Online predators claiming to be from the energy utility Energex, have been uncovered scamming job seekers.
Executive General Manager Services at Energex, Belinda Watton said the scammers were making fake job offers for non-existent roles within Energex while demanding money for the service.
“These scammers are randomly contacting people, offering fictional employment opportunities within Energex and asking for personal identification and demanding payments for a bogus application process,” Ms Watton said.
“They are operating around the globe and we’ve had people from as far away as the United States contacting us — one person claimed to have handed over $8,000.”
She said Energex had also heard of Queenslanders being contacted by dodgy operators claiming to represent the utility or is parent company, Energy Queensland.
“Most approaches come through online job boards, direct emails, or from fake identities claiming to be affiliated with sites like LinkedIn,” Ms Watton said.
“The bottom line is Energex doesn’t randomly reach out offering employment to people who haven’t applied for a role and we never, ever ask for payment to process an application.”
Ms Watton said whatever the approach, the grooming spiel was always similar.
“They’ve heard about the individual, identified them as a great candidate and lure them with a good-paying (non-existent) job, usually work-from-home,” she said.
“Their next step is to seek a lot of personal information and then payment to ‘progress’ their application, security checks, IT licences etc,” Ms Watton said.
