LMU warns women to be vigilant after conman demand nude show for space at seasonal work

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A man who posed under a fake FB profile name claiming to work at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and an agent of a recruiting company has demanded that women wishing to be approved into the company he works for must show their breast to him before they are included in the final list to work in Australia.

But the Labour Mobility Unit in a strongly worded statement in response to our enquiry on the issue said: “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and External Trade has distanced itself from the actions of the said person or from any individuals posing as Ministry staff seeking favours in order to facilitate easy access to the Labour Mobility Unit (LMU) Work Ready Pool or securing work abroad.”

SBMOnline has evidence of the thread of conversation where the man had with one woman who had also applied for seasonal work since last year. The woman had agreed to provide the chats which were also passed on to the Foreign Affairs confessing that many women had also fallen victims to the person.

So how does it work? The man posed under an account with the name of Peter Wahaku claimed to work at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as a local agent here fora foreign recruitment company. However, this was found to be fake as well. He had since early this week deleted the account. Interestingly, Peter then had links or tags to his alleged boss Stehps Andrew whom he claimed to be recruiting workers from Solomon Islands. Often in his posts, Stephs would highlight how many workers they needed from Solomon Islands and stressed that only Peter was the agent for anybody wishing to apply from the Solomons. However, Stehps also this week deleted the account as the case was reported and investigations were stepped up.

Some of the women who gotten in contact with the two accounts believed they were owned by the same person.

Based on the chats, Peter would use forceful language and demanded in that women show their breast to him before he added them on the list.

One of the women speaking exclusively to SBMOnline stated that Peter had relentlessly called her without stopping. However, when she answered the video call she was shocked to see a naked male exposing his private part. SBMOnline had also seen the image.

The women said they had tracked him but he often refused to show hi face.

In its response, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs says it understands that with the current recruitment drive, certain individuals will be looking to capitalize on the situation for their own gains.

“We also know that some of these individuals are posing as staff of the Ministry when conducting their dealings. The Ministry has received evidence of an individual falsely posing as a Ministry staff to try and exploit others in the public, especially females who are interested in the Labour Mobility schemes. This is almost the same as the previously reported incident on the Solomon Star in December 2022. The Ministry wishes to remind the public that its staff are doing their work professionally and condemns the actions of these individuals who taint the name of the LMU staff and discourage the public from easily falling for such lies/schemes.”

It continued: “We will always reiterate that recruitment criteria are straightforward and publicized whenever recruitment drives are launched. Labour Mobility Unit officials carrying out the screening are merely facilitating and capturing as much information on each candidate to develop his/her profile.”

They explained that the selection of preferred candidates is made by “Approved Employers” – AE or Farmers in Australia and that LMU officials will only facilitate mobilization, once selection is made by AEs.

The current recruitment drive is done using online/email submissions. It will end this Friday 10^th March at 4:30pm.

News@SBMOnline2023