Job Seeker - Murdered
Source: Sina.com, Caixin.com, 163.com,
In May 2017, Li Wenxing (a college graduate temporarily living in Beijing) was searching for an IT job through BOSS recruitment platform (One of the most successful local recruitment networks in China).
Recruitment process
15th May, Li Wenxing sent his resume to a company called "Beijing Branch Blue Software Systems Co., Ltd.) using BOSS recruitment platform.
18th May, the company HR personnel Xue Tingting had a phone interview with Li Wenxing and asked several professional questions related to Java and software development, Li answered the questions accurately.
19th May, Li Wenxing received a job offer through a QQ mailbox, not from the company's corporate mailbox. He was requested to join the job on 20th May In Tianjin Binhai High-tech Zone Software Park.
Joining the new job
The actual job offer from QQ email address
20th May, Li Wenxing went to Tianjin to start the job. At 14:41 pm, he sent a geographical location to his friends using mobile sharing from Tianjin Jinghai District.
Between May to July, Li Wenxing continued to contact his family and friends through the mobile, but his behavior was unusual.
He had a cold tone many times
He didn't reply to questions.
He refused to visit his sister in Tianjin saying that he went to Shijiazhuang city on a business trip.
Between May 25th - June 8th, he asked three times to borrow money through Alipay transfer.
On June 28th, he said he lost his mobile and through he called a friend to ask for his parent's phone number.
On July 8th, he called his mother and said: "Whoever call you asking for money, never give them."
Tragedy ending
The place where Li Weinxing's body was found
July 14, Li Wenxing's body was found in Tianjin Jinghai District, the cause of death is still under investigation.
Beijing Branch Blue Software Systems Co., Ltd. confirmed that the matter has nothing to do with the company, "Xue Tingting" is not the company's employee, and all company e-mails are sent through the enterprise mailbox, not through QQ.
According to the existing clues, it is certain that Li Wenxing suffered a network recruitment scam through an illegal pyramid marketing organization.
Why should you worry?
Li Wenxing incident caused a broad range of social concern all over China, in fact, many have encountered similar network recruitment scam, even in the same area in Tianjin, but through a timely alert, they survived. The safety of online job hunting (especially offsite) is worrying.
Looking for a job inside a WeChat group and sharing your resume and contact info among hundreds of strangers could carry a huge risk.
How to find a job, safely?
Make sure the recruiter uses a corporate email address, be careful if not.
When you add a stranger 'recruiter' to your private WeChat, hide your moments.
Investigate the recruiting company background.
Don't throw your resume inside social media groups of strangers, or at least share a resume that has 'technical skills', without contact/private information (Use the Anonymous Resume feature in JobTube App).
Use job platforms for recruitment, avoid using non-recruitment social media tools like WhatsApp, Wechat,..etc.
Use Social Media Groups to investigate about recruiters and new job offers.
In JobTube, we strive to verify every recruiter posting under our WeChat Groups, but eventually there is a risk of someone adding you privately and telling you that they are a recruiter or else. So we encourage, or even insist on, using JobTube App. While inside the App, we keep records of the recruitment process and information exchanged. All data is encoded and stored to ensure the safety and privacy of the hiring process, if fraud happened, data can be decoded and it's fully traceable.
Remember that even legal companies can commit fraud. They can offer you $$$$$ salary in the job offer, but that salary might get reduced once you actually arrive, or you might not get all the conditions originally given in the original job offer.
The 'fake' recruiter in Li Wenxing's case asked to use QQ to move the recruitment communication outside of the job platform, and hence they could decrease traceability of the case.
Li Weinxing's case is still under investigation, several suspects have been detained. We will send new updates of the case in future posts.
If you have any information or questions please leave a comment below.