When you are unemployed and desperate for work one of the most soul-destroying things you have to go through is applying and interviewing for fake jobs. The ad looked legit, the recruiter talked a smooth talk, but the job never existed. It’s a common practice and, it must be said, the elephant in the room in this country, borne out of sales commission structures which pay bonuses on registrations and not actual job placements.
One day years ago I arrived back home in a state of particular humiliation following a hopeful interview at a reputable high street agency for a job which not only never existed, but which the recruiter interviewing me barely had a clue about (and why would she?) Needing someplace constructive to direct my feelings, I went on to the popular Scottish jobs site where I had found the listing and wrote to their support address. I had, I explained, been suckered in by an ad for a fake job which they had posted on their site. Couldn’t they remove the job from their listings?
They wrote back to state that if I had a problem with a job listing, I needed to contact the REC – the umbrella organisation for agencies in the UK – and make a claim with them against the agency. To use the American expression, I needed to make a federal case about it if I wanted anything done. In the meantime, the job site was not planning on pulling the fake job anytime soon.
I instantly chastised myself for my naivete. The site will post what they are paid to post. It is run by a media group which is barely staying afloat. It relies on this job site to stay in business. It is not going to bite the hand that feeds it.
I scrolled back to the home page of the jobs site, gazing at the banner which announced X,XXX jobs currently available, and drew my breath. “This whole country is being scammed. How many of those are fake?” I wondered.
Today BBC 5 Live Investigates has announced their discovery that Google, through its Adwords programme, took a lesson out of that job site’s book. Google has admitted that they take a profit on ads posted to the system regardless of their veracity or even their legality. Postings for fake Olympic tickets, illegal medications, and even fake IDs have all been paid to go to the top of the listings, and hopeful customers have been duly taken in. And why wouldn’t they be – the ads are on the top of Google, aren’t they? In the meantime, Google has been happy to look the other way as they take their cut.
There is, however, a key difference. When the practice has been brought to their attention, Google has taken down the fake listings while working in cooperation with the body responsible for the real ones. Unlike the jobs site, they are not trying to pass the buck to an industry body, nor are they levying the responsibility for oversight to them. Google’s Adwords programme now continues under the full glare of media and public attention to the practice.
Elsewhere, fake ads will continue to raise false hopes because no one is particularly interested in starting a crusade when they can’t feed their family.
Google Adwords’ practices came to light because the BBC, an independent broadcaster, looked into it as a private company. You will never read about fake job listings in the newspaper owned by the same media group. You will, for that matter, never see the BBC looking into a fellow media group; they don’t rat on their own. You will never see the jobs industry body seeking out fake listings which demean the profession. You will never see the most vulnerable defending their rights in the face of a blatant scam.
So credit where credit is due to Google. They’ve been caught, they’ve held their hands up, and they are changing the way they do business. If only all companies were like that.
As for those companies which know the ads are fake and look the other way – an admission that their businesses cannot survive without tricks and deception – don’t feel too sorry for them when they are the ones having their dignity ripped out at a fake job interview. They knew how their bread was buttered, and they rather liked the taste.
Download the 5Live Investigates report on Google’s promotion of fake services here (.mp3, 23mb).
