By: Villamor C. Visaya Jr.
(Published in its print edition on January 11-17, 2025)
IF it is too good to be true, think not only twice but many times.
This must be given a deep thinking by the people as the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) strives to uncover the dubious overseas job offers posted online.
Unfortunately, social media apps such as Facebook and TikTok are not wary, or ill-informed, that these are bogus and unscrupulous pages. These must all be taken down and their source accounts deactivated to ensure that these will not perpetuate more victims.
Well, the DMW immediately come into the picture and worked with the social media companies and was able to shut down 70,000 illegal online postings for jobs overseas on Facebook and TikTok, among other sites.
Imagine a lowly person who shells hard-earned money for placement and other fees for nonexistent occupation and unacceptable working conditions abroad.
It is good to hear that at least 71,653 fake job postings and accounts were taken down, which include 50,220 “suspicious” posts on Facebook and 21,433 on TikTok.
Yet, more dubious sites are still peddling these fake job offers.
If not stopped, online illegal recruitment will add more to the woes and poverty to future overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
Many fake site operators pose themselves as legitimate recruitment agencies by duplicating the official Facebook pages of DMW-licensed agencies. By doing this modus operandi, they lure more job applicants.
The government should not take this as a ningas-cogon work but a long-term or a regular purging job.
Hats off!
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