Railway job scam: job seekers beware

The Department of Education, Skills and Employment is warning of a scam that uses a false job to lure a job seeker into paying for fake prerequisite training in the railway industry.

The scammer impersonates an employee of a railway services business and offers guaranteed permanent positions on the condition that an online course is completed to obtain a Railway Industry Worker (RIW) Card.

The RIW card is a real condition of working in the rail industry and can only be arranged via employers. The low cost, legitimacy of the RIW card requirement, and offer of guaranteed work make job seekers, and the employment services providers supporting them, vulnerable to this scam.

The department reports that job seekers who have been caught in this scam have been told they will be guaranteed permanent positions if they complete a training course for a fee. The scammer issues an invoice for the training course and, after receiving the funds, ceases all contact.

The department encourages job seekers to watch for signs of scams, including if an offer is too good to be true, or if background research on the job finds the address or contact details are not typically associated with the business offering work.