Publications
Partners
Eskom wants to warn the public of a false recruitment advertisement being distributed at various locations in the Free State and the Vaal Triangle area.
The scam advertises false jobs at Eskom's Lethabo Power Station in Viljoensdrift/Deneysville in the Free State.
According to a statement issued by Eskom, similar advertisements might have also been shared through social media platforms.
Warning signs that it is likely a false advertisement the public can look out for include the use of an incorrect or old Eskom logo; money being requested from the prospective applicants by the alleged recruiter; and grammatical errors and poor sentence construction on the advertisements.
Eskom points out that it is not the first attempt to scam the public in this way.
"Members of the public are advised to only use www.eskom.co.za to search and apply for jobs advertised at Eskom. The public is also reminded that Eskom will never request an application fee from job seekers," according to the statement.
Those who have been scammed in this particular manner are urged by Eskom to report the matter to the SA Police Service (SAPS).
Suspicious activities can also be reported by calling the Eskom Fraud Hotline on 0800 11 2722 or by sending an email to investigate@eskom.co.za.
More scams
Eskom is not the only state-owned entity being used to trick unsuspecting South Africans to part with their money.
Fin24 reported earlier this week that the SA Revenue Service (SARS) has warned of a job scam.
SARS said it will never advertise job vacancies on social media, only on the official SARS website's career section.
This is also not the first time that SARS has been "used" for a fake job scam.
Fin24 reported in 2017, for instance, of a fake SARS-branded e-mail that was being circulated, supposedly "confirming acceptance" of the recipient into a bogus "SARS Learnership Programme".
The prospective applicant was then instructed to make a deposit of an "administrative fee" into an account for the "application to be processed".
That e-mail scam was an adaptation of another scam where individuals posing as "SARS staff" notified people that they had been successfully employed by SARS and were required to buy uniforms and identity cards, which were SARS-branded and appear authentic.
Last year Fin24 reported how Eskom was warning the public about a potential recruitment scam that had been doing the rounds on different social media platforms. The fake job posts were placed on social media.
Eskom, too, pointed out that its website is the only platform where employment opportunities would be listed.
Fin24 reported in December last year that South Africans are among the most affected by spam calls in the world, according to the 2018 Truecaller Insights report by mobile app company Truecaller.
According to the Truecaller report, almost half (49%) of all top spam calls in SA are scam-related.
It ranked South Africa as the fourth-most spammed country in the world. In SA, the number of spam calls per month increased from 15 in the 2017 study to 21 in 2018.
