Walk into any cybercafé or scroll through social media job groups or check the walls on every street in Ghana today, and the pattern is hard to miss, posts offering “urgent job opportunities,” “guaranteed placement,” or “visa-assisted employment.” They promise everything, from high salaries to quick hiring.
For thousands of job seekers, especially fresh graduates and laid-off workers, these offers feel like a lifeline. But many of them end in disappointment, drained bank accounts, and shattered trust.
“Many job seekers are desperate, and scammers exploit that desperation with fake promises,” says Noel Francis Agodzo, a veteran human resources professional, in an interview with The High Street Journal.
Agodzo says the surge in scams isn’t accidental, it’s economics. “It’s a simple matter of demand and supply. There are more people looking for jobs than there are jobs available. That imbalance creates fertile ground for scammers to operate.”
In this oversupplied job market, fraudsters have fine-tuned their methods. They set up flashy websites, use WhatsApp business accounts, and even impersonate real companies. Their offers sound urgent and too good to miss, because they’re designed that way.
“These scammers know exactly how to manipulate hope,” Agodzo explains. “They’ll create urgency, ‘limited slots,’ ‘last chance today,’ or ‘payment confirms your place’, so people don’t have time to think clearly.”
According to Agodzo, the most common red flag is a request for payment before any job is offered. “The recruiter should be paid by the company, not by the job seeker. That’s how professional recruitment works. If that’s not the case, something’s wrong.”
He warns that scammers are banking on the silence of victims, who often feel ashamed or embarrassed after being defrauded. That silence, he says, allows the racket to thrive.
Agodzo’s advice is that young job seekers should slow down, ask questions, and verify everything.
As long as the job market remains tight and digital platforms remain loosely regulated, experts say the onus is on job seekers to stay alert and informed.
