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WhatsApp and Phone Number Fraud Notice

Recently fraudsters have discovered a new scam: The scammers impersonate a recruiter for the purpose of asking for personal information. Many recruitment agencies have been the victim of this new scam, including Zensho. These scammers reach out to potential victims via apps like WhatsApp claiming to have information about jobs. So far the scammers have not used the names of actual Zensho recruiters, so it has been easy to recognize the fraud.

Here is an example of a fraudulent text via WhatsApp (note that we don’t have a recruiter named Yuri and Zensho did not send this message):

“Hi, I’m Yuri from Zensho Agency. Our clients in Japan are urgently looking for staff. May I share some details to you?”

Zensho recruiters don’t use WhatsApp to contact anyone for the first time. If you receive something like this from someone claiming to be us (or any other agency), please do not respond.

We have reported this fraudulent activity to the authorities. If you suspect you have been contacted by a scammer, please follow the steps below:

  • Do not give them your personal details.
  • Stop speaking with the scammer immediately.
  • Report the scammer to ScamWatch.
  • Report the scammer to the platform on which they have contacted you as a scam.
  • Block the contact.

Rest assured that Zensho doesn’t use these tactics so if you receive a request like this, it’s definitely fraudulent.

Recruitment license number (Japan): 13 – ユ – 302223