Malaysia, like many other countries, has its share of job scams that target unsuspecting job seekers. These scams often exploit the desire for employment opportunities and can lead to financial loss, identity theft, or other harmful consequences. 

It's important for job seekers to be aware of these scams to protect themselves from falling victim. Here are some common types of job scams in Malaysia:

But first, what do scammers want?

We can agree that all scammers want a few common things. For instance:

1. The personal details of the victim.

• If the conversation gets too personal and there’s too many questions about your personal details, it's a red flag. 

2. Identification details.

• The most crucial item to never give out to, is one’s personal identification details. This comes in the form of your IC, birth cert or Licence. No employer will ask for your identification details until you’ve signed your offer letter. 

3. Bank details.

• Similar to identification details, no employer will ask for your bank account before you’re officially employed and most importantly, do not share your bank PIN number with anyone. 

4. Fake payment processing fees.

• One of the ways scammers would trick you, is by showing you a fake processing fee. This either leads to a phishing website (website that steals your data) or directly steals your money. 

Type of scam jobs: 

No doubt that scam jobs are prevalent these days. From the simplest but high return jobs all the way to the fake company impersonation. It's important to know how their “Modus Operandi” is like to know if they’re a scam. 

1. “Simple job with high returns”

Jobs like this would be advertised as a simple job, for instance, you’re only required to write 100 words for a FB caption but get paid as high as RM2,000. They will then ask for your email/whatsapp to send you the “proof of payment” upon completion.

Astoundingly, the “proof of payment” requires you to pay a certain sum between RM200-RM500 as processing fees to “Unlock” the payment. Banks never ask for processing fees to unlock any payment. Adding to that, it's important to point out that the email is never in the bank’s domain and often it's a @gmail.com email. 

2. Work-from-Home scams.

In the wake of the COVID pandemic, work-from-home jobs are increasingly available. This is the chance for scammers to advertise remote opportunities. Just to be clear, there are still legit work-from-home jobs. 

They will offer very flexible hours together with a very attractive salary, however, the trick here is, they’ll require the applicants to pay upfront fees for the “training” and “equipment”. No legit job requires you to purchase anything before starting work. 

3. Absurdly high salary job.

Speaking of high salaries, it's best to take initiative to research the market to know what you’re worth. One of the most accurate market rate checkers is Glassdoor. It’s just not right when the job is offering a 5-digit salary for a junior position. While we’ll not rule out the possibility, it's still best to research the company & check before applying.

4. Fake job ads on Facebook (Sometimes LinkedIn too)

Jobs are abundant on Facebook and LinkedIn, and so are unverified jobs. Facebook and LinkedIn allows their candidate hunters to post a job without having to go through a verification stage. Which means, there’s no gatekeeper to confirm the legitimacy of the job posted. 

Hence, it's best to check out the job poster’s profile before applying for the job. In most Facebook group’s cases, accounts less than a month old will not be allowed to post, however, some accounts might slip through the vetting process and are allowed to post. 

5. Fake company.

Recently, there was a Marin Software scam that was going around Reddit, you can check the thread out here: https://www.reddit.com/r/buhaydigital/comments/11963kf/is_this_a_scam_first_time_freelancer_marinone/

This is a more recent phenomenon, where companies will post the job on platforms under a huge company’s name, for instance, Meta. However, if you’ve noticed closely, the person-in-charge’s email doesn’t have a @meta.com domain, but is using a generic gmail.com domain. This is a possible scammer. 

Now, the scammer might message you to chat with them via telegram or whatsapp, this is to avoid being tracked by the job platform’s representatives. If a company requests the talent to chat outside the website they applied in. 

While they’ll pose as a real company from A-Z, they will immediately ask you to deal outside of the job platform, if that happens, it's a high chance it's a scammer. 

5. Fake job ads on Facebook (Sometimes LinkedIn too)

Jobs are abundant on Facebook and LinkedIn, and so are unverified jobs. Facebook and LinkedIn allows their candidate hunters to post a job without having to go through a verification stage. Which means, there’s no gatekeeper to confirm the legitimacy of the job posted. 

Hence, it's best to check out the job poster’s profile before applying for the job. In most Facebook group’s cases, accounts less than a month old will not be allowed to post, however, some accounts might slip through the vetting process and are allowed to post. 

Tip: What to keep an eye for when you go through Social Media accounts

Legitimacy of the profile is important to make sure its the real person behind the account posting the job, here are some of the key elements to check out:

1) Their profile picture & name - Accounts with no profile picture doesn’t determine a user’s legitimacy, however, an unusual profile picture and name is one to keep an eye out for. 

2) Posting frequency - Our Copywriter has pointed out that these scam accounts post pictures either everyday/every two days and they don’t reshare content, something a little suspicious for a normal facebook profile. 

3) They’ll chat with you first - Making the first move may be a daring thing, but in this case, they’ll try to be your friend first, then ask if you could borrow money. 

Conclusion

Rtist Creative Platform goes through every job posting before it's verified to ensure the job post is up to standard and has as much information about the company as possible. Quality job posting is essential to streamline a smoother hiring process for both client and talent through Rtist. 

Remember one more thing, Rtist is also a platform for clients and talents to transact. The main reason why you should use Rtist, is for safety purposes. Rtist’s payment gateway provides an added security for both parties to transact. When a client makes payment, the payment will be held until the talent finishes the job. 

As job seekers in Malaysia, it is essential to be informed and vigilant on the job market. Rtist provides a safe space for creative job seekers to protect themselves from falling victim to job scams and find genuine employment opportunities that align with their career goals.

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Start your creative journey with Rtist Creative Platform here: https://www.rtist.co/utm/rtistblog