In August, Lancelot Ajayi (not real name), a Lagos State-based job seeker, thought he had struck gold when he came across a recruitment advert from The African Coalition of Private Enterprises (Africope), a supposed legitimate job recruitment company based in East Africa.
Ajayi got to know about the company via LinkedIn, a business and employment-focused social media platform.
While applying for the position of customer care officer, which Africope had promised would fetch Ajayi a $600 salary payment per month, the company also told the job seeker that it was working in collaboration with an outfit called Transcript Africa.
Transcript Africa, on the other hand, claimed to be in the business of seamlessly delivering applicants’ transcripts directly from the tertiary institutions they graduated from to organisations and potential employers who needed their skills.
The application process began in a seemingly professional manner with Ajayi receiving an invitation from Africope for an online assessment exercise after he had applied.
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The online assessment itself was rigorous and time-consuming, and this convinced Ajayi that he was indeed dealing with a legitimate company.
Whatever the company requested, Ajayi provided. He just could not wait to start earning salaries in dollars.
Days after completing the online assessment, Ajayi was very thrilled when he received a congratulatory message from Africope on August 26, informing him that he had passed and was moving on to the next stage.
However, things took a suspicious turn when the job seeker was asked to submit his original certificates and other credentials for vetting. In addition, Africope also asked him to pay N19,700 to Transcript Africa so that his university transcript could be sent to them.
Ajayi never took a moment to review his dealings with Africope. He went all in because he desperately needed the job and the money.
‘I PAID THE FEE WITHOUT HESITATION’
In an interview with FIJ on Monday, Ajayi said he paid the N19,700 fee Africope asked him to pay to Transcript Africa without thinking twice.
“I paid the fee without hesitation. I was desperate to get the job,” Ajayi said.
“Afterwards I received an email notification from Transcript Africa that my payment had been received and that my transcript request was being processed.
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“A day later, I mean on August 27, Transcript Africa sent me an email, stating that the transcript was expected to be delivered to Africope on or before September 8.
“They were so organised and professional in their responses and you absolutely would think Africope was indeed a legitimate organisation.”
On August 28, however, Ajayi received a strange email from Transcript Africa.
TRANSCRIPT AFRICA SENDS AN EMAIL DISSOCIATING ITSELF FROM AFRICOPE
“August 28, I received a shocking email from Transcript Africa, informing me that they had terminated the agreement they had with Africope,” Ajayi told FIJ.
“They added that they were dissociating themselves from all business relations and transactions that had to do with Africope.
“They also made a promise that they would make a refund to all affected applicants, but as we speak, they have not done so.”
The incident then prompted Ajayi to run a background check on Africope’s operations. This led him to some claims that the East African company was indeed fraudulent in nature.
“It was when I did a few checks that I came in contact with the many complaints people had written against the two companies,” said Ajayi.
“Africope in particular had actually defrauded a lot of people. This was when I knew I had been scammed.
“Through their job recruitment offers, they had as a matter of fact made many Nigerian job seekers pay the same N19,700 to Transcript Africa.”
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ADDITIONAL DISCOVERY
From the reviews that other affected applicants had made about both Africope and Transcript Africa, one particular applicant claimed that “both organisations’ websites were being hosted by the same server spaceship”.
This prompted FIJ to consult a web designer, who asked not to be named, on the issue.
One of the important questions FIJ asked the web designer had to do with the two entities’ websites sharing the same Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) identification details.
The IANA is a standards organisation that oversees global IP address allocation, autonomous system number allocation and other Internet Protocol-related symbols and internet numbers.
“Because they are both on the same registrar, which is Spaceship Inc., they are meant to have the same IANA ID,” the web designer said.
“The two domains were bought from the same registrar, but they have no clear connection beyond that.
“Africope uses privacy protection to hide its ownership details, while Transcript Africa is publicly associated with a domain in Cape Town, South Africa.
“They were registered at different times, Africope in December 2023 and Transcript Africa in March 2024. They are also unrelated in terms of hosting and possible ownership.
“The IANA ID is not specific to the domains themselves but to the company that registered them.
“So, the fact that they share the same IANA ID does not automatically indicate a connection between the domains themselves — it simply means they were registered through the same company.
“From the checks I have made on both websites, nothing else supports the applicant’s claims that they are being run by the same person or persons.”
FURTHER CHECKS BY FIJ
FIJ decided to take things further on the matter by checking whether Transcript Africa, being a company domiciled in Nigeria, was at least duly registered on the Corporate Affairs Commission’s (CAC) database.
The result showed Transcript Africa was registered as a BUSINESS on the portal, not as a COMPANY.
AFRICOPE AND TRANSCRIPT AFRICA YET TO RESPOND TO FIJ’S EMAILS
On Monday evening, FIJ sent emails to Africope for a reaction to the claims of fraud levelled against it by the aggrieved applicants, but it had not been responded to at press time.
In Transcript Africa’s case, an automated response dissociating itself from the activities of Africope was the only response FIJ received from it on the issue. No formal response had been received from the company on the matter at press time.
INFERENCES
While no particular wrongdoing can be attributed to Transcript Africa, the same cannot be said of Africope.
So far, Africope is not known to have any physical address or office location, even in East Africa.
It also does not have an easily verifiable online presence apart from a website ridden with vague information.
The organisation told applicants to pay the N19,700 for transcripts processing rather too hastily.
Although Transcript Africa has not specifically stated the real reasons it decided to dissociate itself from further business dealings involving Africope, the fact that it referenced “receiving concerning information regarding Africope’s operations” cannot be ignored.
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Not a single employee Africope had successfully recruited could be found online. In the same vein, testaments from employees who had been successfully recruited by Africope in the past could also not be found anywhere.
Beyond the fact that Africope could be possible job scammers and fraudsters, applicants also have to worry about identity theft as most of them had submitted their personal details to the organisation while applying for jobs.
Despite the fact that Transcript Africa cannot be said to be guilty of any wrongdoing at the moment, the company may also soon be guilty of fraud if the refunds it promised to make to all applicants involved in the matter are not effected on time.
It is also important to note that Africope’s website www.africope.org is still very much active.
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