HOAX: This post about a Quickmart Supermarket recruitment drive is a sham
This Facebook post claiming that Quickmart Supermarket is recruiting 820 people to work in 43 of their branches across Kenya is a HOAX.
According to the post, the vacancies available include opportunities for cleaners and guards, technicians, customer care receptionists, storekeepers & cooks, distributors and marketers. The ad claims that the supermarket chain also needs drivers and messengers, cashiers, loaders and off loaders, warehouse supervisors, merchandisers, fleet mechanics, floor attendants, bakers, and chefs.
Successful job applicants are promised a salary of KSh 18,000 or more. Interested job applicants are asked to submit their applications by 20 August 2021, with interviews scheduled to take place from Monday, 23 August 2021, to Thursday, 26 August 2021. Successful candidates will begin work on Tuesday, 31 August 2021, according to the information supplied.
A bitly link is provided for interested job seekers to submit their applications. Once an interested candidate clicks on the link, it leads to a Google form. The same information from the Facebook ad is repeated in the form. However, the form includes an additional requirement for applicants to pay a fee of KSh 350 to FRX INVEST @ QUICKMART using the M-PESA till number 5785571.
“The amount is automatically refunded to your phone Mpesa if you don’t qualify. NOTE: ONLY APPLICANTS WHO HAVE PAID REGISTRATION FEE WILL BE CONSIDERED FOR INTERVIEW,” the information in the Google form warns.
The requirement to pay a registration fee is the first hint that a job advertisement is fake as most con artists use similar methods to defraud desperate job seekers, as seen here, here, and here.
Interested job seekers are also instructed to provide their personal information such as their name, phone number, area of residence, KCSE mean grade, and level of education. This could be a phishing attempt as the author of the Google form will receive the personal details of all job seekers willing to fill the 870 job vacancies.
Another hint that this could be a scam is the fact that the job advert did not originate from the supermarket’s Facebook page.
The official Facebook page for the supermarket is Quickmart Kenya and it is verified. The fake Quickmart Facebook page goes by the name Quickmart Supermarket Jobs and was created on 12 July 2021. The original Quickmart Facebook page was created on 3 July 2015 with the name Quickmart, before changing to Quickmart Kenya on 29 March 2021.
The logo of the fake Facebook page also differs from that of the verified Quickmart page.
Quickmart Kenya, through its verified Facebook page, has flagged the recruitment drive as fake.
“Fake Job Alert! Please disregard any job-related posts that are not on the Quickmart website or our official social media pages. Any job openings shall be announced on our social media pages and website,” Quickmart Kenya cautions job seekers.
Quickmart Kenya also adds that it does not require job seekers to pay any money to secure a job at any branch.
This is not the first time that fake Quickmart job ads are circulating online. PesaCheck debunked a total of six fake Quickmart Supermarket recruitment drives from 2019 to 2021.
PesaCheck has looked into a Facebook post claiming that Quickmart Supermarket is recruiting 820 people to work in 43 of their branches across Kenya, and finds it to be a HOAX.
This post is part of an ongoing series of PesaCheck fact-checks examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms.
By partnering with Facebook and similar social media platforms, third-party fact-checking organisations like PesaCheck are helping to sort fact from fiction. We do this by giving the public deeper insight and context to posts they see in their social media feeds.
Have you spotted what you think is fake or false information on Facebook? Here’s how you can report. And, here’s more information on PesaCheck’s methodology for fact-checking questionable content.
This fact-check was written by PesaCheck fact-checker Naomi Wanjiku and edited by PesaCheck chief copy editor Rose Lukalo. The article was approved for publication by PesaCheck managing editor Enock Nyariki.
PesaCheck is East Africa’s first public finance fact-checking initiative. It was co-founded by Catherine Gicheru and Justin Arenstein, and is being incubated by the continent’s largest civic technology and data journalism accelerator: Code for Africa. It seeks to help the public separate fact from fiction in public pronouncements about the numbers that shape our world, with a special emphasis on pronouncements about public finances that shape government’s delivery of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) public services, such as healthcare, rural development and access to water / sanitation. PesaCheck also tests the accuracy of media reportage. To find out more about the project, visit pesacheck.org.
PesaCheck is an initiative of Code for Africa, through its innovateAFRICA fund, with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie, in partnership with a coalition of local African media and other civic watchdog organisations.