Fake jobseekers recruited through WeChat to make work fair at Grand Hyatt hotel in Hong Kong look more popular
- Event organised by a mainland city offers roles paying up to US$435,000 a year
- Actors handed US$25 to attend and feign interest in jobs, Post investigation finds
Inside a grand ballroom of a five-star hotel in Hong Kong in early May, hundreds of people crammed the booths of a mainland government job fair that offered annual salaries as high as 3 million yuan (US$432,000) for some professional positions across the border.
But among the job hunters, dozens were actors, who were paid HK$200 to pretend to be applicants at the three-hour fair at the Grant Hyatt hotel in Wan Chai, according to a Post investigation.
Organised by the government of Ningbo, a major port and industrial hub to the south of Shanghai, the job fair had attracted 51 recruiters, including universities, research institutes, state-owned enterprises, private companies and NGOs.
A total of 820 positions were available, offering an average annual wage of 300,000 to 500,000 yuan, and as much as 3 million yuan for a post at a bio company , according to a post-event statement by the Ningbo Human Resources Service Centre.
The centre, a public institution under Ningbo’s human resources authorities, arranged the fair with support from Beijing’s liaison office in Hong Kong and the Ningxing Group, which is the Ningbo government’s investment vehicle in the city.
Five days before the event on May 7, an advert was circulated on WeChat – the most popular social media app in mainland China – to hire part-time actors to boost the attendance at the job fair.
“You need to prepare a résumé and wait for an interview, which will be conducted for appearance sake,” the advert stated.
“Salary of HK$200 will be paid at the scene. Only nine places are left now. Add me [as a friend on WeChat] if you are interested. I will put you into a chat group.”
A Post reporter contacted the recruiter and was later hired as one of the actors.
But on the day of the job fair, the recruiter said they had enough people taking part and the Post reporter was not required. The Post later donated the HK$200 to Hong Kong Red Cross.
“Look at the room, we wanted 50 people, but now we have much more than we need,” the recruiter said, revealing that most of the 200 to 300 applicants in the room were being paid to be there.
But she said the liaison office and the Ningxing Group were not involved, and she served only as a middleman for the companies behind the show.
“Unemployment rate in Hong Kong is so low. It’s unlikely for such a recruitment fair to be popular here. But every government has its performance goals,” the recruiter said.
Unemployment rate in Hong Kong is so low. It’s unlikely for such a recruitment fair to be popular here. But every government has its performance goals
“There are some companies paying money to hire people to fill the room and make a lively scene. In return, they will have better relationship with the Ningbo government when they do their business there,” she said, adding nothing unlawful was taking place.
One of the “job applicants” told the Post she and a dozen others were hired by Shanghai-based and Nasdaq-listed recruitment agency 51job.
After the event, they were seen receiving a few hundred Hong Kong dollars each from a man at a park near the hotel.
The Post contacted seven companies at the fair, and while all of them said they were not aware of the fake applicants, some added that they noticed something unusual, including an applicant asking to take a photo while she was being interviewed.
When asked about the actors arrangement, Luo Jiamin, an official in charge of the job fair at the Ningbo Human Resources Service Centre, said they had only hired three recruitment agencies – including 51job – to line up skilled people for the fair, and provided “transport allowances” for those who showed up.
“We understand that it’s now the final exam season in Hong Kong and many graduates may be tied up. Therefore we commissioned these agencies to look for some eligible talents, and bring them to the fair at the time of event,” Luo said.
According to the centre, 466 job seekers joined the fair and 225 had showed “preliminary intention” to further communicate with the employers.
Luo admitted that they did not verify the academic and professional qualifications of the talent lined up by agencies, adding the event did not have any sponsors or collaborators in Hong Kong other than the liaison office and the Ningxing Group.
A spokesman for 51job said the company did not have any agencies or employees in Hong Kong and therefore “could not verify” the Post’s findings.
“We worry that our brand was abused and we will discuss the situation in our management meeting,” the spokesman said.
