How Russian job scams exploit South African women amid rising unemployment

Concern is mounting over alleged Russian job scams and South African influencers promoting the Alabuga Start programme. 

As unemployment continues to rise among youth in South Africa, the need to grasp opportunities is a risk youth take to ensure they have food on the table. 

This comes after influencers, such as social media star and DJ Cyan Boujee, travelled to Russia for a paid influencer campaign and shared a video documenting the trip over the weekend. Her content highlighted aspects of Alabuga’s operations.

​According to the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, in October 2024, the Associated Press reported that women from Africa, largely Central and East African countries, were recruited via social media to work in a factory in Russia assembling drones to be launched in Ukraine.

Anti-gender-based violence organisation, Ilitha Labanthu, has condemned the exploitative job scams targeting young women in South Africa. 

The organisation’s spokesperson, Siyabulela Monakali, said these scams not only deceive women with false promises of lucrative opportunities but also expose them to the grave dangers of trafficking, sexual exploitation, and other forms of gender-based violence. 

“These fraudulent schemes thrive because scammers are acutely aware of the susceptibility of young women, who face a combination of socio-economic hardships and systemic inequalities. South Africa’s unemployment crisis has created fertile ground for such exploitation, with the official unemployment rate for young people aged 15 to 34 standing at 46.1%. When discouraged job seekers who have stopped looking for work are included, this figure rises to a devastating 62.1%. 

“Added to this are the 8.9 million young people who are classified as NEET, not in employment, education, or training. These grim realities illustrate the desperation many young women face and explain why they are so easily targeted by false promises of jobs, financial stability, and opportunities abroad,” Monakali said. 

He said exploiters prey on this desperation, crafting illusions of financial security, international travel, and glamorous lifestyles, while concealing the dangers that lie beneath. 

“In a world where social media influencers hold such significant impact, the threat is further compounded, as young women are often misled by individuals who promote these schemes under the guise of aspiration and success. Scammers deliberately exploit the influence of social media influencers, knowing how deeply impactful they are on young people, particularly young women. This makes it even more urgent that we educate the youth, particularly young women, to be vigilant against such manipulative schemes and to critically question the narratives that are sold to them in digital spaces,” Monakali said

He added that this alarming trend is also indicative of the dire state of the socio-economic situation in South Africa, and it ought to serve as an alarm bell to both government and the private sector to play their part in growing our economy and creating job opportunities for young people. 

The South African Police Service (SAPS) classifies trafficking in persons as a global crime trend where children, women, and men are taken from their countries to areas, to a destination country or destination area by force or being pressured or tricked into a situation to be exploited. 

How are victims of trafficking in persons exploited?

• Sex trafficking, which includes anything within the sex industry (prostitution, pornography, stripping or exotic dancing, touch-and-peep shows, and escort services) that is forced.
• Trafficking for non-commercial sex purposes, which may include early marriage, forced marriage, arranged marriage, compensation marriage, transactional marriage, temporary marriage or marriage for childbearing.
• Maternity trafficking is forced impregnation with the intent to exploit or sell the child once he or she is born.
• Illegal adoptions with the intent to exploit or sell the child.
• Forced labour and child labour, which may include domestic servitude, sweatshops, agricultural labour, construction labour or enforced enrolment in an armed force.
• Organ and body part trafficking, which is the forced removal and illegal sale of organs and body parts.
• Forced begging and participation in criminal activities.

Why do trafficking in persons victims remain in their situation?

• Physical entrapment – the victims are physically trapped by restricting their movement, taking their documents and money.
• Psychological and emotional entrapment – intimidation through violence and fear; intimidation through shame, threats of arrest, deportation and imprisonment; blackmailing the victim’s family members; starvation, degradation and isolation.

What are the warning signs of trafficking in persons?

• Appearing malnourished
• Showing signs of physical injuries and abuse
• Avoiding eye contact, social interaction, and authority figures/law enforcement
• Seeming to adhere to scripted or rehearsed responses in social interaction
• Seeming to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol, with a person appearing to control where they go and which answers for them, not allowing them to speak for themselves
• Lacking official identification documents
• Appearing destitute/lacking personal possessions
• Security measures that appear to keep people inside an establishment - barbed wire inside of a fence, bars covering the insides of windows
• Not allowing people to go out in public alone or speak for themselves

robin.francke@iol.co.za

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