BBC Inside Out Exposes Job Fraudster

A fraudster has conned jobseekers out of thousands of pounds in cash by offering them fake jobs for a fee, an investigation has alleged.

The man, who goes by the name of John Phillips, offers applicants positions at non-existent companies. He then requests money so they can be “accredited” to start work with a promise they will get the cash back once they start.

But Phillips, who also uses other aliases, then disappears, leaving the victims deep in debt and still jobless.

Phillips finds the applicants on job websites that can be accessed by employers, according to BBC1’s Inside Out. He contacts them pretending to be MD of a large human resources company and invites them for interviews.

Once they are “successful” and offered a position, they are told to pay a fee of a few hundred pounds up front and told it will be refunded once the job starts.

One alleged victim, Atiya Ahmed, said: “The job was an admin assistant role supposed to be in London Bridge. 

“It’s quite embarrassing... you want to be helping and supporting your family and yourself and being able to do things. When you come across something like this, it does take you low, very low.”

Another alleged victim, Sajida Yassin, paid £480 once she was offered an HR job with a purported salary of £24,750. An undercover BBC reporter posed as a jobseeker and was offered a position to find more candidates for Phillips. 

At her interview to work for Phillips’s fake company Premiere Employment, she was also told her employer would put £100 a month into her pension fund and that she would be able to join the private health care plan and be given free gym membership.

Another alleged victim, Maz Uddin, said: “I couldn’t have been happier, my family was happy for me and personally, I felt like, ‘Oh wow, finally I’ve made it’.” He said when he realised it was a con, it left him in “a state where I was completely stressed financially and struggled to cope with life in general”.

The BBC found Phillips, who also goes by the names of Nathan Phillips and Bill Barnet, set up at least 10 companies, all with fake company directors and professional looking websites.

When Phillips, originally from St Lucia, was confronted by the investigation team, he denied everything and has since gone to ground.

Giovanni Pace, who fell for the scam, said: “There is no company, there is no office... how can you possibly do that, where is his humanity? There is no humanity. Young people like me, just got in this country and scamming them? You’re just stealing from the poorest, it’s ridiculous.”

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Charging money for finding someone a job is unlawful. Never give out your bank dertails or part with money.