A five-point plan to tackle online scammers who trick job-seekers into signing up for training programs has been developed for use by the Queensland Training Ombudsman.
Minister for Training, Shannon Fentiman said the plan would support the growing need to crackdown on this “bait advertising”.
“I’ve got a clear message for scammers who are tricking job-seekers into training programs — we’re coming after you,” Ms Fentiman said.
“I’ve asked the Ombudsman to make this issue his number one priority between now and the end of the year.”
She said the scammers went after people doing the right thing, trying to find a job to support themselves and their families during extremely tough times and “they shouldn’t have to worry about being ripped off”.
Ms Fentiman said the five-point plan included an investigation by the independent Queensland Training Ombudsman.
She said there will be a dedicated online compliance unit directly responsible for identifying scammers and referring them to the Australian Skills Authority (ASQA), Office of Fair Trading or police.
She said a dedicated training scammer hotline would also be introduced so reports of unscrupulous operators could be made, and there will be a review of penalties for scammers found to have unlawfully tricked job-seekers.
Finally, the Minister said there is to be a review of every registered training organisation that received State Government subsidies with a commitment to cut support if an organisation was found to have tricked job-seekers
The Training Ombudsman, Geoff Favell said the scammers were in the minority.
“This is a very small group of unscrupulous operators who are taking advantage of job-seekers,” Mr Favell said.
“I urge anyone who believes they have been tricked into a training program to phone the training scammer hotline on 1800 773 048.”
