Watch the video above: The Philippines is issuing a warning to its citizens about fake job offers. Kim Smith tells us about how this alleged scam has been playing out here.
REGINA – An alleged international recruitment scam is targeting Filipinos who want to come to work in Saskatchewan.
The Department of Labour and Employment in the Philippines posted a warning to its citizens about fake job offers. The warning states that the Saskatchewan government alerted the office about a recruitment firm in Canada.
The letter warned a company called GoWest has been recruiting workers from the Philippines to work in the province but forging their paperwork with the signature of a Saskatchewan-based home building company.
The Saskatchewan government has a list of licensed recruiters on its website and GoWest is not on the list. Operating in the province without a license is illegal.
“They fill out an application form, we do background checks on them, due diligence, follow-up conversations with people, ensure there’s no outstanding issues with them, and they have to put up an insurance bond,” said Kirk Westgard, executive director of immigration services for the ministry of economy.
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According to one of the licensed recruiters in the province, the biggest red flag is people paying for the service.
“Recruitment done in Canada, Canadians won’t expect to be paying for recruitment, why should our international guests pay for recruitment?” said Linda West, Actyl Group President.
“We were in Croatia last year and that was a pretty common story. The fees seemed to be between $500 and $8,000.”
Numerous similar stories of people losing thousands of dollars from the company in question are also easily found online on immigration services websites.
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