adds: “It was very suspicious because the wages go too high, and usually most of the hirers will only write the main points like the requirements of a job instead of focusing on the benefits we can get.” As for him, the event job that considerably paid around RM100 per day is more reliable and within the market range.


(Yap Chen Khai, 21)


Yap Chen Khai, who has sought part-time jobs around 6 times via Facebook, said: “5 to 6 hours of work-from-home typing works is one of the most common job scams that I have noticed,” he gives example.

When asked if he was worried about being scammed while finding jobs through Facebook, he answers confidently by saying: “Actually I'm not afraid, because my friends will recommend me those trustable Facebook jobs which they have been working on for several years.”


“But normally I will ignore the online advertisement that shows high-paying jobs,” he explained. Also, he added that through research on the company will be done, and advice from parents or elderly will be helpful before any job's application.


Trick and treat !


(Tee Yi Wen, 19)


Some of the youth become more aware when applying for a job as they worried that they would become one of the victims. Tee Yi Wen said that she often receives strangers’ messages asking whether she is interested in applying for a job, without specifying the kind of job.


Even though the people around her had never fallen victim to a job scam but she often heard the scam cases from her parents. Therefore, she never seeks a part-time job through social media. “Most of the time I will use the website that people recommend looking for jobs,” she shows the Indeed website on her phone after her sharing.


She believes that people must wisely be considering wide perspectives of information from different sources instead of relying plainly on what the scammer posted.


Endless scam victim become scammer


(Frisk Tiau Shie Fong, 19)


“People used to seeking for job on newspaper, the amount is the same, it just what we don't read newspaper anymore.” said Frisk Tiau Shie Fong, a part-time worker at Heroz gadget. Based on his perceptions of the prevalence of job scams in Malaysia, he describes: “the scammer organization is similar to a business, they just want to minimize the budget and maximize the profit.”


“They will just ask the victims to sign the contract which only with low budget, whereas maximize their profit by persuading the victims to become the next scammer or force them to work,” he said seriously.


From Awareness to Action


70% of job seekers between the ages of 18 and 30 struggle with job seeking in 2021, according to the "Quarterly Labor Market Perspectives - Modest Labor Market Recovery" report for Q4 2020. Thus, the youth who failed to find jobs tend to seek jobs on social media, thereby posing a high potential to fall into job scams.


Age of Jobseekers, Q4-2020. – image by Quarterly Labor Market Perspectives: Modest Labor Market Recovery.


Thus, when ask about the action that could be taken by the educational institutions to increase the awareness of students, Chuah Si Heng suggested that the lecturers could set aside 10 minutes of class time to have an expert explain job scams.


(Chuah Si Heng, 23)


In the ever-evolving world of job scams, young people, particularly students, are becoming an increasingly common target. Refer to "Dont Scam" Facebook Page and https://donscam.wixsite.com/ujsj2133 to learn more about job scams. Hence, it is critical for youths looking for work to be cognizant of these dangers and to take the appropriate safeguards to avoid falling victim to job scams.

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