SEC warns vs telemarketing jobs

As the job-hunting season intensifies in the next few months, the Securities and Exchange Commission has warned prospective applicants, particularly fresh college graduates, to be wary of companies offering telemarketing or networking jobs.

SEC chairman Lilia Bautista said they were able to crack down on a number of foreign-based companies that have illegally set up operations in the country and were able to hire young people who acted as telemarketers for fraudulent transactions, mainly in financial services such as stock and currency trading.

"Most of the time, these young recruits are lured by claims of earning thousands of dollars from the company without knowing they will be doing something illegal," she said.

Bautista said that at the outset, advertisements or claims that firms can guarantee their workers profits or earnings in their jobs are violative of the Securities Regulation code.

The so-called telemarketing firms use information technology in their operations, selling foreign stocks and even domestic shares or local securities to unsuspecting clients via the Internet.

Just last month, local authorities clamped down on Mendez Prior Europe, registered as a representative office for an investment consultancy company based in the Ukraine Republic, for selling bogus foreign and Philippine stocks worldwide.

Most of the 14 Mendez Prior employees caught were British and the rest from Canada and the Czech Republic. Mainly in their 20s and early 30s, these foreigners were reportedly running their telemarketing operations here and were working without proper permits.

However, it was not known how extensive their telemarketing operations are, or how many locals they employed for the illegal scheme.

The closure of Mendez Prior’s business followed a similar move by the SEC last year, pinning down four management consultancy companies (Dukes and Co. Inc., Saxon and Swift Inc., Knowle and Sachs Inc. and Miller and Sons Securities Management) for engaging in unauthorized securities trading.