More than 600 people, mostly recent college graduates, were swindled out of tens of thousands of yuan in an employment scam, prompting China's Ministry of Public Security (MPS) to issue a warning on its website Thursday.

It tells graduates to only rely on certified agencies and job fairs when looking for employment.

According to Beijing police, a suspect produced false training agreements for a number of companies such as China Southern Airlines Co. Ltd.. Graduates had to pay at least 13,000 yuan (1,900 US dollars) as training fees before being promised a job. The suspect then made off with the money.

MPS said the suspect had placed ads for his/her service in newspapers and on websites. It is unclear if the suspect has been caught.

This isn't the only case of crimes targeting desperate job-seeking graduates.

On Thursday, The Beijing News reported that a man, surnamed Liu, was arrested Wednesday after impersonating an airline employee in charge of recruiting hostesses. He allegedly brought applicants to hotels to conduct medical checks but then raped them.

The newspaper said eight female graduates were his victims between June to December 2008.

China's college graduates are desperate to find jobs, and therefore more vulnerable to scams, as millions of workers have been laid off as a result of the global financial crisis. China's urban unemployment rate was 4.2 percent at the end of 2008, up 0.2 percent year-on-year. It was estimated to hit 4.6 in 2009.

Around 1.5 million graduates failed to land jobs last year, and to compound the problem, there will be six million more graduates this year, according to the Chinese Academy of Social Science.

(Xinhua News Agency February 12, 2009)