HOW IT ALL BEGAN
On the 18th of June 2023 at 1:40pm after spending hours editing and putting together my CV, I received a mail from Learnania Africa thanking me for my application and informing me of the latest date for feedback.
I was excited as I had not been applying for jobs and just thought to try it after taking a long break off applications. On the 23rd of June at 07:18am, I received a mail congratulating me and inviting me for an interview on the 24th of June from 01:30pm - 02:30pm. I excitedly took the exam on the slated date and waited for feedback. Some days later, I checked the live page only to find out that another exam had been conducted on the 25th at the same time, and a lot of other startling new information like the hack of their account as well.
Information on the site stated that feedback was no longer expected latest 3rd July but 15th July, but on the 3rd July at about 13:08pm, I received a congratulatory mail informing me of my success at the interview and asking me to schedule a screening.
LEARNANIA PCC REQUIREMENT
On the information page for the screening requirements, successful candidates were asked to provide means of identification as well as a PCC Document (POLICE CLEARANCE CERTIFICATE) which a link was provided to an agency that assist persons in acquiring the said document for 25,000.
I proceeded to FCT POLICE COMMAND Garki to enquire on how to get the document.
On reaching there I met a young lady who seemed to be a successful candidate as well and had come to pay for her PCC. the police officer also insinuated that she might be my "colleague" as she came for the same reason I was there. I watched her make her payment and leave. The police officer asked me to get the address of the company so the document could be formerly addressed to them, and I decided to google the company only to be met with a mirade of troubling and disappointing news of the scam that Learnania Africa might be.
THE SAD REALITY
I followed the trail of disturbing new findings to twitter where I was met with further hope dashing news. As it slowly began to unfold like layers of onions being peeled off, tears began soaking my now disappointed eyes. Once filled with hope not too long ago, I was completely in shock. Questions would not let me be...Why? What was the goal of this? Why would they go to this length? Could it be true?
On Twitter there was a debate of whether or not the site was a scam and after a day or 2 (I can't remember exactly) the PCC requirement was removed from their website. I proceeded to request a screening invite but this time around no mail was sent to confirm that I had requested for an invite, instead it showed on the site that the invite would be sent on or before the 17th of July 2023.
It was a well put together scam I must say, sadly the bubble has bursted but not without hurting unsuspecting jobseekers. What is most important to note is the hundreds if not thousands of personal data willingly provided to learnania africa. Could it be a data mining scheme? (that's exactly what it looks like to me) Many persons have had their personal information compromised and could be hacked in the future. For example, when I tried searching for the CEO, the About page of the organization on the website had been removed and pictures of the CEO and other board members were no longer there. In true internet fashion, the pictures were still on some links and could be traced to other sites. It turns out these pictures had been used to give reviews on other sites and names formerly attached to the pictures on the organization's website were fake.
Further search brought up a LinkedIn profile of the CEO which eventually turned out to be the profile of another "susccessful candidate". The candidate's information had been used to create a profile that purported to be that of the CEO, bearing their name, address, and university. I uploaded it on Twitter asking questions about the CEO only for the candidate herself to respond to the tweet expressing her shock and putting up a disclaimer. Another individual stated that they received mails informing them that their gmail account had been used to claim the Learnania Africahttps://learnania.com/ page on google.
It is important to also note that the instagram account to learnania which the organization claimed was hacked was opened early this year, same as that of the agency used to apply for PCC called Certifos . Certifos currently has a pop-up on their home page that states they have been asked to refund those who paid for PCC by Learnania Africa. So far, no one has come out to be admit they've been paid even after requesting for a refund. Also, the address of Certifos is nonexistent just like that of Learnania Africa.
WHAT NEXT?
This is the question on everyone's lips. What do we do next? Many Nigerians are ignorant of what to do in a case like this and the steps to take to ensure you're not a victim. Millions of people have had their personal data compromised and it has led to loss of jobs, families and lives. What can be done to ensure there's no repetition of such? How can unsuspecting individuals avoid job scams?
Fake fake pple everywhere