ITF ShipBeSure: stay safe from scams

Find out more about how the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) can help you protect yourself and your colleagues onboard

The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) strongly believes that no seafarer should be charged a placement fee to find a job. Unfortunately, this kind of scam persists, especially in countries like the Philippines and India.

However, seafarers from any country can come under attack from a professional scammer and the ITF receives hundreds of reports of scams each year. The people behind the scams pose as recruitment agents or HR managers and are using more and more sophisticated ways to make the jobs they advertise look real. They use email addresses and fake websites that look and feel like the real thing and, increasingly, using direct contact methods like WhatsApp, Viber and LinkedIn.

What can I do?

Before you even start looking for a job, take a look at the ITF's ShipBeSure website. It will guide you right through the recruitment process and it may even protect you from being scammed.

ShipBeSure was set up by the ITF to identify rogue manning agents and red list them – so that seafarers do not fall victim to them. It is packed with important information and advice. It helps you to:

• identify the signs of a scam - the Scam Alerts page provides a way to check for scams, fake companies and websites
• look up a ship, inspector or union – find out more about a ship you may be considering joining, or identify the nearest ITF inspector or affiliated union who may be able to support you

To report a scam, contact the ITF at jobscam@itf.org.uk

---

Clamping down on rogue agents

Once ITF is tipped off about a rogue agent, it can act to protect seafarers. ITF inspector Arvin Peralta from Manila recently dealt with the case of a Philippines-based recruitment agency that unlawfully charged seafarers placement fees, and helped to get the company's license suspended after its illegal practices were highlighted.

Global Marine and Offshore Resources Inc was initially red listed on the itfshipbesure.org directory of manning agents – a warning to seafarers that they should avoid seeking employment through that agency. The ITF had provided incontrovertible evidence to the Filipino Department of Migrant Workers (DMW), which regulates the country's manning agency system, that four seafarers were illegally charged placement fees, placed with different employers on different ships to those described in their contracts, and some were owed more than two months' pay.

The DMW suspended Global Marine's license. The ITF hopes that its evidence will lead to a permanent ban on the agency.