Be wary of unsolicited job offers in other countries which arrive through e-mail. If soliciting the job yourself through a legitimate site, pay attention to the wording in e-mails as most companies will try to use the best grammar and spelling possible and will not use slang words. Watch the domain from which the correspondence is sent. Large companies that hire foreigners do not use free e-mail providers such as yahoo or hotmail, but rather their own personal domain names. Check and see whether the e-mail has been sent to multiple users, or if the recipient of the e-mail is the same as the sender, this implies that the e-mail has been sent to hundreds or thousands of users and not just you.

Check a genuine e-mail address/domain name by extracting the text after the “@” sign, and adding “www.” as a prefix and test the address in your browser. If genuine it should show the web site of the company the person is supposed to belong to. Check for telephone and fax numbers and contact the company directly to ensure the person actually works for them.

It is important to note that genuine employers or agencies will never ask for money for visa processing or travel costs. They will either absorb the costs themselves or deduct from your salary once you start the job. You may be required to provide your own air fares, but you should do this through your means unless they are willing to pay for the costs themselves. Be aware that travelling and meeting with these individuals can be dangerous and it is not advisable to have them pick you up at the airport or meet you at a hotel, nor is it advisable to allow them to accommodate you anywhere but a public hotel in major city. Decline any offer to stay with them while there, and insist instead to be allowed to book your own accommodations. Decline to go anywhere with them, and instead opt for meeting them at the desired location, or a more public location at your own discretion. Do not meet with them in private, unless it is at an office in a public business plaza in a major business or industrial center or a company headquarters building. Treat this employment much the same as you would in your own home nation where you would not interact with an employer when seeking employment outside of a business environment. If you are asked to meet in an area that seems suspiscious to you, do not proceed and decline to meet them unless it is in a public, or more formal location as there is the risk of kidnapping. If you are threatened in any way, immediately seek help from the local authorities.

Always ask for and verify all details for the company you are looking to work with including phone, fax and the main address of the business, or corporation. This should also be done for any third party employment agencies who might be using real information stolen from a real company. These details can usually be verified through international directory inquiries or the local Chamber of Commerce of the city it is located in, if the given information is difficult to verify, incorrect, suspicious (such as the phone number for a company based in Dubai having a country calling code in Nigeria), or the agent is reluctant to give these details, it is best to report them to authorities or disregard them entirely.

Lastly, only consider working for International Companies, especially in West Africa. Always make sure to contact the head office, or an office outside of the host country, to confirm the identity of the person that has contacted you.