ASA slams job board for placing fake ads
The Advertising Standards Authority has ruled three job adverts placed by uk.justjobs.io it suspects were fake should not appear again in their current form.
The ASA revealed this morning their ruling related to three banner ads for uk.justjobs.io seen on YouTube and www.independent.co.uk.
The first banner ad seen on YouTube on 15 December 2018 stated ‘TESCO is hiring!’ using the font and colours normally used by Tesco. Further text stated ‘Starting from £23-£47/hr’ followed by an ‘Apply Now’ button. Further text stated ‘£23-47/hr Jobs’ followed by the Just Jobs website address and a ‘VISIT SITE’ button.
This was followed by a second banner ad seen on 22 December 2018, which stated ‘Royal Mail is hiring!’ using the font and colours normally used by Royal Mail. Further text stated ‘Starting from £15-23/hr’ followed by an ‘Apply Now’ button. Further text stated ‘Royal Mail is Hiring Now’ followed by another ‘Apply Now’ button.
A third banner ad seen on www.independent.co.uk on 14 and 19 January 2019 contained identical text and information, plus additional text, which stated ‘Hiring Now – No Experience Required – Full Time & Part Time Jobs’.
In its investigations the ASA noted there was no registered legal entity behind the website uk.justjobs.io, while the registrant of the website had used a domain privacy service to set up the website, which concealed their identity. The ASA added it was concerned by justjob.io’s lack of response when contacted and reminded them of their responsibility to respond promptly to its enquiries and told them to do so in future.
In its ruling the ASA said it considered consumers would understand from the ads that the named businesses were actively recruiting for the stated positions at the stated rates, and that clicking on the ‘APPLY NOW’ or ‘VISIT SITE’ buttons would allow users to begin the application process. As they had not seen evidence that the advertised vacancies were genuine, they concluded that the ads were likely to mislead and therefore ruled the ads were misleading.
Consequently, the ASA ruled the ads must not appear again in their current form, while justjobs.io was told it must ensure it did not advertise vacancies that were not genuine in future with the matter referred to the Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP) compliance team.
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