Only licensed agencies allowed to conduct Internet-based recruitment

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) today said that measures have been initiated to prevent illegal recruitment through the Internet.

Labor and Employment Secretary Arturo D. Brion said the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) allows only licensed agencies and their legitimate representatives to post vacancies and recruit Filipino workers through the Internet. The POEA is a DOLE attached agency.

Brion said the POEA Governing Board, through Resolution No. 6, series of 2007, gives the recruitment agencies and their legitimate representatives which are registered with the POEA such authority as a measure to curtail illegal recruitment through the Net.

Brion, who chairs the POEA Board, urged workers looking for overseas jobs through the Internet to check with POEA whether the agency or individual posting vacancies in the Net are licensed and whether the vacancies are complemented with appropriate job orders from abroad.

The DOLE chief noted that the emerging trend of recruitment and posting of job vacancies on the Internet have provided unscrupulous individuals the opportunity to victimize workers in search of high-paying overseas jobs.

He said that would-be victims are usually lured with overseas employment offering generous salaries and benefits that most often appear "too good to be true."

"Workers should be wary of such job offers in the Internet especially when the online recruiter requires them to deposit money to some unknown accounts to cover processing and other fees," Brion said.

The labor chief said that victims of illegal recruitment fall prey to perpetrators, popularly known as scammers, after being advised to submit credentials and deposit money to unknown accounts.

Online recruitment scams requiring applicants to deposit money to certain accounts are most likely fraudulent, Brion said as he reiterated his warning to all Filipino workers to go through legitimate channels only when applying for overseas employment to avoid being victimized by such scams.