• The Department of Correctional Services has warned that criminals prey on victims looking for employment at this time of year.
• Scammers lure jobseekers into the scam and demand money to guarantee an interview with what the victim believes to be a legitimate person.
• The victim arrives at the interview only to discover they have been scammed.

Every once in a while cybercriminals do something so brazen one has to admire the audacity.

Case in point – a scam involving fake jobs for the Department of Correctional Services (DCS). Yes, scammers are stoking the ire of the very department that would be responsible for their internment should they be caught.

The scam sees ne’er-do-wells posting job offers on social media for the department. The goal is to suck up data that can later be used to steal a person’s identity or gain access to bank accounts ad more. Worse still however, some of the scams request payment from a target for the purpose of securing an interview.

“Members of the public are warned to refrain from paying for government jobs, as this is unlawful and will never be a prerequisite to get a job in government. DCS does not require money for any form of employment,” the department told SA News.

The modus operandi of these scams – says the department – sees criminals advertising fake jobs on social media and other websites. Victims are requested to send through a number of documents, as well as a fee to secure an interview. It appears as if the scammers are using legitimate information as they are sending victims to DCS offices for interviews only for the victim to arrive and find nothing but disappointment.

The department has stated that it does not advertise vacant positions on its website. Instead, jobseekers should visit the official websites for the Department of Public Service and Administration and the DCS.

This direction doesn’t inspire much confidence however as government websites are woeful at the best of times and a stressful mess to navigate when you actually need something from them.

Just this morning, Africa Check published a blog post highlighting some of the worst offenders in South Africa’s digital space. This is incredibly concerning as millions of South Africans depend on these websites for accurate information about governance and activities that require government involvement.

Perhaps then, if government departments invested in maintaining and properly developing their web portals, cybercriminals wouldn’t find so much success running scams on social media.