During the past week, a number of individuals have been subject to a scam, whereby they were asked to transfer a fee to secure a job opportunity. According to the Employment and Industrial Relations Act, recruitment agencies are forbidden to ask candidates for payment in exchange for recruitment services.

The scam party is imitating the website jobsinmalta.com by using their branding and misleading the general public. The fraudulent party are posing as a recruitment agency located in Malta, having subsidiary branches in France, Germany and England.

According to two letters sent, in Italian, to individuals, the fictitious recruitment company has 22 years of experience in the field and specialises in temporary work and the recruitment of multilingual staff.

The scammers claim to have affiliations with KONNEKT search & selection, jobsinmalta.com, maltajobs.com.mt, University of Malta, NSTS and the European Social Fund. While the brand name jobsinmalta.com does belong to a legitimate company, none of these aforementioned organisations have any connection or relationship whatsoever, with the fabricated scam company JobsInMalta.Com Recruitment.

The scammers are promoting the vacancy of Assistant to the Reception as temporary summer work in Malta, offering lodging and other perks.

Individuals who follow through with their application, are asked to transfer a fee of €150 plus €8.50 money transfer commission rate, in order to secure their spot for the role advertised. They are using the well-known money transfer platform, MoneyGram, to transfer money online. Individuals are sent via email, an official letter with the conditions of work and a contract of employment, on which the logos of the abovementioned companies are shown.

Individuals who have been subject to this scam are asked to report the incident to the police.