Shanghai Disneyland is expected to open in spring of 2016. (Photo : Reuters)
The Shanghai police have detained there suspects reportedly involved in a fraudulent job recruitment that duped about 200 applicants, reported the South China Morning Post.
The victims purportedly paid 3 million yuan to the suspects who promised to give them a job at Shanghai Disneyland. One of the three scammers pretended to be a senior recruitment agent at Disney to woo applicants.
Job advertisements were posted on WeChat, the suspect confessed in an interview.
Those who responded to the ad were asked to give a "finder's fee to a broker in return for helping them secure employment at Shanghai Disneyland," told the SCMP.
Shortlisted applicants were assured that they would be trained for 20 days in the Guangdong Province to prepare them for the job. Victims said that the slots they applied for were for managerial positions at the famous amusement park.
However, it turned out that the jobs were either non-existent or not matched to the original advertisement.
"The victims later found out that they had been offered only low-level jobs, instead of the management position for which they had applied," revealed the SCMP report.
A cab driver was the first victim to report the dubious transaction to the police. According to the Xinhua News Agency, the driver had to quit his existing work and pay 13,000 yuan to the scammers in hopes of landing a better job at Disney.
He discovered eventually that the job he was applying for was a janitorial position and not the managerial post originally offered to him.
The Shanghai police warned the public to exercise caution when transacting with employers and job recruiters, especially those carried out only on social media.
The Shanghai theme park is set to open in June. Tickets for its opening were snapped up easily minutes after their release in March.
