Job scam quick guide: it's a scam if...

  • they want you to collect and forward money in any way (a "money mule" job). You'll wind up engaged in money laundering, personally defrauded via expertly forged cheques, money orders, etc, or defrauding someone else who pays for goods that never arrive.
  • they want you to receive packages and reship them somewhere else. The goods will have been obtained fraudulently, and they're just using you to make the shipping address appear local. You will be aiding fraud.
  • they want up-front payment (either to them or someone else) of any sort for anything before you can get the job. This is advance fee fraud: there is no job -- it's just a big con to extract money from you.
  • they want you to buy any kind of "membership" or "kit" in order to start. Forget it -- it's not a real job at all: they're trying to sell you something, and they're probably making a bunch of other false claims about it if they're pitching it as a "job".
  • it's a job offer, and it's spam. There are LOTS of these scams about, as you can see.

Monday, October 02, 2006

apply@online-carrer.com

Description

This spam is highly nondescript, and does not specify a company name. It does name-drop several famous online identities (eBay, Amazon, Yahoo!), but it's not clear that they are relevant in any way. The touchstone in this particular case is the sentence, "You will also be keeping 8% commission from every payment received from a client." This identifies the scam as a money mule scam.

The only other reliable identifying feature is the contact address of "apply@online-carrer.com". The domain "online-carrer.com" (note spelling of "carrer") was registered for one year on 2006-09-28.

   Domain Name: ONLINE-CARRER.COM
   Registrar: ONLINE SAS
   Whois Server: whois.bookmyname.com
   Referral URL: http://www.bookmyname.com
   Name Server: NSB.BOOKMYNAME.COM
   Name Server: NSA.BOOKMYNAME.COM
   Status: ACTIVE
   EPP Status: ok
   Updated Date: 28-Sep-2006
   Creation Date: 28-Sep-2006
   Expiration Date: 28-Sep-2007

The provided telephone number "+1 (917) 591-7848" has been used in a number of other similar scams distributed via email, as a Google search for it demonstrates. I have no idea whether the phone number is actually related to the scammer in any way, however: assume that it belongs to an innocent third party unless you find evidence to the contrary. It is not the habit of scammers to make themselves easy to trace. The same number is used in the WHOIS details for the domain name registration above.

The Spam

Date: Sun, 01 Oct 2006 15:41:04 -0700
From: "Vilma Mcknight" [address redacted]
To: [address redacted]
Subject: JOB: Start earning right now!

Highly Paid Secondary Job


We are writing you on behalf well-known company founded in USA which main field of operation is financial services such as escrow services for buyers and sellers on online auctions worldwide, offered both on the closed commercial auctions (stock sales, business sale, etc) with the limited number of buyers and public online auctions such as ebay.com, amazon.com, yahoo.com etc.

This is a part time position. Your schedule will be flexible. You will need to spend on average 1-2 hours per day, Monday-Friday.

This is a work at home position. All communication will be online.

Requirements: You need to have Internet access and email.

No entrance fees or any fees at all are required. All fees related to this employment are covered by the company.

A position within our company on a trial period for one month starting from the beginning of the work will be offered to the successful applicants. During this trial period you will be receiving training and online support while working and being paid. Employees on a one month trial period are evaluated at least one week prior to the end of their trial period. The supervisor can recommend termination, during the trial period. At the completion of the trial period, the supervisor can recommend continued employment, extension of trial period, or termination.

During the trial period you will be paid 1000 EUR per month. You will also be keeping 8% commission from every payment received from a client. With the current volume of clients on average your overall income will add up to 1,800EUR per month. After the trial period your base salary will go up to 1,500 EUR per month, plus 8% commission.

After the trial period you may ask for additional hours or proceed full-time.

If you are interested in our offer and would like to know more please send the filled form to our email : apply@online-carrer.com Our human resources managers will contact you in 48 hours.

Full Name:
Country:
Age (or DOB):
Primary phone number:
Best time to call you:

Thank You,

Permission Settings

If you feel you received this message
in error or do not wish to receive future messages, please reply to this message
with remove in the subject heading. We will immediately update accordingly. We
apologize for any inconvenience.

New York, 14026, USA
Phone: +1 (917) 591-7848

Another instance, received Wed, 4 Oct 2006 16:03:29 +0000

From: Earle Grimes [address redacted]
To: [address redacted]
Subject: Open vacancy: Perfect offer

Dear Sir/Madam,

Large company with the well-known name, which main field of business is online investments, is looking for representatives in Australia. We are planning to open network of Australian representations in November, 2006, but we require the creation of team of representatives now.

At present we are looking for Independent Agents for representing of our interests in regions. The main duty will be to receive and process payments from our customers in Australia. The vacancy is Part-Time and it won't take much time, because you will spend only 3-4 hours per week. After the opening of official representations, Full-Time job will be offered to you out of turn.

We are ready to pay for the work adequately. The salary will depend on your work capacity and activity. The minimal salary is 1500 euro(AUD 2,500), but if you follow all our instructions, you will be able to get over 3000 euro (AUD 5,000) monthly. Please note, that salary for Full-Time job will be much more. If you are interested in our offer and would like to know more please send the filled form to our email : apply@online-carrer.com Our human resources managers will contact you in 48 hours.

Full Name:
Country:
Age (or DOB):
Primary phone number:
Best time to call you:

Thank you for attention,

Permission Settings
If you feel you received this message in error or do not wish to receive future messages, please reply to this message with remove in the subject heading. We will immediately update accordingly. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Other contact addresses seen @online-carrer.com

  • register@online-carrer.com
Posted by Spotter at 03:05

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