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.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Q-Matic

This is a money mule scam. It appears to be from the same scammer that gave us clearincome and come.extrain. Modus operandi: targets Australians, uses Gmail contact addresses, pretends to represent "successful companies from Sweden", other similarities.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: From Abdul <[false address redacted]>
Date: 13-Jun-2007 03:03
Subject: Summer Job Opportunity
To: [redacted]

Are You Looking For an Extra Income This Summer?
Q-Matic Launching a New Session of Sales. You have A chance to make 1000-1300 AUD a Week!

Requierements:

Australian Resident
18 +y/o
Be able to check E-mail 3-4 times a day
Monday-Thursday 1-2 hours a day of free time(preferably mornings)
Be responsible and enthusiastic about this great opportunity

Successful young company Q-Matic from Sweden is glad to announce this to every Australian resident.
Cannot Miss! Position is called "Transaction handling", no past experience required, no school  degree required. You can start righ away!
If interested reply to our application address: qmatic.business@gmail.com

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

While this type of email does appear to be a scam, Q-MATIC is a legitimate organization that has been in business since 1981. www.q-matic.com. They are located in 80 countries worldwide and are the leading provider of Customer Flow Management (queuing) solutions.

Spotter said...

And they are from Sweden, right? It's not uncommon for these scammers to claim to represent real companies, rather than names they've made up -- it makes their claims sound more credible. I'm sure this is all very irritating for the companies in question, who suffer harm to their reputation as a consequence. What can you do about it, though? A scammer just has a quick look through a business directory, and thinks, "I'll be that company today."