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, November 20, 2006

Sinosteel Trading (Impostors)

Images have been removed from this spam. There's nothing new here: someone is recruiting money mules by pretending to represent a real company. The real company almost certainly doesn't use Yahoo! email addresses for its official business, however, and is probably annoyed that spammers are impersonating them for criminal gain.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Pamla Vanderkraats <[redacted]>
Date: 20-Nov-2006 10:10
Subject: EARN USD$10,000 THIS MONTH AS A SINO REP....
To:

 

 
SINOSTEEL TRADING
COMPANY,
CHINA.
 
 
 
     The SINOSTEEL TRADING COMPANY, is a reputable distributor, importer and exporter of steel products in China. The predecessor of the Sinosteel Trading Company is the CHINA METALLURGICAL IMPORT AND EXPORT CORPORATION (CMIEC) which was founded in January 1980. CMIEC was renamed as Sinosteel Trading Company on November 17, 2004. Our total amount of import and export surpassed US$900 million in year 2005, reporting a sales revenue of over 8 billion Yuan. We have been able to reach this height as a result of the innovation of China's old foreign trade system under the guidance of reform and open-up policies. Our business range from raw materials such as iron ore, rare earth, refractories, bauxites, fluorspars, magnesites, etc, to finished metal and non-metal products.
 
     Iron ore         Bauxites       Refractories      Magnesites     Fluorspars

 
   We have reached a huge sales volume of steel products in China and the whole of Asia and now penetrating into the broader GLOBAL MARKET. Hence the need for us to have representatives and authorized payment officers. We are thereby using this medium to seek your indulgence in being our sole representative and payment officer in your locality. This is sequel to the new marketing trend now in vogue which is the Network Marketing System.
     This job offer is organised in such a way that it will not interfere with your present job because it has the flexibility of you working at your leisure and at home and earn even more money than your regular job. This is an opportunity that provides you a part-time job but guarantees you FULL-TIME PAY. This is your very own home business and quite possibly you can be completely self-sufficient financially in a matter of months by becoming one of our diligent but highly rewarded representative.
 
This opportunity guarantees' you an extra earnings of up to USD$10,000 or more, per month as commission depending on the business volume granted you by the company per month, once you become our registered representative. This is as a result of you earning 10% commission on any payment of products paid through you by any of our clients. There are still very many more bonuses which you will benefit from once you register as a representative, like our loan facility and so on.
 
 

THIS OFFER IS OPEN TILL 1ST OF DECEMBER, 2006
...SO JOIN NOW AND BE A REPRESENTATIVE OF FORTUNE...

For more information and how you can become a Sinosteel representative, please contact the English Section:
 
Mr. Lee Chang.
Manager, Strategic Marketing Dept.
(English Section)
SINOSTEEL TRADING COMPANY,
CHINA.
 
 
 
 
SINOSTEEL TRADING COMPANY, CHINA.
COPYRIGHT ©2006. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

11 comments:

Spotter said...

I've just received another "Sinosteel" job offer in broken HTML. The associated email address is sinosteel@cabanova.com, and the contact calls himself Mr. Johnson Wu. It's a money mule job under the title of "Company Representative".

Spotter said...

Here's another Sinosteel impersonator.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mr. Andong Liu <SINOSTEE[@]corporationcompany.com.cn>
Reply-to: sinosteel_corpcompany@yahoo.com.cn
Date: 14-May-2007 12:17
Subject: Attn:COMPANY PAYMENT AGENT REQUIRE!!!
To: ideceive@gmail.com

SINOSTEEL CORPORATION
Sinosteel Plaza,8 Haidian St., Beijing, P.R. China.
Tel:+ 86-13-637802916

Dear Sir / Madam,

I am Mr. Andong Liu, Sinosteel Corporation Company Chief Accountant . We deal on the following Products listed below:

- Baosteel
-Wuhan Iron & Steel Corp
-Anshan Iron & Steel Corp
-Taiyuan Iron & Steel Corp and so on.

We export these Raw Materials into America,North America,South America, Africa,Middle East, Canada and Europe.. We are searching for Representatives who can help us establish a medium of getting to our Customers in the above listed region, as well as making payments through you to us.

It does not matter whether you are in full employment or self-employed. This is a Part-time position that would become permanent based on your effort. It will certainly not affect your current job or business as the position is on part time basis.

We often give out 10% to our Company Representative (each) that works with us.Please,if you are interested,acknowledge the receipt of this email for further instuctions from BOARD OF SINOSTEEL CORPORATION by forwarding to us your Particulars through our email address "sinosteel_corpcompany@yahoo.com.cn.
your(Name, Phone/Fax number and your full contact address).Through private email account:
Thanks in advance,
Mr. Andong Liu
Company Chief Accountant
_______________________________________________
©2007 Sinosteel Corp. All rights reserved.

Anonymous said...

The message you submitted has been checked
Please carefully review the following Scam-O-Matic results:

This email looks like a company representative scam.
This type of job offer scam involves the cashing of fake checks and money orders. It could expose you to losses of tens of thousands of dollars as well as to the risk of criminal prosecution and (in some cases) imprisonment.
The following phrases should put you on alert:
"dear sir/madam":
a standard Nigerian greeting phrase
This email lists mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
+861066067734 (China, probably a mobile phone)
This email lists free webmail addresses. Besides personal use for legitimate purposes, use of such addresses is also typical for scams. NOTE: Lotteries, banks, government agencies and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
office_sinosteelcontact@yahoo.com.cn (Yahoo, China; can be used from anywhere worldwide)
Thank you for using Scam-O-Matic. If you found the results from this check useful then please mention www.scamomatic.com to your friends, family and co-workers, so they can also use it to check out and report suspicious emails that may have been sent to them by criminals.

Anonymous said...

I just received my very first Sinosteel email. WOW! What a scam. The contact name is Mr Jack Cheung and the email is:infoonline@sinosteel.com

They want me as a US Rep to "help facilitate payment of money to their clients".

The scam does not surprise me, however the number of people that fall for it does!

Anonymous said...

I got my job offer from the "President" of Sinosteel, Huang Tianwen He promises $10,000 a month!!!!!

Anonymous said...

And here's one I just got, with a return email address of info@sinosteel.org:

SINOSTEEL TRADING IMPORT & EXPORT COMPANY.
8 Haidian Street, Beijing,
People's Republic of China.
PC: 100080.

REF:KIR/02.
Dear Sir/Madam,

We avail ourselves of this opportunity to approach you for the
establishment of
business relations with you. We are presently searching for
Representatives/Collection
Agents who can help us establish a medium of getting to our customers in
the America,
precisely USA and Canada. If interested, Please contact us via email: (
president_thuang@yahoo.com.hk)
for more information.

Respectfully Submitted,
Mr. Huang Tianwen.
President,
Sinosteel Trading Company.
Tel: 86-10-62688888.
Fax: 86-10-62688899.

Anonymous said...

Here's another one received today:
The origin is a network in India.


SINOSTEEL CORPORATION
Sinosteel Plaza,8 Haidian St.Beijing,P.R.China.
Tel:+86-13-637802916 Fax:+852-301-62379

Dear Sir / Madam,

I am Mr.Andong Liu,Sinosteel Corporation Company Chief Accountant.
We deal on the following Products listed below:

Baosteel
Wuhan Iron & Steel Corp
Anshan Iron & Steel Corp
Taiyuan Iron & Steel Corp and so on.

We export these Raw Materials into America,North America,South
America,Africa,Middle East,Canada and Europe. We are searching for
Representatives who can help us establish a medium of getting to
our Customers in the above listed region,as well as making payments
through you to us.

We often give out Ten percent to any Company Representative that
wants to works with us.He or she will be places on monthly salary
as a staff of SINOSTEEL CORPORATION aside the Ten percent that
will still be given to you.This payment will later be decided by
our company board members,this will be after your first assignment.
If you are interested,forward to us your Particulars (Name, Phone/Fax
number and your full contact address).Through my private email account:
andongliu_11@yahoo.com.cn

Thanks in advance,

Mr. Andong Liu
Company Chief Accountant

_______________________________________________
©2008 Sinosteel Corp. All rights reserved.

Anonymous said...

I got one too!

We avail ourselves of this opportunity to approach you for the establishment of business relations with you.We are presently searching for Representatives / Collection Agents who can help us establish a medium of getting to our customers in the America, precisely USA and Canada. If interested, Please contact us via email:
sinosteelrepd01@yahoo.com.hk for more information.

Regards,
Mr. Huang Tianwen.
President,
Sinosteel Trading Company.
Tel: 86-10-62688888.
Fax: 86-10-62688899



They even left a phone number to call!!

These guys are really getting boring.

Anonymous said...

I just received an offer to be a rep for SinoSteel Trading, from Dr. Wong Chenghai, managing director, with offices on the 7th floor ChinFung Tower, 101 Cheung Sha Wan Rd., Kowloon, Hong Kong. An obvious fraud, but thanks for your tip off. Dan

Sark said...

I want to thank those who took the time to warn others, like me, about SinoSteel. Bless you all.

Anonymous said...

Yesterday, I received the following through LinkedIn:

Good day

Sinosteel Group Corporation, is a duly incorporated company in China dealing solely with comprehensive steel group with an annual production capacity of 13 million tons with annual sales revenue of more than RMB 35 billion is seeking to engage you as her part-time regional business intermediary executive within your region.

We understand your busy schedule and nature of business, Infuthrance to this, we wish to notify you of the time span of our service, as it is not time consuming. It only take 20-40 mins of your daily time within the period of 1-3 Months. We are confident in your vast knowledge and credibility to deliver optimally on this position, In the light of the above, necessitated our reasons for contacting you.

Interested, write tim_wang@sinosteel-group.com for details/job description

Tim Wang
International Sales Consultant
Sinosteel Group
Add: Sinosteel Group Industrial Park, Qingdao, China
Tel.:+86 - 532 - 80911996
Fax: +86 - 532 - 55556818
Email: tim_wang@sinosteel-group.com