Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology commerce student Alex said he had applied for two jobs in the past couple of months where business owners had asked for money in exchange for a full-time position.

He had seen the jobs advertised in The Press and in Chinese and Korean-language newspapers.

The advertisements were vague about the job position, but said fluency in Mandarin or Korean was essential and gave only a post office box number to send CVs to.

Alex went through a long interview process but at the end was told there were no positions available unless he paid a fee of $10,000.

"At the beginning it seemed to be quite a formal thing, but at the end they just asked if you will give them some money to get a job offer," he said.

"Their reasons are that `you are a graduate and if I put you in here I'm taking a risk', and because you are a risk you need to pay them money."

He said one interview had been in a coffee shop but others were at an office in town. The interviewers were all of Asian descent.

"The company seemed to exist but they don't have much business there. It's basically just a way for them to make money from international students," he said.

Foreign students were being targeted because they often had difficulty getting a job after graduating and had just nine months to find employment before having to leave the country, Alex said.

He had heard of students who had paid a company but did not get a job. When they went to complain, they found the business had disappeared or gone bankrupt.

"Lots of international students struggle to get a job and are seeking an easy way to get one," Alex said.

"It was very attractive because linguistics is one of our strengths, so it does appeal, especially after applying for 30 or 40 jobs and getting nothing back."

Alex said he was now cautious of job offers that seemed to be targeting people of Asian descent.

Under the Wages Protection Act it is illegal for an employer to "seek or receive any premium in respect of the employment of any person".

Department of Labour investigations manager Carl Manning said the department had encountered cases such as Alex's before.

"This kind of inducement should not be happening and the department encourages people with information to make contact, even if it's just for an anonymous discussion around how best to resolve the situation," he said.

Job offers for skilled migrant applicants were investigated and if inquiries showed a job was secured through payment, the matter would be taken further, he said.

The department was working to raise awareness of the problem among international students by hosting meetings at tertiary institutions explaining what to do if students were put in this situation.

"Where we are made aware of individual cases, the department will intervene. However, we are largely reliant on individuals coming forward and telling us about their experiences," Manning said.

The department investigated four companies for making false job offers last year and is currently investigating a company for requesting money for a job that did not exist.

Manning said that because the investigation was under way, it was not appropriate to comment in detail.

Anecdotal evidence suggested $10,000 was the going rate for a job offer, he said.

Christchurch Chinese Students and Scholars' Association president Jerry Dai said he had heard of businesses offering fake job positions.

Employers were taking advantage of international students' wish to work in New Zealand, he said.

Dai said the Government needed to look into the issue as an overall problem rather than on a case-by-case basis.

"I encourage international students to look for jobs with their true credentials and never pay for a fake job as that would encourage more people to seek these kinds of illegal profits," he said.

Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/4204038a11.html