Inside Lagos’ multimillion naira job scam office

This is a long but interesting read. Please read it.

In this report, KUNLE FALAYI gives an inside look at the workings of recruitment agencies fleecing unemployed youths with offers of jobs that never come.

“Your application for the customer service position has been received. Come with your CV and passport photo to 634, Adeyemo Alakija Street, Victoria Island, Lagos by 11am on March 10. Be prepared for a CBT test. Call Mrs.*** on **** for eligibility.”

When Chisom Agu got the text message above from a company named Accugenix on Wednesday, March 9, she said she could almost hear her heartbeat pounding in her chest as her anticipation increased.

“I thought, ‘Yes, finally, a company in Victoria Island! I quickly said a word of prayer to God to make this one successful,” she said.

But what Agu did not know was that Accugenix has so many other names. Bidax Nigeria Limited, Open Cloud Communications Nigeria Limited, Rexa Corp, and Inexia are some of the fanciful names this company uses to make millions off unemployed Nigerian youths.

A Facebook account opened in one of the agency’s aliases, Bidax, calls on candidates with Bsc, BA or OND to apply for customer service and call centre agents for salaries up to N150,000, adding that this is even “negotiable based on experience”.

“To enhance job opportunities, you must be ready to undergo a 10-day intensive training,” the company said.

Official statistics put Nigeria’s unemployment rate at about 9.9 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2015. For some few dubious organisations, Nigeria’s unemployed and desperate population has simply become a goldmine.

In the midst of this new trend, companies like Accugenix, have become sophisticated, making use of a location that would be absolutely irresistible for job seekers.

“I get a lot of fake interview invitations from many agencies regularly but I don’t usually bother looking at their texts twice once I see their addresses. But when I saw that this particular one had a Victoria Island address, I did not even think about it twice. I immediately called the number in the text and asked about the company. I asked if the company was the one recruiting or was just a recruitment agency. The lady who picked the call told me categorically that they needed employees and that they were not a recruitment agency. I was almost dancing,” Agu said.

But while the excitement of the young lady increased, she had forgotten to consider the fact that she never applied for the job in the first place. All she had in her mind was that a company in Victoria Island had invited her for an interview.

She told our correspondent, “I thought to myself, what have I got to lose? I ironed the smartest corporate dress in my wardrobe and 30 minutes before my appointment, I was at Plot 634, Adeyemo Alakija, VI, for my interview.

“When it was my turn, I was ushered into a room and a woman came in. She told me that I would have to go through a training and that I had to pay N45,000. I was stunned. She said after my training in customer service, I would be placed in a company where I would get a monthly salary of N160,000. I asked the woman if there was any assurance that I would get the job and she said it was sure. I asked for the name of the company in which I would be employed and she told me that information was confidential. I realised at that point that it was all a scam.”

Crest-fallen, Agu left the office in disappointment with a promise to go look for the money and come back.

She said she was with about 30 other job seekers there that day.

“Before I left, one of the officials of the agency told me that they had space for three positions and that I had better pay fast since it was on first-come-first-served basis. I then asked her that if there were just three positions available, what would happen to every other candidate who paid the N45,000. She said that did not concern her.

“Days after I went there, one of their officials called me and asked if I was still interested in the job. I told her I was still interested and she sent me a GTB account detail (Stanley & Cooper Nig. Ltd. Account number 0159520661), which I could pay into if I still wanted the job.”

Few days after Agu’s experience, our correspondent went undercover to seek employment in “the company”.

Armed with a curriculum vitae that read Adebanjo Kayode Amos and passports as required along with a copy of the text from ‘the company’, our correspondent visited the office located on the ground floor of the Elephant Building, Adeyemo Alakija, a high rise housing numerous other companies in a very competitive location.

At the main gate of the building, the security men did not waste time in directing our correspondent to the ground floor office when they were told that it was about the job interview.

In the lobby of the building, another receptionist directed our correspondent to the entrance of the company where “people have been going for job interviews.” There, a uniformed guard, who doubled as the doorman stood like a sentry as he demanded to see the text message invitation for interview. As soon as he was shown the text message, the door opened without ceremony.

There, in the clean, glittering reception of “the company,” a pretty young lady, working the phone and a computer, demanded to see the text message in a very business-like manner.

Seeing it, she asked when the text was received and when she got a reply, she lifted the desktop phone to make a call to another individual in the office, informing him that “we have another candidate for the interview”. After a nod of the head in response to an inaudible instruction over the phone, she simply told our correspondent to come back later as ‘they were busy with other candidates.’

Our correspondent looked around the reception and saw a number of other young men and women sitting patiently in suits apparently waiting for their turn to be attended to.

As our correspondent stood outside the office, a young lady walked in and was heard informing the security man that she got a call for an interview. The guard directed her to the young lady receptionist.

When the young job seeker eventually came out moments after, our correspondent struck a conversation with her, asking her about her experience in there.

She said she was told to come back but that another lady saw her inside and told her to come back prepared for a two-week training, which would culminate in her being placed in a company as an employee.

“She said that next time, I should come with N45,000 as fee for my training. She said there is already a vacancy for me in the company in which I would be placed as a customer service officer. She said the company would pay between N150,000 and N160,000,” the young lady, who identified herself as Bunmi Adefila, told our correspondent.

Just like Agu, she was never told the name of the particular company where she would be employed.

Oblivious that the company was known for demanding various sums of money from unemployed Nigerian youths, Adefila started agonising about where to get the money.

“I don’t have such amount of money now anywhere. But I would have to go and borrow money. The lady sounds really truthful that there is a job waiting for me,” she said.

But when she was asked if she ever applied to the company, Adefila paused a little as doubt crept over her face.

“I did not apply. I just got a call from someone who told me to come here for an interview. I have actually been looking for job for the last two years. But this cannot be fraud, can it?” she said doubtfully.

At the end of the conversation, Adefila conceded that there were many questions she could not provide answers to, agreeing that it would be foolish to hand over N45,000 to a company, whose name she did not even know.

When our correspondent was about to leave the premises of the agency, under the guise of seeking further assistance, he asked the security guard at the door how often “the company” conducts recruitments.

The young man said, “Recruitment never stops. That is why I think you should come back as soon as possible.”

When he was asked what the actual name of “the company” was, he said, “Bros, me sef, I no know o (Brother, I don’t know myself)”

But again, candidates like Agu and Adefila are the lucky ones.

On March 10, the day many unemployed youths were told to come for the interview at the agency’s office through the mass text messages sent to them, it was learnt that hundreds turned up for the job interview even without ever applying for any job.

One of the candidates, who was at the scene that day told our correspondent that many of those who got text messages inviting them for the interview still cannot explain how their lines were targeted.

I was asked to pay N73,000 – Candidate thrown out by company security

There is no way to verify the actual number of candidates who were invited by the agency for its phantom recruitment.

But putting into context the amount of money this agency could have made from its sophisticated scheme, if it successfully convinces 250 people to pay the required N45,000 for its intensive training, it would make N11,250,000.

But it was noted that paying the N45,000 would have committed the candidates, who would be forced to pay far more sundry fees later.

One candidate said that he was invited through a similar text message earlier in the year but was asked to pay N52,000 for the required training, after which he would be placed in the company “for a suitable position worth lots of money.” He said he literally fled the premises after he heard that.

For another candidate, Anthony Ogunno, his experience when he went for his “test and interview” in the company was both annoying and frustrating.

The young man, who lost his banking job in 2015 told our correspondent that before he knew what was happening, he had doled out N11,000, only to realise that he had to pay other expenses totalling N73,000 before he could be given an employment in one of the agency’s “client companies.”

He said, “I was at home when I got a call early February. The caller simply said, ‘If you need a job, call this number immediately.’ I quickly called the number back and I was given the address at Adeyemo Alakija. I was told to see one Lade there.

“I went that day and met about 50 other people there. We submitted our resume and passports. After 90 minutes, they gave me a computer based test. After five minutes, they stopped it and said I did not make it. They said the only option remaining was for me to enrol in a training course that would lead to me getting a job. They told me to pay N45,000. I asked if the job was guaranteed and they said yes and that I would earn nothing less than N150,000 per month.

“I explained that I did not have any money at the moment but they said for commitment, I should deposit whatever I had. I gave them the N5,000 in my wallet because I was desperate for a job. I left and I later got a mail that I should come for the training. When I got there, they said I had to complete my payment. Again, they said I could pay in instalment depending on whatever I had at the time. I paid N6,000. I was then given a print out, in which they specified that after the N45,000, I would need to pay N7,500 for CV review, and N15,000 for an exam after the training. There was another fee I cannot recollect. But everything was N73,000.

“At that point, I realised they might be scammers. I told the others that we needed to ask more questions about the job offer they promised. The manager named Mr. Monday came to address us but when I realised he could not even provide any evidence that they had ever found job for anybody in the past, I went to meet him in his office later and demanded a refund. He left me in the office and said since I had looked at the print out, there was no refund. When I started to make trouble, he called their security men to throw me out of their premises. I have not seen such callous scam before.”

Findings revealed that over the last three months, this recruitment agency had sent out mass text messages inviting candidates for interview on five different occasions – three times in January, once in February and once in March.

But all the candidates our correspondent spoke with said after the two-week training, it is always a long wait for a job that never materialises.

Saturday PUNCH contacted all the numbers used by this recruitment agency in inviting candidates for interviews.

One of the company’s contacts, a lady identified as Gbemi eventually picked up. When asked about the manager of the agency, her reply was, “I am very busy now. I am even too tired to stand up and give the phone to the manager. Maybe you could call back tomorrow?” But when told that it was urgent and that it concerned the activities of their company and allegations of job scam, she said, “Please, send a text message about the issue, I will show it to him and he would call you back later.”

More agencies, more scams

But Accengix with its string of aliases, is not the only one involved in this scheme. Saturday PUNCH learnt that the issue of texts messages of unsolicited job offers and interviews has become an increasing annoyance in Lagos and many other parts of the country.

Another company, which job seekers made allegations of job scam against is Ranstard Dynamic Resources Limited, an agency operating on the ground floor of an old building at 16 Ondo Street, off Apapa Road, Costain area of Lagos.

This company too uses the strategy of sending unsolicited interview invitations to job seekers.

One of the candidates, who was forced to answer the unsolicited “job offer” invitation, Tope Gholagun, told our correspondent of a scheme which saw her having to listen to a seminar talk from about six different “resource persons.”

“The first day I went there, we were about 25. At one point in the ‘recruitment process,’ they started to play us business motivational speeches. I asked what they do and one of them said they were into IT, safety and business management.

“They said we would go through an interview with their MD but that never happened. Later, after all the speeches, which were aimed at winning us over, they finally brought out a training form, which we would pay N13,500. I went there for about three times during the whole process out of curiosity. They later sent me a text that I should come for an induction. But it was clear they had no job to offer us.”

Our correspondent contacted one of the phone numbers attached to the messages Ranstard sent out and a man identified as Sylvester denied any form of scam in their operation. He said, “We are involved in GNLD marketing and we make it clear to appplicants when they come that they would be marketing GNLD products. But one of the applicants who went for the job said she was told nothing of such.

Asked his company sourced for the phone numbers of job seekers who got text messages even though they never applied for the job there, he said, “Do we force anybody to pay anything? If they did not apply to our company, how would they have got text messages inviting them for job interviews then?”

Source: Punch Newspaper