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.

Sunday, May 06, 2007

Bid Assist, Inc


This scam is surprisingly slick. The website is done entirely in flash, and it has background music and smooth animated effects. Usually, when confronted with flash, I do not investigate further, as I do not have flash installed on my computer for security reasons (and also because I hate flash-based ads). In this particular case, though, I decided to have a look, and it's really smooth. They're still crooks, though.

This particular scam is eBay reshipper fraud. The scammers purchase expensive goods on eBay, have them shipped to their employee, the employee forwards the goods overseas, and then the scammers renege on the payment. The seller may then attempt to get the goods back from the reshipper, but the goods are long gone. The scammers may also purchase and reship goods from regular merchants using stolen credit cards.

So don't be suckered in by the slick flash website: they just want to use you as a mule in their fraudulent capers.

The following domain names are known to be associated with this scam at this time. If I discover more, I'll post information about them in comments below.

Domain ID:D143044678-LROR
Domain Name: BIDASSIST.ORG <-- scam
Created On: 06-Apr-2007 17:53:37 UTC <-- recent
Last Updated On:02-May-2007 07:47:41 UTC
Expiration Date:06-Apr-2008 17:53:37 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:Directi Internet Solutions d/b/a PublicDomainRegistry.Com (R27-LROR)
Registrant ID:PP-SP-001
Registrant Name:Domain Admin
Registrant Organization:Privacyprotect.org
Name Server: NS1.REGISTRATOR.US
Name Server:NS2.REGISTRATOR.US

Domain ID:D145253993-LROR
Domain Name: BID-ASSIST.ORG <-- scam
Created On: 02-May-2007 16:13:49 UTC <-- new
Last Updated On:02-May-2007 16:25:45 UTC
Expiration Date:02-May-2008 16:13:49 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:Directi Internet Solutions d/b/a PublicDomainRegistry.Com (R27-LROR)
Registrant ID:PP-SP-001
Registrant Name:Domain Admin
Registrant Organization:Privacyprotect.org
Name Server: NS1.REGISTRATOR.US
Name Server:NS2.REGISTRATOR.US

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: eweitzel <eweitzel[@]roadrunner.com>
Date: 05-May-2007 06:09
Subject: We are looking for energetic and dependable individuals (Career from Bid Assist, Inc.)
To: 1261334.2[@]gadball.com
Cc: 1261246.2[@]gadball.com

Bid Assist, Inc. is looking for energetic and dependable individual to fill in the position of courier. The job is home-based and perfect for students and part time employees.

Bid Assist, Inc. was founded by three Stanford University graduates and was officially registered in March 2004 by Vermont Department of Corporations.

Our company serves as a middleman between sellers and buyers from different parts of the world and gives you an excellent opportunity to securely participate in sales taking place anywhere. All you must have is a PC with internet access and you desire to cooperate with us. We will be glad to provide you with a full range of services from packing to legal support.

Presently we are hiring processing clerks throughout the US cities. The duties include tracking and receiving goods purchased on behalf of Bid Assist, Inc. clients to your address, repacking them to secure against damage and shipping to our customers abroad. You will receive $60.00 compensation for every handled package but no less than $1, 520.00 a month. We will also cover any related shipping fees in advance.

Set requirements: 18 years of age or above, presence at designated address on a regular basis, availability of PC with internet access, day time contact phone number. All duties can be performed from home but may also require occasional visits to local post office.

Time commitment and efforts: up to 8 hours a week, 4-10 packages handled weekly. Most parcels are not heavy or bulky and will not require significant storage place.

To avoid any illegal substance or trafficking activities all parcels will be shipped/reshipped by major services like FedEx, UPS and DHL who pay due attention to compliance issues. You can also inspect each parcel before reshipping it to our customer.

Please complete the form with personal information to apply - http://www.bid-assist.org ("Careers").

5 comments:

Spotter said...

A local source has confirmed that the address given on the Bid Assist website is false.

Anonymous said...

They just changed thier site address from

http://www.bid-assist.org to http://www.bidassist.net

Same site contents,, same SCAM!!

They use career sites like Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com to send their message to applicants and then they disappear so you cannot report them to the site.

Anonymous said...

The phone/fax number shown on the website is a dial-up number used by many IP'svbzrdp

Spotter said...

I affirm the other spotter's claim: I've received the same spam using bidassist.net as the address.

Domain Name: BIDASSIST.NET <-- scam
Registrar: ONLINENIC, INC.
Whois Server: whois.OnlineNIC.com
Referral URL: http://www.OnlineNIC.com
Name Server: NS7.MYHOSTNET.NET
Name Server: NS8.MYHOSTNET.NET
Updated Date: 24-may-2007
Creation Date: 24-may-2007 <-- new
Expiration Date: 24-may-2008

Anonymous said...

THERE IS ANOTHER SCAM FROM KATHLEEN SHEPHERD AT FLOURISH VENTURES INC IN CLEVELAND OHIO. ITS EXACTLY THE SAME SCAM AS THE MERCADO LIBRE INC. SAME LETTER AND EVERYTHING. I LEFT COMMENTS ON INDEED.COM AND OTHER JOB SITES LETTING THEM KNOW OF THIS SCAM AND THEY ARE TAKING THE LISTINGS OFF THE JOB SITE. I AM PUTTING THE SAME COMMENTS ON ALL THE JOB SITES I CAN SO PEOPLE DONT GET SCREWED BY THESE SCAMMERS!!!!!