Module 3

PRE-EMPLOYMENT ORIENTATION SEMINAR (PEOS ONLINE)
MODULE 3: FOREWARNED, FOREARMED

Pre-Employment Orientation Seminar (PEOS) Online - powered by JobStreet.com
Module 3: FOREWARNED, FOREARMED – How do I apply for overseas jobs the legal way and avoid illegal
recruiters?
FOREWARNED, FOREARMED: Stay away from Illegal Recruiters!
There will always be people who will try to
deceive you by offering the easier way to get
employment overseas.
Be careful. Know them.
As your future and the future of your loved ones are at stake, you
need to be vigilant at all times. You must exert due diligence every
step of the way. Do not be misled or influenced by mere hearsay; be
critical of what you read. Seek confirmation from the POEA itself.

recruiters?
Who is an illegal recruiter?
1) Recruits without a license or authority.
2) Immediately asks placement and other fees and/or
does not issue an official receipt.
3) Promises fast and easy deployment, often using
tourist/visit visa.
4) Claims to have a direct contact with the employer
and processing at POEA is not required.
5) Requires medical examination and training even
without guaranteed employment.
6) Recruits in malls, restaurants, houses, and areas
other than the registered address of the agency.

recruiters?
Who is an illegal recruiter?
7) Does not give clear and complete information about
the job offer or shows a bogus employment contract or
working visa.
8) Introduces or misrepresents him/herself to be an
employee or is connected with a licensed agency or
POEA, or does not give sufficient information about
himself such as full name, address, etc.
9) Entices applicants to refer others to expedite their
deployment or get a discount for placement fees.
10) Offers jobs online and requests for immediate
payment through money transfer services to proceed
with the application.
Stay away from them.

recruiters?
How can you be safe from illegal recruiters?
1) Apply only at recruitment agencies licensed by the POEA.
2) Make sure the licensed agency has a POEA approved job
order.
3) Deal only with authorized representatives of a licensed
agency. Check with POEA.
4) Transact business only in the registered office address of the
licensed agency. Be sure the publicized office and the office
you are going to are one and the same.
5) Pay only the maximum allowable placement fee of which is
equivalent to one month basic salary, exclusive of
documentation cost. But collection of placement fees from
seafarers and household service workers (HSWs) is prohibited. Countries like the
United Kingdom, Ireland, Norway, the Netherlands, Japan, and the provinces of
Canada: Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia do not also
allow collection of placement fees.

recruiters?
How you can be safe from illegal recruiters:
6) Pay the placement fee after signing the Employment
Contract; demand an official receipt (OR)
7) Be wary of attractive job offers through the internet that
require you to remit immediately payment for intended
visa, airfare, and processing cost.
8) Be wary of ads or brochures requiring you to reply to a
Post Office (PO.) Box and to enclose payment for
application forms and processing of papers.
9) When offered a tourist or visit visa to work abroad, turn it
down. A legal job offer means a visa or work permit will be
issued you.
10) Deal directly with government offices; avoid fixers!
Memorize : www.poea.gov.ph

recruiters?
Illegal Recruiters Think They’re Clever, But You Know Better!
Tourist Scheme
Workers leave the country as tourists but are actually leaving
for employment abroad. Often this scheme is resorted to in
order to supply manpower requirements of blacklisted and
notorious foreign employers. At other times, this scheme is
used to skirt official procedures through the facilitation of
unauthorized persons.
Know the modus operandi of illegal recruiters. Here are some of the tactics they use
to mislead and extract hard-earned money from job applicants.
Escort Services “ HATID”
Workers are “escorted” at the airports and seaports and allowed to leave the
country even without the required travel documents. They do not undergo the
usual departure formalities for departing OFWs such as Labor Assistance
Center (LAC) validation and immigration screening. Their exit is usually
facilitated by airport personnel who has knowledge of airport procedures. The
worker may be handed over from one escort to another at different points of the
port facilities.

recruiters?
Illegal Recruiters Think They’re Clever, But you know Better!
Backdoor Exit
Workers leave through the ports of exit where immigration
control is lax. They are usually transported on board cargo
ships or on boats. Some ports in the Visayas and Mindanao
serve as exit or transit point in going to nearby countries.
Assumed Identity
Workers leave under another name or an assumed identity.
They obtain passports using birth certificates and other
documents belonging to other persons, including deceased
persons. Minors and female domestic workers are usually
the victims of this scheme. Illegal recruiters and traffickers
take advantage of the lack of birth registration of job
applicants.

recruiters?
Student-Worker Scheme /Trainee –Worker Scheme
Workers are recruited and deployed as students under a
traineeship program for hotels, hospitals and other business
establishments abroad, but eventually land jobs in the host
country, without appropriate work permits and under
exploitative and/or sub-standard conditions. This scheme is
adopted to dispense with the usual stringent requirements
attendant to legal labour migration. Most of the victims of
this scheme are young people, students about to graduate
or who just graduated. As a result, the worker is short-
changed of the benefits due to him or her as he/she is
merely considered as a trainee or an intern.
Reprocessing, or “repro”, through tie-ups
Unlicensed recruiters working with licensed agencies to recruit workers. Workers’
documents are processed using the job order of a licensed agency for non-existent
work, work different from the job order approved by POEA, or work with a different
employer, whether registered or not with the POEA.

recruiters?
Visa Assistance or Immigration Consultancy Scheme
Entities operating under the guise of consultancy or offering
services for visa facilitation are often actually engaged in
recruitment and offering placement abroad on immigrant visa.
Some also operate through the conduct of orientation seminars
which have actually the essential characteristics of recruitment
activities.
Irregular Direct Hiring
Workers are recruited allegedly through direct hiring by the
foreign employer without passing through the POEA processing
system and deployed either as tourists or through other entry
visa schemes.
Workers to work or transit in a non-visa country
Workers are enticed to work in countries that do not require visas, particularly within the
ASEAN region. Illegal recruiters skip the official channels by taking advantage of this no
visa requirement of some countries. Although a working visa may be issued upon
reaching the jobsite, the employment conditions are inferior and exploitative and/or sub-
standard as the documents have not passed through the standards of POEA.

recruiters?
Camouflaged Participants/Representatives in Seminars/Sports Events
Workers are presented as participants in seminars, sports events, entourage
in concerts abroad but actually intend to work in the host country.
Mail Order Bride
Marriage is arranged by brokers between Filipino women
and foreigners. The Filipino wife ends up as a domestic
helper to her husband and his family under exploitative
conditions.
Blind Ads
Advertisements for overseas employment published in the
dailies do not indicate the name of the recruiter but provide
a P.O. Box to which applications may be submitted. In the
past, P.O. box addresses were usually leased by illegal
recruiters using fictitious names in order to avoid
prosecution. This practice may still be happening in the
remote areas or may recur even in the cities.

recruiters?
By Correspondence
Interested applicants are encouraged to submit the
requirements for application through mail together with a
seemingly minimal fee.
Educational Tours
Victims recruited will travel in a group of two or more as
students. The recruiter will prepare the documents to be
presented at the airport that include school credentials to pove
that they are students.
Religious Pilgrimage
Usually travelling as a group and presenting credentials of
their religious affiliations supposedly to go for a pilgrimage
but with the end purpose of working upon reaching
destination.

recruiters?
Detached Visa
Worker intending to work in South Korea under E-6-2 Visa
(Entertainer Visa issued by Korean Embassy)
misrepresents by travelling either as a tourist or worker to
the Middle East but with connecting flight to an Asian
country. The visa is detached from the passport for
purposes of departing from the Philippines but attaches
the same visa upon reaching transit, and boards onward
flight to Korea, circumventing the POEA requirements for
OFWs in destination country.
NAIA Terminal 3 Open Market
Recruiters at NAIA Terminal 3 are waiting for off-loaded passengers and offering
them immediate deployment bragging their connections with Immigration Officers.
Wedding/ Grand Occasion Invitation
Passengers travelling to attend a fictitious ceremony, carrying complete apparel and
formal printed invitation.

recruiters?
“Syota” System
Two persons, a male and a female, having no relation with
each other, pose as lovers and tourists on a leisure trip but
they will separate upon reaching their destination. They
will go to their final destination. Only one of them will
return to the Philippines but there is a possibility that both
of them would not.
“Yaya” Method
A minor child who will travel to see her parent abroad is
accompanied by her “yaya”. The yaya possesses
necessary documents including the required clearance
signed by the parent. Afterwards, the child will return to
the Philippines accompanied by her parent and the yaya
left behind.

recruiters?
Sending appointment letters to applicant workers and
asking them to send money to travel agencies to
arrange their travel requirements.
Use of mobile phone or email as a means to contact the
alleged employer/agent (scammer) without giving any
landline number, or if there is one, it cannot be
contacted.
Internet Scam
Advertisement and recruitment of workers for overseas
employment through the internet which are meant to defraud,
traffic or smuggle workers. Various internet users have
complained of having been victimized by bogus websites that
require applicants to immediately remit money through money
transfer services for intended visa, airfare and processing fees.

recruiters?
Internet Scam
Designation of unauthorized third parties or agents, and in
some cases alleged immigration officers, to process their
work permit applications and visas.
Use of scanned recruitment documents such as special
power of attorney, recruitment agreement, manpower
request, and business or registration papers.
Giving fake websites that purportedly contain employer’s
information and other details which are expectedly
incorrect.

recruiters?
Beware: Your recruiter maybe a drug trafficker!
The emerging trend in transporting illegal drugs using
“drug couriers” has become a worldwide concern
because it poses serious threats to health, it violates
human rights and it cultivates illegal activities and other
crimes such as trafficking and prostitution.
Human traffickers and illegal recruiters have joined
forces with drug traffickers to target prospective OFWs,
especially those heading for Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states that have a "no
tourist visa" pact with the Philippines.
(Source: http://pdea.gov.ph/drug-trends/drug-courier)
These unsuspecting OFWs are being used as drug couriers, often deceived by
their recruiters about their real jobs or the conditions of their employment
overseas.

recruiters?
Modus Operandi of Drug Traffickers
• Couriers are usually recruited by casual
acquaintances they meet in the Philippines
or abroad, mostly fellow Filipinos connected
to drug syndicates like the African Drug
Syndicate (ADS), offering plane tickets,
hotel accommodation and huge amounts of
money.
• Members of syndicates befriend/marry potential recruit then later turn him/her into
a courier or cohort.
• Opium Poppy - Couriers may also be recruited through the internet and social
networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Tagged, etc.
• Drug traffickers can also turn their recruits into seasoned drug mules by having
them repeatedly carry drugs in exchange for a big amount money.

recruiters?
Modus Operandi of Drug Traffickers
• Drug traffickers who pose as recruiters also lend their bags to the recruits or
request recruits to bring a package as "pasalubong” for someone.
• Drug traffickers pose as recruiters offering jobs
mostly in non-visa countries such as in ASEAN
member states - Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore,
Brunei, and Thailand, but later dupe their into
carrying packages, not knowing that drugs were
placed inside.
• Unwitting victims are duped by acquaintances into carrying packages in
exchange for money, not knowing that the package has illegal drugs or
substance placed inside.
• Syndicates also engage in travel & tours businesses/ agencies to arrange
airline and hotel bookings of the couriers and use fraudulent documents/fake
credit cards.

recruiters?
How to Avoid Being a Drug Courier
• Make sure the you are dealing with a licensed recruiter, and that you
have a contract with a definite employer.
• Even if certain countries do not require visas for tourists, a work visa
or permit is still required in order to work in these countries.
• Be vigilant on people offering easy money and work abroad especially
when you are unsure of the nature of the job.
• Avoid bringing other people's luggage/packages especially when you do
not know what is contained inside. Do not trust anybody, even
acquaintances, when you are traveling abroad. Big amount of money is
not worth it.

recruiters?
The bottom line is to immediately check and
confirm any job offer with the POEA. Remember,
an agency without a POEA license is an
illegal recruiter without a conscience!
Do not fall for offers promising an easier way to
go abroad. As a documented worker, you are
entitled to the government’s full protection. Enjoy
your rights, privileges, and benefits.
Should you encounter an illegal recruiter, report
him or her to POEA. Go to our Operations and
Surveillance Division at the 4th Floor, Blas F. Ople
Bldg., Mandaluyong City.
The POEA way is definitely the right way!

recruiters?
- END OF MODULE 3 -

Module 3

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