Employment Traps


Bad elements in our society take advantage of the rashes of the jobseekers who often becomes very hasty in finding a job. They will cheat them of their money or other benefits. As their tricks emerge in different forms and change all the time, job seekers must be calm and careful to guard against these deceptions. The following points illustrate some commonly used tactics. Job seekers have to deal with these situations with extra alertness and should seek help from relevant parties when necessary.


Tactic 1: Financial and Investment Scam

Scams pretending to be foreign investment or marketing companies use a good salary to enlist job seekers for the posts of clerk, copyist and cleaning staff, etc. They then encourage their staff persistently to make investments or even persuade them to transfer to investment posts in order to entice them to pour in their own or their relative’s money. Finally, by claiming failed investments, the employer keeps all the money.


Tactic 2: Loophole in Contract

Some employers manipulate job seekers’ ignorance in labour protection or their negligence. They incorporate unfair rules and terms in the employment contract to deliberately diminish employees’ entitlements.


Tactic 3: Illegal Work

There have been cases that job seekers were trapped into performing illegal work. Legal responsibilities were then shifted from the lawless persons to the employees in illegal activities like soliciting donations for unauthorised charity organisations, collecting repayments of usurious loans, selling pirated compact discs.


Tactic 4: Model/Advertising Company

Some models, entertainers or film/ video show dubbing companies persuade job seekers to join their training/ beauty care courses, or to pay money as casting fee/ recommendation fee/ guarantee money by alleging that they have great potential to act in an advertisement or become an idol. However, no jobs are arranged for the job seekers afterwards and what they have paid is never returned.


Tactic 5: Pornographic Trap

Some entertainment companies run pornographic business in disguise. They make use of high salary and benefits to attract job seekers and uncover the truth only after the applicants have signed the contracts.


How to see through employment traps?

Although tricks come in different forms, we can avoid falling into these traps by being careful ourselves, or by making thorough enquiries about the job, or seeking help from our friends or relevant organisations (e.g. Police, Labour Department etc) in case of doubt.

The following are some salient points for detecting employment traps:




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