Suckers Wanted: Dive with Sharks

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.

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Dive with Sharks

It looks as though a scammer is trying variations on the phrase "dive with sharks" for domain names. We've already seen "divewithsharks.biz" , and now we have "sharksdiving.bz". That's not a typo, either: the .bz domain exists and is open to registrations at the second level without restriction. Since it looks like this might be an on-going theme, I'll make this entry the main placeholder, and document as many shark-diving domains as I encounter.

The job scam itself is the usual: money mules. See the side-bar for more information on money mules.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Andrew Malkovich <Sharon[@]nitches.com>
Date: 01-Feb-2007 22:14
Subject: Perspective Vacancy in Travel Industry
To: [redacted]

Hello,

We hope you are reading this message in a fine mood.

I'd like to welcome you on a very interesting opportunity.
We supppose you will be very interested in a home job in which you
could get about AUD4000 per month.

This job will not affect your present career, it will only take a small
part of your free time. The only things you will need to have to start
running your business with our company are reliable Internet/E-mail
access and checking/savings bank account. And your decency, of course!

Your part of the job is to receive the funds which we will send directly
to you through one of our money transfer methods from our company and/or
our partners. After that you should re-send the money (less your commission)
to us/our customers via one of chosen money transfer agencies. The job is
rather simple and you won't need any special knowledge to become our partner!
You will also stand the chances of being a part of our future and the
excellence of a team in which you will be highly respected - just think about
this amazing opportunity! We will be hoping to hear from you soon.

Please fill our application form. No fees are asked, just leave your
contact details: mail@sharksdiving.bz

We will contact you soon. Thank you!

sharksdiving.bz

Query at around 2007-02-01 14:04 UTC

   Domain Name: sharksdiving.bz

      Created on.............: 2006-12-17 23:42:33
      Expires on.............: 2007-12-17 23:42:33
      Record last updated on..: 2007-01-22 13:18:23

   Administrative Contact:

      mary moehr
      Email: divwithsharks@yahoo.com

   Domain servers in listed order:

      ns1.world-wr.com
      ns2.world-wr.com
      ns3.sharksdns.net

divewithsharks.hk

Query at around 2007-02-02 18:12 UTC

Domain Name: DIVEWITHSHARKS.HK
Email: divwithsharks@yahoo.com
Domain Name Commencement Date: 2006-12-18
Expiry Date:  2007-12-19
Name Servers Information:
NS1.WORLD-WR.COM
NS2.WORLD-WR.COM

sdiving.bz

Query at around 2007-02-24 06:38 UTC

whois: connect: Connection refused
sdiving.bz name server NS2.WORLD-WR.COM.
sdiving.bz name server NS1.WORLD-WR.COM.

sdiving.hk

Query at around 2007-02-24 06:42 UTC

Domain Name: SDIVING.HK
Email: stevenonesto1956@techie.com
Domain Name Commencement Date: 2007-02-19
Expiry Date:  2008-02-19
Name of Registrar: HKDNR
Account Name: HK1817286T
Name Servers Information:

NS1.WORLD-WR.COM
NS2.WORLD-WR.COM

4 comments:

Anonymous said...: HTTP://WWW.SHARKSDIVING.BZ/
HTTP://WWW.DIVEWITHSHARKS.HK/
Suspended on 19.02.07
Experts; 2:21 pm, February 19, 2007
Anonymous said...: http://divewithsharks.biz/dive.htm
suspended: 20.02.07

Experts; 2:00 pm, February 20, 2007
Spotter said...: New variations on this theme have arrived: domains are "sdiving.bz" and "sdiving.hk".; 6:48 am, February 24, 2007
Spotter said...: The spam text has changed somewhat. Here is the latest text for reference.

Hello,

Would you be interested in a home job that allows you to earn up to AUD3000 per month? No start up fees, no
"envelope stuffing" nonsense.

This job will not affect your present career; it will only take a small part of your time. The only things you
need to have to start running your business with our company are reliable Internet/E-mail access and
checking/savings bank account. And of course your decency and willingness to earn.

The nature of the job is payment processing. You will receive the funds which our customers/resellers send
directly to you and forward it to us or our agents (less your commission)
via one of chosen money transfer agencies. The job is rather simple and you won't need any special knowledge to
become our partner, though we do require that you are able to act on a very short notice. We can afford to pay
such a decent commission only because we keep our customers happy with our promptness.

For those who look for career opportunities it’s a chance of becoming a part of our team in the future (based on
your performance), team in which you will be highly respected and decently rewarded - just think about this! We
will be hoping to hear from you soon.

If you would like to get our application form please email us with your request.

mail@sdiving.hk

We will get in touch with you soon. Thank you!; 6:51 am, February 24, 2007

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About This Blog

This blog is an offshoot of iDeceive, which documents deceptive Internet activity. For more general information, please go to that blog. All entries posted here are employment scams. If you've received an email that resembles anything posted here, you'd be well advised to assume that the sender wants to exploit you, not employ you. Scammers often impersonate real companies. Where real company names are mentioned here, you should assume that a scammer is using that identity fraudulently unless you have strong evidence to the contrary.

What is a money mule?

The vast majority of job scams seek to recruit money mules, usually under titles like "financial manager", "payment processor", "transaction specialist", or just plain "representative" or even "partner". The job of a money mule is to be a financial middle-man, accepting payment in one form, and forwarding it (minus a fee) to another party, usually via Western Union. Scammers employ money mules to launder money on their behalf: the mule is responsible for converting a fraudulent transaction of some kind into quick, anonymous cash, usually transferred via Western Union or some similar scheme. Scammers send out a lot of job ads for money mule positions and never refuse an applicant because they are disposable: money mules either get ripped off directly (as when they are persuaded to bank a forged cheque or money order which is later dishonoured by the bank), or take the blame for defrauding someone else (as with most payments involving direct bank transfer, PayPal, or similar). Don't make an ass of yourself: don't be a money mule.

Suckers Wanted