GTBank prank: Job seeker accuses recruiting firm of masterminding Lagos vacancy hoax
Did you get a WhatsApp or BBM message about available vacancies at GTBank yesterday?
It’s a prank.
And a job seeker who fell for the hoax told NewsroomNG it was probably planned by the recruiting agency to which the message directed applicants.
Resource Intermediaries Limited (RIL), the agency named by the unknown prankster, said it wasn’t behind the unfunny lie.
“A church member sent the vacancy broadcast to me via WhatsApp on Tuesday,” the job seeker, who doesn’t want to be named, told our correspondent on Wednesday.
“When I got to the Victoria Island office of RIL, I was told there was nothing like what was stated in the BC.
“But they used the opportunity to inform us they were a recruiting firm. They gave us a paper containing how to apply for job on their website. I think they were the ones that sent the hoax message. And I think they did it to publicise their business. They wanted the world to know they exist.
“I was surprised to see that they were ready with a printed public announcement debunking the hoax and containing details on how to apply for job on their website.
“I noticed they gave printouts to everyone that came,” she said.
RIL confirmed to NewsroomNG it handed out printouts debunking the hoax and detailing how to use its services. But the firm denied masterminding the hoax.
“As a reputable outsourcing company that has built a reputation of professionalism over the last ten years, which is easily verifiable, we do not have any reason to be engaged in such conduct,” the firm told our correspondent.
RIL also posted a pop notification on its website warning job seekers about the prank. The notification was visible as at the time we published this post.
The firm said it had debunked the BC on Tuesday but most people didn’t see it on time.
Job seekers told NewsroomNG they, on Wednesday morning, got BCs urging them to disregard the vacancy message.
WATCH: Firm addresses job seekers fooled by vacancy prank
Ladies and gentleman… NIGERIA pic.twitter.com/AYUTu4jrwq
— naTASHA (@madamTHEmadam) September 28, 2016
RIL said those BCs, one of which we published, were edited versions of its Tuesday statement. The BC stated the hoax was the work of one “Niyi” who no longer worked with RIL.
“The rejoinder on your news page about an ex staff did not originate from us,” RIL later told us.
“Someone edited our public announcement which was made since yesterday morning” and circulated it, the firm said.
In a country with rising unemployment rate (now 13.3% according to the National Bureau of Statistics), falling for a vacancy prank is an easy thing.
We are greatly pained by the plight of applicants who are repeatedly misled through social media @NewsroomDaily @akinolarj
— resourceint (@resourceint) September 28, 2016
“I showed up because I lost my job recently only to find out this was a waste of my time, money and energy,” the job speaker who spoke to us said.
“I feel disappointed,” she said.
“I live on the Mainland and had to wake up very early to get here only to be told it’s a prank,” another applicant told us.
Commenting on the issue, a PR expert who doesn’t want to be named told us most of the job seekers who showed up were “simply gullible”.
“They should have know that serious job postings will be advertised on credible platforms,” he said.
RIL said it is “greatly pained by the plight of applicants who are repeatedly misled through social media.”
