Conmen using humanitarian organizations to fleece job seekers

If you are a Ugandan, you have probably heard this common phrase, ‘Ugandans are not seated’.

As unemployment combined with hard economic times continue to bite hard, some people will do anything by hook or by crook to survive- even if it means being con artists.

Uganda is not short of such kinds of people. We have heard stories of conmen in the land sector, and fake pastors among others. And now, these crooks are targeting job seekers, and if one is not alert, you will lose out either your hard-earned money, property including land, or any other possession over fake deals.

Speaking of losing money; recently, a man who introduced himself as Simon Peter called me. He mentioned my name and said it had been a while since we talked. He also mentioned one of the organizations I previously worked with.

Convinced that he knew me, I gave him my full attention.

Then he started his persuasion tricks. He said he works with the World Food Programme (WFP), and there was a vacant position of a communications consultant, adding that many people are calling the human resource (HR) manager, and sending in their applications.

He gave me the ‘HR’s number and told me to call right away, without forgetting to inform me that he and the HR were close buddies so I stood a high chance of bagging the job. (The rotten system of ‘connections’ is at play here.)

At this moment, he had my audience in the palm of his hands. I won’t lie, I believed him. I called the ‘HR’, and a man with an Indian accent answered, saying he had been expecting my call.

He asked me to send four passport photos, my CV, a photocopy of my national identity card (ID), and Shs 150,000.”

The moment he mentioned money, my intuition whispered to me- you are about to be conned!

I asked him thrice what the purpose of the money was, and when he said it was for securing the job, I told him, you are a ‘mufere’, and cut him off.

I haven’t heard from the two men again. I can’t believe I was almost being conned. (Uganda Olemwa!).

Thereafter, I took to a WhatsApp group of public relations colleagues to share what had just transpired and got confessions.

One said last year, a guy called and informed her about a job opening at UN Women in Uganda, and eager to know more, she gave him attention.

 But in the course of the conversation, he said she would need to pay Shs 500,000 for her CV to be considered. She ended the conversation.

In 2021, another crook called one of these professionals claiming to be a professor and was recruiting for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The felon referenced some Makerere University lecturers she had worked with but also called other communications friends this lady had worked with, and unfortunately, one of them had sent the conman some money.

A recent report from the National Planning Authority (NPA) revealed that 4.2 million youth representing 41 percent of the country’s younger population are neither in employment, education, nor training. Such a glaring picture of unemployment is likely to increase crime including fraudsters.

My incident left me with a number of questions: Where do such guys get peoples’ contact details? Why are they using the names of big international organizations? Is it a racket of a company dealing in human resource bufere as one of my colleagues put it? I wonder how many Ugandans have fallen victim to these conmen, and imagine if more than 10 unsuspecting job hunters each sent in say Shs500,000, how much are these crooks making?

As I am still pondering on these questions, at least one thing I am certain of is that genuine organizations don’t ask applicants for any money to apply, and usually, they advertise job openings on their sites, newspapers, or social media sites, but not through third parties.

So, dear job seekers, stay alert, stay woke. Before sending any stranger money in exchange for a job, think twice. Otherwise, it will end in tears.

Vivian Agaba, journalist and consultant writer/editor