ILSI Launches Awareness Campaign Against Recruitment Fraud

ILSI has launched a public awareness campaign warning prospective migrant workers and their families about common recruitment scams, following a rise in reported cases of fraudulent job offers and fee-charging intermediaries targeting Nepali workers.

What the campaign covers

The campaign highlights several scam patterns documented through ILSI's helpline and community outreach network, including individuals falsely claiming to be ILSI-registered agents in order to collect fees, cloned job-offer letters circulated on social media for destinations with little genuine recruitment activity, "visa guarantee" schemes charging large upfront fees for Gulf placements, and fraudulent claims of guaranteed selection for Korea's EPS scheme in exchange for payment.

"These scams succeed because they exploit hope and urgency," said Laura Fitzgerald-Bennett, ILSI's Head of Communications. "Our campaign is deliberately simple: check before you pay, and check using ILSI's own verification tools rather than trusting a claim on its own."

Verification tools

The campaign directs workers to ILSI's verify-agent tool, which allows anyone to check whether a recruiter claiming ILSI affiliation is genuinely registered, and to the organisation's published scam alerts page, which is updated as new fraud patterns are documented. Community outreach sessions delivered alongside pre-departure orientation in Nepal now include a dedicated segment on recognising recruitment fraud.

ILSI is also encouraging workers and family members who encounter a suspected scam to report it through the organisation's report-recruiter form, which feeds directly into the scam alerts published on this website and, where appropriate, referral to the relevant authorities.