DMW: 70,000 fake online job offers thwarted
Summary
Date Reported: 19 Jan 2025
Location: Philippines
Companies
TikTok (part of ByteDance) - Other Value Chain Entity , Meta (formerly Facebook) - Other Value Chain EntityAffected
Total individuals affected: Number unknown
Migrant & immigrant workers: ( Number unknown - Philippines , Not sector-specific , Men ) , Migrant & immigrant workers: ( Number unknown - Philippines , Not sector-specific , Women )Issues
Recruitment Fees , Contract SubstitutionResponse
Response sought: Yes, by The Resource Centre
Story containing response: (Find out more)
Action taken: 50,220 “suspicious” posts were taken down on Facebook and 21,433 on TikTok. The article says that the government coordinated with Meta and TikTok to deactivate the accounts. In February, Business & Human Rights Resource Centre invited TikTok and Meta to respond to the article, to disclose if they have engaged with the Department of Migrant Workers and other stakeholders from civil society on the issue, including the date of the engagement and outcome of the engagement; and to outline how they monitor and remove content illegally advertising jobs to migrant workers in the Philippines. Meta and TikTok’s responses can be read in full below.
Source type: News outlet
…The Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) has shut down more than 70,000 illegal online postings for jobs overseas on Facebook and TikTok, saving potentially thousands of Filipinos from paying hard-earned money for nonexistent jobs, or worse, slave-like working conditions abroad.
The 71,653 fake job postings and accounts taken down included 50,220 “suspicious” posts on Facebook and 21,433 on TikTok, the DMW said on Friday…
He explained that unscrupulous entities were masquerading as legitimate recruitment agencies by duplicating the official Facebook pages of DMW-licensed agencies to convince job applicants of their legitimacy.
“We had a meeting with these agencies, and Facebook agreed to take down all these copycat sites,” Cacdac said…
…the DMW closed down Legal Connect Travel Consultancy…
In October 2023, the DMW disclosed that more than 200 OFWs were allegedly victimized by the Milan, Italy-based Golden Power SRLS and Alpha Assistenza…
…a total of 269 Filipinos in the Philippines filed formal complaints against the agencies…
Two months earlier, authorities arrested seven suspects…in an operation at Jewel Travel Documentation Service…
An investigation showed that the recruitment agency amassed around P43 million from the victims who were allegedly promised jobs in Canada, Poland, New Zealand and Australia…