ILO threatens legal action against online scammers abusing its logo

By Admin 06 Jun 2023

DMG Newsroom
6 June 2023, Sittwe

The International Labor Organization (ILO) has threatened to take legal action against online scammers using its logo and charging employment seekers to apply for jobs in the NGO sector.

Taking advantage of high unemployment in Myanmar, online scammers are selling job application forms with the ILO logo.

Ko Zaw Thant, who has worked for a nongovernmental organisation for more than 10 years, said: “It is unacceptable to abuse the ILO logo to con people.”

The ILO will not condone such schemes and will take legal action against fraud, the organisation said in an announcement on June 4.

ILO has never and will never charge people for applying for jobs, the organisation said.

“ILO is an aid group, and not an employment agency. We have not yet received any complaint about fraud involving the abuse of the ILO logo,” said secretary U Kyaw Htin Kyaw of the Myanmar Overseas Employment Agencies Federation.

As many people are planning to work overseas, there are numerous scams and the federation has to handle complaints every day, he said.

Amid the economic turmoil that has followed the 2021 coup, many people have lost jobs, and have opted to work overseas in the face of a weak domestic job market.

Myanmar had more than 1 million fewer jobs than it did before the twin shocks of Covid-19 and  the 2021 coup, the ILO said in a report in early 2022.