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

UK Modulus Invest Co

Description

This scam was seen last month, and is nearly identical to the Norway Consulting Group scam in all significant aspects, including the fact that it is a money mule scam, and often uses the same "subject" heading.

The Spam

The message is presented in a GIF image, accompanied by "filter buster" text coloured to be invisible against the background.

Additional data

Although this spam is considerably less frequent than the Norway Consulting Group spam, it does have a tendency to arrive several times in a month. Rather than report individual instances, I'll summarise the data for the month here.

URLs encountered

Subjects encountered

  • Best vacancy of the month!
  • Got free time? Become richer!
  • Top job offer - don't miss your chance!
  • Top vacancy of the year!
  • Work on a securities market with us everyone can now!
  • Work with Us

Sender names encountered

  • UK Modulus Invest
  • UK Modulus Invest Co

Names used as signature in image

  • Annabelle Klung

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