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The murky world of online job portals

Mon, 21/08/2017 - 12:17

A little while back, CAG received a complaint from an individual complaining that he signed up at an online job listing service, more commonly known as a job portal. This job portal concealed information from the complainant, which he only found out after signing the registration form and paying the amount. This type of complaints have become common and we have observed a spike in complaints regarding job portals, which can be attributed to the increased use of these websites.

A job portal is a paid online service which helps employment seekers find jobs, while also helping employers locate the perfect employees to employ. It acts as a digital middleman between employees and employers. The most popular job portals in India include Naukri.com and MonsterIndia.com. The huge success of job portals around the world is hardly surprising. The most striking and obvious benefits of using job portals is the convenience of finding job opportunities from the comfort of one’s home. In addition to this, money is saved on transport, as visiting the employer is not required. Costs on printing resumes and posting letters is also done away with. These make job portals an instant success.

However, lately, there has been a considerable degree of dissatisfaction amongst the public with respect to job portals. The complaints have come in two forms. One section of the complaints are directed towards the job portals themselves and the rest are in the direction of certain fraudulent companies that sign up for the portal’s services as “employers”.  These fraudulent companies then proceed to attempt to scam hapless job-seeking individuals of their money.

As far as the job sites themselves go, they have had their fair share of criticism and complaints. One look at Consumer Complaint forums will tell you all you need to know. The most common complaint levelled against these companies is that there is great customer care and help, until they get your money. As one complaint goes, “I have availed paid services from Naukri.com for around Rs. 2565. in October 2010. I have not received any confirmation from naukri.com saying that your services are being activated; they have stopped replying”. Another complaint against Times Jobs explains how the complainant registered for Timesjobs online. He was promised that he would receive 2 to 3 calls a day upon completing registration. After registering, he did not receive a single call from employers or Timesjobs. This is the general pattern followed by all the complaints against the job portals.

A Times of India article written in 2013, covered the difficulties faced by people in Vishakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, as they fell prey to job scams occurring online. One Rajeev Kumar recounts how he deposited Rs. 5000 for a medical kit to work at a medical company, which he found on an online job site, on the promise that the amount would be returned to him based on his performance. Soon after depositing the amount, he found out that the whole business has shut down. Unsurprisingly, he was unable to contact anyone from the company. This is definitely not a one-off occurrence. There is a whole business carrying on with such a model. In 2013, Delhi Police arrested three youngsters on the charge that they were posting fake job advertisements online. When an aspirant responded, they would demand money from them, while producing a fake offer letter. This is such a big racket that many of the major web portals, such as Naukri.com, list things to be wary of in a job offer.

While this business is very discreet and subtle, preying on the desperation of those individual’s seeking employment, there are signs which one can observe and identify the scam listings. Firstly, the most obvious thing to look out for is when an employer asks for some sort of payment. The employers ask for a payment for a training course, certain materials or any other expense. After the sum is paid, the company stop responding to your calls and the job does not materialise. Whenever any sort of very personal information is asked for by the employer, red flags should be raised in your mind. Personal information should never be divulged to parties you are not familiar with. Once these companies get a hold of your personal information they can easily use it for any purpose they wish. A more subtle sign of a job scam is the email account used by the employer. If their email account is from a non-corporate website such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc. the job offer is more likely to be a scam. Genuine job offers are most likely to come from corporate email addresses.

After reading all that you have read in this article, you may be completely dissuaded from using job portals ever. However, job portals still remain very useful and safe, as long as you always remain a step ahead of the scammers. To do this, there are certain simple steps one must take before accepting any job offer. Firstly, one must verify the employer. Many job scammers nowadays often use the name of a real company or use the name with a minor, often concealed, difference. Scammers use the popularity or goodwill possessed by another company to further their own interests. Thus, it is vital for one to verify whether the job posting is authentic or not. The simplest and most effective way of doing this is by checking the website of the company. Any job offering will always be on the company’s site as well and if it is not, it is most likely to be a scam. It is also important to note that most job sites, whether big or small, do not screen the jobs before putting them up on their website. Thus, solely because a job is listed on Naukri.com or Monster.com, does not make it trustworthy. Still perform the required research irrespective. Checking for complaints on forums online is another simple method of safeguarding yourself from scams. There exists a large number of forums online, such as Grahak Seva and consumercomplaints.in, wherein people voice their grievances. If a particular company has received an abnormal number of accusations that it is a scam company, certainly one should not accept any job offer from them.

Job portals are arguably the biggest boon to employers and employees alike. However, like every great innovation there are certain risks that come with it. If we can focus our efforts on identifying the scams from the genuine and safeguard ourselves against the former, job portals can be heavily beneficial. 

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