SINGAPORE – The police are looking into a Singapore-based company that has advertised online for jobs based here, only to later tell interviewees they would be working full-time at a Cambodian resort instead.
The facility, Koh Kong Resort, has been sanctioned by the United States Treasury Department for its links to its owner, a Cambodian businessman sanctioned in the US for ill-treating trafficked workers at online scam centres. The resort is also cited by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in a scam-related report.
The Singapore company, Changting Network Technology, positions itself as a technology firm. It had advertised various roles on local and overseas job search sites, with the purported roles supposedly based in Singapore.
However, after candidates secured a job, they would be told by a hiring manager that they would be based at Koh Kong Resort instead.
When contacted, the police said reports against the company had been filed, and that they are looking into the matter.
The police also advised the public to check job offers, especially when there are requests that seem unrealistic or unusual, and to call the ScamShield Helpline (1799) if they are unsure whether a job offer is real.
The Straits Times looked into the company, after a foreigner asked in a Sept 6 post online if the company was legitimate.
The foreigner, whom ST is calling A, had applied for a senior customer service executive role which was listed on a foreign portal.
On Sept 11, he put ST in touch with the person who presented himself as Changting’s hiring manager.
ST, posing as foreign job seeker B, submitted a fake resume and, within an hour, was offered the senior customer service executive job, in a phone interview conducted in Mandarin. The pay offered was $5,000 a month.
The Singapore-based role supposedly entailed travelling across South-east Asia to meet clients, with a mandatory three-month training period in Cambodia.
The hiring manager sent B an offer letter, but did not request details for the application of a work visa, which is needed for foreigners working in Singapore. The salary offered in the document was also different from what was offered over the phone – US$2,800 (S$3,600).
The offer letter that The Straits Times received after posing as foreign job seeker B.
PHOTO: SCREENGRAB
The hiring manager also gave B the street address where the training in Cambodia would be held – it matched that of Koh Kong Resort.
Things changed further on Sept 17, in a second phone interview with someone who was supposedly a supervisor at Changting. The call had been arranged by the hiring manager. In this call, the supervisor did not identify himself by name or designation.
Instead of three months of training in Cambodia, the supervisor said the role would require B to be permanently based there.
