The Cyber Security Authority (CSA) has disclosed that an estimated amount of GHC908,427 has been lost to online job recruitment fraudulent activities from 2022 to the first half of this year.
Mr. Aaron Felix Opoku, Programmes Manager at the CSA, who disclosed this said the lost amount of money involved 39 cases of job recruitment fraudulent activities which were recorded by the Authority, with 69 per cent being males and 31 per cent females falling victims of such activities within the period.
He was speaking on “The role of technology in recruitment and radicalization of the youth”, in Takoradi, at a roundtable meeting with the youth on trending conflict issues, which was organized by the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference, through its Directorate of Governance, Justice and Peace of the National Catholic Secretariat.
It was on the theme: “Building youth resilience for peace: Addressing trending conflict issues in the Western Region” and formed part of the Sahel Peace Initiative of the Catholic Church, with funding support from the Catholic Relief Services (CRS).
Representatives from religious groups, political parties, students, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), security agencies and Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) among other interest groups attended the meeting to discuss trending conflict issues and devise strategies to address risk of violent extremism among the youth in the Western Region.
Mr. Opoku noted that individuals involved in the online recruitment fraudulent activities often impersonated credible public officials, employers, or international agencies to appear more credible on various internet platforms to entice prospective job seekers.
“These people often impersonate recruiters of reputable entities and other public officials and post enticing offers on various online platforms to lure prospective job seekers into paying certain monies before offering them jobs,” he said.
He, therefore, advised the youth, especially job seekers, to scrutinize such job opportunities they see on the internet before applying to prevent them from losing their monies to fraudsters.
Mr. Opoku said: “Job seekers must be suspicious of lucrative offers and not click on links from unsolicited messages but verify and conduct due diligence before making any move for such opportunities.”
He also encouraged victims of recruitment frauds to report such cases to the CSA and other law enforcement agencies for investigations and bring perpetrators to book.
Mr. Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah, Western Regional Minister, in a speech read on his behalf, said the government was committed to implementing more interventions that would create employment avenues for the youth to help improve upon their wellbeing and prevent them from falling victims of recruitment frauds.
He advised them to be ambassadors of peace in their communities since peace and tranquility was one of the prerequisites of socio-economic growth in the country.
The Most Reverend John Baptist Attakruh, Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sekondi-Takoradi, stressed on the need for the youth to uphold the principles of peace and security, and build a cohesive society to help drive transformation in their communities.