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, January 20, 2007

BK Technology

There are several companies called "BK Technology". This one is a fabrication rather than an impersonation, so far as I can tell. In fact, the scammers have ripped off the website of Bona Fide Technology in order to look like a legitimate, established business. As you can see from the WHOIS data, though, the so-called "BK Technology" is suspiciously new. Beyond that, this is just a money mule recruitment scam with a modified copy of someone else's website for window-dressing.

   Domain Name: BK-TECHNOLOGY.NET
   Registrar: ESTDOMAINS, INC.
   Whois Server: whois.estdomains.com
   Referral URL: http://www.estdomains.com
   Name Server: NS1.ELSENS.NET
   Name Server: NS2.ELSENS.NET
   Updated Date: 14-jan-2007
   Creation Date: 10-jan-2007 <-- too new
   Expiration Date: 10-jan-2008

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Christy <Georgette[@]hicat.ne.jp>
Date: Jan 17, 2007 2:46 PM
Subject: work from home for international company
To: [redacted]


Dear recipient,

The leading Hong Kong LCD specialist, BK Technology, is once again beginning a global campaign of employing new staff in Australia and New Zealand.

Due to our exploding growth, we are further expanding our business to the South Pacific region of the world. During our last employment campaign we successfully employed hundreds of Retail Representatives and Couriers. And now we are offering you one more opportunity to earn extra cash working with us.

We are looking for honest, responsible, hard-working people to operate with our company in your particular region. These openings are part-time positions with the opportunity to make AUD1000-2000 per month working 1-2 hours per day with us.

Please visit our web site BK-Technology for more details regarding these vacancies.

Brought to you by Seek AU and CareerOne.

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