Job Centre Plus sponsored pyramid scam

BBC Radio 4's "You and Yours" has exposed a deception of the unemployed which involved advertising non-existent jobs in newspapers and employment web-sites, including that of Job Centre Plus.

The firm pretended to be a national company expanding into all regions of the countries. Applicants were initially told that they had been accepted to take up a post in the new office local to them, then informed that the job was no longer available. Instead, they could work from home in return for paying a fee for training. The training consisted of a mailed set of instructions on how to draw further applicants into the scheme.

The firm concerned has had its listing on the government site withdrawn, but the "You and Yours" team demonstrated how easy it was to get on the DWP's approved employer list without undergoing any practical check.

No doubt these pseudo-jobs are included in the DWP's statistics, thus making the job availability figures look better than they are.