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.

Saturday, October 28, 2006

EFIAS


I don't know whether there is a real organisation called "Electronic Foreign Investment Advisory Service", although I certainly doubt it. There is a real "Foreign Investment Advisory Service" (sans the "Electronic" part), and they've had impostors impersonate them with sufficient regularity that they have a caveat to that effect on their front page.

In the first instance this scam came to my attention via email, but a web search shows that there are more clones out there. The supplied image shows the website at http://www.kevintrinh.ca/jobinfo.htm, but there are others like it -- variations on a theme. The theme is "money mule", by the way. Note that the scammers have compromised someone's web-hosting account to post this page: the actual owner of the domain "kevintrinh.ca" has nothing to do with it directly, and there's no point trying to get his domain pulled. http://www.efias.net/, on the other hand, is a different story...

42 comments:

Unknown said...

I have been informed by FIAS that EFIAS is definately a scam. Fias have been trying to close them down for a long time, they are currently under investigation in Australia and America. The site probably originated in India.

Anonymous said...

This is not a scam, this is just the way we deviate from taxation (transferring money to companies of other countries is very highly taxated).

Spotter said...

Tax evasion, huh? That's a very popular line with money-mule recruiters. So you're not trying to cheat your employees, you're trying to cheat your government. Stick it to The Man, as they say. I can understand that.

Trouble is that you're lying, Mr so-called Davenport who obviously does not speak English as a first language despite the anglo name. I have never seen a real job where the primary task was to shuffle money around via Western Union, but I see a dozen scams a day that do.

Just don't deal with these people, folks: it's a con, and you'll regret it.

Anonymous said...

This is a scam I signed up money was transfered to my account my account was frozen by the bank I got on the efias site for help checked again later for a message my account was no longer valid when I contacted the bank they told me these people steal money from other peoples bank accounts than put into yours, my bank account was closed by the bank I had to open another one.

Anonymous said...

I hope these assholes burn. It is definatley a scam. This is how it works. They hijack someones bank account. Then they use your bank account to deposit the money. Then make you transfer it to a Western Union account they have made with bogus details. I got my account closed as soon as the money was transfered and had to sign a stat deck the next day in order to get my account frozen and not get in trouble with the cops. The address is bogus to. 200 E. Van Buren Street,Phoenix, AZ, 85004,United States, actually belongs to a Newspaper called "Arizona Republic". All there email addresses are fake. There phone numbers are fake. The number they SMS you from is uncallable and they even called me up from a private number (some slut putting on a dodgy american accent) As for the so called Tom Davenport, go fuck yourself and learn English next time you decide to run a money laundering ring!

Anonymous said...

Yes, http://www.efias.net is a fake check/fake job mule scam website, as are their other scam websites located at http://www.efias.com and http://www.aboutfias.com, the latter 2 sites I have had killed by 4 different webhosts in the last 6 days, see here on the forum of webhosts Gnax.net who closed them down 3 times this week, including twice yesterday:

http://www.tranxactglobal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1119

This is how the scam works, it's a fake site being used in fake employment/mule scams, whereby they offer people jobs processing checks, the jobs involve cashing cheques (checks) for their clients, the victim, who thinks they have a legitimate job, cashes
the checks, keeps 5% as their commission and sends 95%
back to the scammers via Western Union, some time later, they are
informed by their banks that the checks were fraudulent, the victim then faces having their bank account frozen, facing possible arrest and imprisonment for passing fake checks and money laundering, they also have to repay the bank the full amount of the check they deposited, scammers send check for between $5000 - $10,000 in this type of scam, so the victim is left paying back the bank for a long time!


You can read this banking scam webpage where it is explained in full detail how this particular scam works:

http://www.banksafeonline.org.uk/moneymule_explained.html

Cheers,

SP.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, I forgot to mention that I have sent an abuse notification to the webhosts at abuse@galaxyvisions.com asking them to closed down http://www.efias.net

Hopefully they will be as fast to close them down a the other webhosts have been.

Cheers,

SP.

Anonymous said...

I have just been sucked into this scam, i had done 3 tranfers thinking that it was legitimate because the so called "TOM DAVENPORT" said over and over again in his site that it was all legal! Thats what i thought untill today, when i got called by the bank and told that i had done 3 unauthorized transactions and that i had to go in and sign a stat dec form so i didnt get into trouble and so i could give police permission to look through my accounts, they have told me tht i am very lucky that i will not be arressted or charged as this is the first time it has happened and that if it is to ever happen again i will most likely face prsicution (but it wont happen again becuase i wont be that stupid) I seriously hope these people get caught for what they are doing, because now i most likely have to pay all this moeny back that i have not even stolen (well not knowingly anyway) they are such scum to do this to people and i feel absolutly terrible for being any part of it!
PLEASE ANYONE DO NOT GET INVOLVED WITH THEM!

Anonymous said...

To anyone who has been scammed by www.efias.net

Please send an email to the webhosts of their domain at:

abuse@galaxyvisions.com

Tell them efias.net are scamming people and ask the hosts to close down their website. The more abuse notifications the webhosts receive, the quicker the site will be closed down!

Cheers,

SP.

Spotter said...

If they are closed down, they will start again elsewhere. There are a lot of hosting providers out there. Anyone who is thinking of complaining, please verify who is hosting the site, since it is subject to change without notice. Don't assume that the contact details mentioned above will remain relevant for long.

Anonymous said...

@ Spotter, the details are correct as posted above, I am watching these scammers very carefully, here are the Who-Is details showing they are still hosted at Galaxyvisions:

www.efias.net (whois)
title: ABOUT US
66.109.25.118, (reverse ip), ns2.zlovesche.com., Galaxyvisions Inc , abuse@galaxyvisions.com

If and when Galaxyvision close them down, they will rehost elsewhere and a new abuse notification will be sent to the new webhosts. I will be sending a reminder to Galaxyvisions tomorrow morning if efias.com is still online at that time.

I have had their www.aboutfias.com and www.efias.com site taken offline 6 times now since January 6th, they were hosted on gnax.net, they closed them, next day they rehosted efias.con on theplanet.com, I resnt my abuse notification to them and the following day theplanet.com killed them, they then moved to softlayer.com and hosted their efias.com site there, softlayer closed them down and they moved back to gnax.net, who again killed them, 4 hours after killing the site, the scammer rehosted on gnax.net again and they killed them for a 3rd time, since then, www.efias.com is still offline.

Cheers,

SP.

Spotter said...

You might also consider complaining to the domain name registrars. I applaud your efforts, but sadly I suspect that you will tire of this "whack a mole" game before they do. They're making money out of it; we aren't.

Anonymous said...

@ Spotter, I sent a complaint to the domain registrars already concerning the efias.net domain, and as far as tiring of chasing them, no chance of that anyway, trust me, I am like a dog chasing a stick, I never give up ;)

Cheers.

SP.

Anonymous said...

I have still not had a reply to my abuse notification sent to galaxyvision at abuse@galaxyvisions.com 2 days ago, so I have sent another abuse notification reminder to them, and also a fresh notification to the domain registrars at http://www.namebay.com

A complaint has also been sent to Internic/ICANN throught their site here:

http://wdprs.internic.net

Cheers,

SP.

Anonymous said...

I have not had a reply from Galaxyvisions, but www.efias.net was killed by galaxyvisions, it was not loading for a while, their name servers have changed from the one listed in the databse as Galaxyvisions:

NetRange: 66.109.16.0 - 66.109.31.255
CIDR: 66.109.16.0/20
NetName: GALAX-NETBLK-1
NetHandle: NET-66-109-16-0-1
Parent: NET-66-0-0-0-0
NetType: Direct Allocation
NameServer: NS1.GALAXYVISIONS.COM
NameServer: NS2.GALAXYVISIONS.COM


A new Who-is lookup now shows as energizedhosting.com as the new webhosts:


Domain Name: EFIAS.NET
Registrar: NAMEBAY
Whois Server: whois.namebay.com
Referral URL: http://www.namebay.com
Name Server: NS1.ENERGIZEDHOSTING.COM
Name Server: NS2.ENERGIZEDHOSTING.COM
Status: ok
Updated Date: 15-jan-2007
Creation Date: 06-mar-2006
Expiration Date: 06-mar-2008


www.efias.net
$ whois efias.net
$ dig efias.net => 205.234.132.158, NS: ns1.energizedhosting.com.
get title of page => ABOUT US
$ whois 205.234.132.158
$ whois NET-205-234-132-0-1
$ whois NET-205-234-128-0-1
205.234.132.158, (reverse ip), ns1.energizedhosting.com., HostForWeb Inc.

New abuse notification has been sent to energizedhosting.com :


Your ticket has been submitted to our Abuse department, one of the staff members will review it and reply accordingly. Listed below are details of this ticket, you will need to use the ticket key listed below to update the status of this ticket from web.

Ticket Information:
Ticket ID: APG-21283
Ticket Key: d89274e9
Subject: Known scammer hosting a fake check/fake job scam website on your servers
Department: Abuse

Anonymous said...

Oh dear, what a shame, www.efias.net is dead again, I had a chat with energizedhosting.com live support after I had reported it to them, they said it wasn't hosted with them, I pointed out it was and today the site is dead, they said they would pass all the info to their abuse team, who already had the info I sent to them anyway, either they killed the site or the registrar killed the domain, not sure which yet, looks dead, lets hope it's not just a technical blip :):

www.efias.net
$ whois efias.net (cached 16.01.07, 12:49:46)
$ dig efias.net (cached 16.01.07, 12:49:47) $ dig www.efias.net (cached 16.01.07, 01:34:21) => ns1.energizedhosting.com., couldn't resolve domain!

ns: ns1.energizedhosting.com., couldn't resolve domain!

Cheers,

SP

Anonymous said...

beware, they now have a new website. http://www.efias-au.com and they are doing the same thing. don't get fooled.

Anonymous said...

^^^^^ Cheers for posting that new url, I have sent a new abuse notification to energizedhosting.com who are again hosting the new http://www.efias-au.com domain, reports also sent to the domain registrar and Internic/ICANN.

Cheers,

SP.

Anonymous said...

I just had a chat with live support at energizedhosting.com and a couple of minutes later, the www.efias-au.com site is showing as "This Account Has Been Suspended!" :)

Cheers,

SP.

Anonymous said...

I think I have been screwed over by them. My account was frozen, but what do I do now?

Spotter said...

Get in touch with your bank.

Anonymous said...

Wow..Just as well I search!. Thanks for the information.

I cannot believe that there are that many assholes out there!!!

Spotter said...

Yes, it seems that these guys are active again under the same name, although the website has a slightly new look. The most recently seen active domain name is "efiasonline.com".

Anonymous said...

i have been sucked in to this too. they've already transferred the money and ive asked if they can give me an account to send it back to but all theyve done is increase the % for doing it. does anyone have any ideas on how to get out of this.

Spotter said...

If you receive money into your account, all you need to do is leave it alone and contact your bank. Tell them that money has been transferred into your account, and you think it's an unauthorised transaction. The banks are well familiar with the phishing/money mule problem, and they can deal with it.

If you've already withdrawn money and sent it to the scammers, you should still contact the bank, but you'll have to confess that you've been a sucker and sent money via Western Union or whatever. If you cooperate with them, they're unlikely to take any action against you, other than to take all that's left of the money back. (No 10% cut for you!)

If you don't contact the bank, you're likely to have your account frozen, since it's been involved in an unauthorised transaction. That can be a nuisance.

Anonymous said...

I just did the thing, but haven't received any money yet. Should I close my account and open a new one or tell the bank about an unauthorized transaction when it comes? Or will they keep trying to send me money with that account open?

Spotter said...

Just notify the bank of suspicious transactions. The scammers are unlikely to send you more transactions if you don't cooperate and forward the money to them. Remember: every fraudulent transaction that's found and reversed is a win for the good guys!

Anonymous said...

Well ive just told my bank and still havent touched the money thank god!!! I'd never even heard of scams like this so luckily i decided to look it up otherwise id be in a lot of strife im sure. they offered me 15% from 5 to do them the favour but no amount of money is going to make me break the law. i kept telling them that i knew their site was a scam and they continue to try and make me believe that it is legit. Dont listen to them whatever you do!!!! I've learnt my lesson and there is no way im ever applying for jobs over the net. thanks to spotter for the help it put my mind at ease and stopped me from kicking myself though i probably should for being stupid enough to be taken for a ride!! can someone do something about the new site efiasonline.com as in getting it off the net?
lovelylass26@hotmail.com

Anonymous said...

they've a new website called efiasjob.com and efiasonline.com is still operational can anyone send abuse notes to whoever the sevice providers are

Anonymous said...

HI,was gonna start doing this scam,decided to be cautious and not give bank details.found this site lucily,thanks to all.

Unknown said...

DOES ANYONE KNOW THE WEBHOST TO SEND AN E-MAIL TO TO REPORT THIS SCAM, FORTUNATELY I CAME ACCROSS ALL YOU B4 THEY HAVE WIRED MONEY IN MY ACCOUNT IM GONNA GO IN MY BANK 2MOZ AND SORT IT OUT.

ITS A GOOD JOB YOU PEEPZ ARE OUT THERE AND TO BE HONEST IF THESE SCAMFUCKS HAVE CHILDREN I HOPE THEY DIE COZ IT MIGHT FORCE THEM TO HAVE A LITTLE BIT OF COMPASSION ALTHOUGH THE LIKES OF THEM WOULD HAVE PROBABLY SOLD THEIR CHILDREN AT BIRTH TO SOME 60 YEAR OLD PAEDO LIVING IN THAILAND.

SORRY FOR MY FOUL LANGUAGE BUT ITS DISGUSTING WHAT THEY ARE DOING PLEASE NO-ONE GET FOOLED I CONSIDER MYSELF THE MOST SCEPTICAL AND I GOT REELED IN (THEIR WEBSITE IS VERY MISLEADING).

ALSO THE SICK LITTLE *UNTS HAVE A LOAD OF BULLSHIT ON HOW THEY SUPPORT AID PROGRAMS AROUND THE WORLD, THAT JUST TOPS IT FOR ME AS FAR AS WANKERS GO EXPLOITING OUR LACK OF CONCENTRATION IS ONE THING BUT EXPLOITING DYING PEOPLE TO CATCH US OFF GUARD, WELL, THE WORDS OUT OF FUCKING ORDER SPRING TO MIND

GOOD LUCK IF YOUVE BEEN REELED IN AND IF YOUR READING THIS EFIAS YOU CAN SUCK YOUR MUM!!!!!

Unknown said...

(sorry bout my previous caps locking)

just got results from a who.is lookup and found their hosted by godaddy.com heres a link:

http://registrar.godaddy.com

im gonna e-mail or phone and persist that they shut down that site, would it be illegal if they refused as there is obvious proof this site is a scam.

Jon

Anonymous said...

weve had them closed down but their new webhost is joker.com they is runnin under the name efiasonline.org with joker.com. Ive sent an e-mail so they should be gettin moved along by tonight, i wonder who will be hosting them next but dont worry ill be on the lookout for the little rats!!

Anonymous said...

Hey there guys,
I was looking into this and stupidly signed up before finding this site,

Have contacted my bank and they have advised me to wait till a transaction has been processed and they will look further into it.

Now just to let you know that when i first signed up it was at a different site, in the last 24 hours they have sent me a couple of messages stating that the site is down and now they are operating from another.

Here is the message they sent:

Dear .................,

Attention, please! Our old sites www.efiasonline.COM and www.efiasonline.ORG are not available any more!
Please, refer to our new site only http://www.efiasonline.NET.
All your data has been saved, please, make sure everything is ok.


Best regards,

Samantha Hamilton, Executive Manager

Just thought i would update whatever information i could to you guys as you are doing your best to shut them down.

Thanks Kindly

Anonymous said...

Ok it is me again,

they sent me a message asking why the transaction hasn't been processed and i messaged back stating the truth that it hasn't hit my account yet.

Anyway all of a sudden i have been deleted from there system. LMAO

here is the new details for there site.

Domain Name : EFIASONLINE.NET
Created On : 2007-05-15
Expiration Date : 2008-05-15
Status : ACTIVE
Registrant Name : Virginia Legg
Registrant Street1 : 244 Hauser road
Registrant City : Pinnacle
Registrant State/Province : US
Registrant Postal Code : 27043
Registrant Country : US
Admin Name : Virginia Legg
Admin Street1 : 244 Hauser road
Admin City : Pinnacle
Admin State/Province : NC
Admin Postal Code : 27043
Admin Country : US
Admin Phone : +1.3363252857
Admin Email : virginia@efiasworks.com
Tech Name : Virginia Legg
Tech Street1 : 244 Hauser road
Tech City : Pinnacle
Tech State/Province : NC
Tech Postal Code : 27043
Tech Country : US
Tech Phone : +1.3363252857
Tech Email : virginia@efiasworks.com
Billing Name : Virginia Legg
Billing Street1 : 244 Hauser road
Billing City : Pinnacle
Billing State/Province : NC
Billing Postal Code : 27043
Billing Country : US
Billing Phone : +1.3363252857
Billing Email : virginia@efiasworks.com
Name Server : NS1.XP-HOSTING.COM
Name Server : NS2.XP-HOSTING.COM
Registrar Name : verisign
Registrar WebSite : http://www.namebay.com

will send the relevant information on to namebay.

I will now consent to finding these pricks and kicking there arse.

Spotter said...

Please don't post unverified WHOIS data. Scammers lie about their identity (usually with the exception of the email address, which is disposable). This identity may be fictitious, or it may be the true data of someone who has submitted a resume to these scammers. I will delete the comment above if it turns out to be an innocent third party.

Anonymous said...

Sorry about that Spotter,
Am just very pissed right now.

Anonymous said...

They have a new site
www.efiasonline.net
ive been scammed by them and had my account frozen... scared about whats going to happen next.

Anonymous said...

I wonder how many people helped those bad guys cheating, but I was one of them, I was exploided for a week, my bank account has been frozen I think, cause I couldnt even check my account balance at ATM, I called my bank, I was told to go to branch and fill a declaration form on Monday. Not sure what will be the outcome for me, really regret it!!!!!!!!!!! The website is www.efiasonline.net still active this morning, but not sure now.

Anonymous said...

http://www.ocba.sa.gov.au/scams/
The above is the website of Office of Consumer and Business Affairs in South Australia, which has a list of information about scams. Hope this will make more people aware of this issue and stay as far as possible from those busters.

Anonymous said...

I had a similar thing - they contacted me and said they were going to put $5000.00 into my account. With instructions to transfer the money to an assigned address and keep a percentage for yourself. - I thought this is bullshit and left it at that.
The next day there it was!
If I had have known I would have drawn the money, ran my account down to $10.00 and sat back for a while.

Anonymous said...

JOB VACANCY IN CANADIAN HOTEL CANADA
Ominicity Hotel Director wish to advertise through this medium that the
Following Job Vacancy in our Hotel . We need both men and females workers to
fill in different categories of job openings.Currently ,If your interested in
working with us you can contact us back E-mail Address:
ottawahotel_canada@yahoo.ca Our Hotel Director shall connect you with our
Canadian immigration director during your visa procesing, SIGN BY DIRECTOR
MRS
ROSELING ANNA.
Same story, new actors, attention ....