Cybersecurity has been increasingly gaining a foothold in a ‘lucrative’ Kenyan target: The job seeker. 

We all remember during the beginning of the pandemic when we were aware yet grossly underestimating the impact it would have on our lives. When we thought we’d give it 2 months max and we’d be back to our everyday lives, office hours, and work events. Well, we didn’t know we were in for a rude awakening.  

The pandemic came with so many challenges, especially in the job market. According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, 1.7 million Kenyans lost their jobs in 2020 alone from March to September. 

 

More than 2 years later, businesses had to lay off workers or wind-down operations altogether to save costs. As a result, the Kenyan job market has become more saturated, and the situation is becoming direr for jobseekers. 

 

So, what is jobfishing? 

 

Now, this is where jobfishing comes about.  

 

Jobfishing is a phishing scam where a fraudster exploits a jobseeker by using a fake job vacancy as bait, with monetary gain from the victim being a motivator. The 1st time I heard this term was through a BBC Three documentary about workers scammed into working for a fake high-end design company. Their whole shtick was tricking unfortunate victims into believing they had a fantastic job at this deluxe agency. They interacted with phony profiles, had no real office, were promised work visas only to get into debt waiting for paychecks that never arrived. 

 

You may go ahead and ask yourself how people fall for such scams. These fraudsters have become sly and are determined to make each ad more legitimate-looking than the last. If you don’t miss some danger signs, fraudsters can lure anyone into the possibility. 

 

 

There are some like the one above, which is a dead giveaway. For instance, the email has typos and incorrect punctuation. There were no vacancies on said company’s website. The sender’s email address (myresume@indeedjobs.gq) is not legitimate.  

 

The obnoxiously red links were harmful, and they didn’t refer to the applicant by name, meaning they were casting their nets wide, hoping to get their catch! 

 

How to avoid being jobfished 

 

You might have gotten laid off, just graduated university, or looking to re-enter the job market as an employee or worker. Things may look understandably bleak and daunting, and that is what a cyber fraudster is banking on for the scam to work.  

 

Here are some signs that should get your alarm bells ringing when it comes to job prospects: 

 

1. Email address: Where did the email originate from? Analyze the domain name and countercheck with the relevant company email addresses. Fraudsters may change an email address like info@cyberx.co.ke to info@cyber-x.co.ke. A small change that you could miss easily. 
2. Company vacancies: Does the said company have a job vacancy on its website? Check their career page and LinkedIn job section on their page as well. If they are not listed there, save yourself the trouble and report the email as a scam! A giant red flag is if you find zero traces of the company. 
3. Typos galore: If you notice the email uses different fonts and has typos and punctuation marks that make no sense for any to be, it is a standard marker for a job scam. 
4. Links: Put your cursor over the links in the email without clicking them. You will notice they have hyperlinks that are either way off the mark from the vacancy or extremely vague to suck you into the scam. 
5. ‘Send money first’: There has been a common trend in Kenya where job scams ask job seekers to send money to secure their spot before their interview. Any legitimate company or recruitment agency will never ask a job seeker for money during the recruitment process. 
6. General salutations: When a company contacts you to inform you that your application is successful, they will refer to you by your name instead of ‘Dear Applicant…’. They will always have their contact information in their salutations. 
7. Wait, did you even apply? When we look for a job, we know where we send our applications. So there’s no reason to get an email about a nebulous job opportunity from a company when you never applied in the 1st place.
8. Too good to be true: If it is too good to be true, it probably is. Some job scams give job seekers automatic offers even before meeting them! Red flag! 

We have some more tips on danger signs for email scams and how to also be a human firewall in your job search. There is no reason for such job scams to exploit the current job crisis and profit from it. It’s unethical, and we are happy to be your cybersecurity guardians so you can avoid these traps and preserve your sanity during such hard times. 

 

We wish you nothing but the very best in your job search, and your next employer would be lucky to have you!