Here's a fairly elaborate money mule scam. The scammers are calling themselves "Infinity Western", and claim to be a car agency, although their website makes it look more like an escrow agency with a car-themed banner at the top. Aside from that little piece of dissonsnce, the site is very slick, which just goes to show that fraudsters can afford good web designers too. The scam is just the usual trick of money laundering: they transfer stolen money to the employee, and the employee forwards it to them (minus a cut) via Western Union. These guys have the gall to include an "Anti-Money Laundering Policy" page on their website, by the way. If you're going to defraud your way to profit, you may as well be blatantly untruthful, I guess.
If you have fallen victim to this scam, contact your financial institution immediately and explain the situation to them. If you haven't done so already, don't send any money anywhere.
Domain names I have seen involved in this scam so far include "
infinityw.com", "
i-western.com", and "
infinitywesternsite.com".
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: [redacted]
Date: 12 Oct 2007 09:24
Subject: I invite you to work for a large international car agency.
To: [redacted]
| Good afternoon!, Our surveys show that 84% of people of your age are not satisfied with their monthly earnings and wish to make more. That is why we would like to offer you an opportunity of part-time work. To earn 160-530 euros a week you have to spend 3-4 hours a week. You need a contact telephone (preferably a mobile), a computer and email. If you are reading these lines, it means you have everything you need to start work. The employment lasts till the end of the month; we have 34 vacancies in your country so far. You will have to process payments from our clients. It is a simple work, which requires attentiveness and accuracy. We provide training and everything you need for the work. Initial investments from you are not required. Who are we? We are a large international car agency. If you choose to become our employee you will receive a 5% discount on the purchase of a car from our company as an additional bonus and we will help you to obtain a credit, if necessary. We will be glad to provide you with any additional information. We do not use automated programs for answers and we read every letter and reply personally. To speed up our response, please send me an email to: livehelp@infinityw.com, providing the following information: - Your Name
- Country of residence
- Your email
I must warn you that due to the heavy workload of postal servers it may take 3-5 working days to respond, but I assure you your letter will be read and a response sent. Looking forward to your reply, Andrea Simpson
Infinity Western |
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2 comments:
Thanks for the site and the heads up - can see young people strapped for cash going for this one - my daughter and her friends being some of them. Good work.
I knew this was dodgy from the get go, but i wanted to know what they were on about....here is what they sent me......
Hello
I am a manager of Infinity Western.
Please visit our website at www.infinitywesternsite.com where you can find the most complete information about the company, including its general scope of activity, history, company details, and links to articles about Infinity Western in the media.
I would like to offer you a position in Infinity Western. Please allow me to tell you more about the work and the basic requirements.
As you can these on our website, our company deals with international car sales over the Internet.
Our company is a leader in Internet-based car sales. All our operations are conducted on-line and all our employees work remotely. This means that to save money we do not have an office in Australia, and all the company employees work remotely from their own locations. To create an office at home at the initial stage you will need a computer, Internet access and email.
According to the terms of our license, we pay taxes from all income we receive within Australia. Complying with the tax legislation of Australia we must conform to certain regulations:
1. We must have an Australia -resident representative to conduct business in Australia.
2. All business operations must be executed in the currency of the Australia (Australian dollar ).
3. Our Australian employee must perform all business operations.
This means that requests and payments must be executed by our Australian representative, and processing can be carried out in our processing centers. Processing centers are located in Russia, China and India. Firstly, this helps us to save on employees? wages and, secondly, it spreads our business throughout the world.
We can not pay charges through our accounts in India, Russia and China because it
violates the tax legislation of Australia. Therefore we use our account in Australia
for payment of all income taxes and we save money because we do not have expensive offices. Therefore we hire a representative in Australia and would like to offer this vacancy to you.
I would like to clarify the situation with taxes. You do not have to worry about tax payments from your earnings. Under the contract which you will execute, you are an ?independent worker?, and you are free from all taxes.
Moreover, at the end of the first complete month of work we send you a report on all operations executed, so you can show it to the tax authority.
WE RECEIVE PAYMENTS FOR OUR GOODS BY CHEQUE, CASH AND BANK TRANSFER. MOST AUSTRALIAN CLIENTS PREFER TO USE BANK TRANSFERS TO PAY FOR OUR SERVICES AS IT IS CONSIDERED THE SAFEST, CHEAPEST AND MOST TESTED METHOD OF PAYMENT. AFTER CONSULTATION WHICH WE WILL PROVIDE TO YOU BY TELEPHONE OR EMAIL, CLIENTS MAKE A TRANSFER.
WE ONLY MAINTAIN OFFICES IN INDIA, RUSSIA AND CHINA. THEREFORE ONE OF THE TASKS OF A REPRESENTATIVE WILL BE THE RECEIPT OF MONEY TRANSFERS.
The salary of the representative in Australia is percentage based. This means that your salary is 8% from all incomes which the company will obtain from your transactions.
At first you will receive transfers of 8000 dollars every week, so your earnings will be not below 640 dollars a week. If you work conscientiously we will send you more clients, and your profits will grow.
I WANT TO STRESS ONCE AGAIN THAT YOU ARE NOT REQUIRED TO MAKE A SINGLE PAYMENT EITHER AT THE BEGINNING OF THE WORK OR IN THE PROCESS OF THE WORK.
This is a good offer, which should not be rejected. If you do not agree to work with us, please write to us as soon as possible, as there are many applicants for this vacancy, and the number of positions is limited. We ask you to make a decision within two working days.
This work does not require a large amount of time. As a rule, it takes one or two hours a day to complete all the tasks. When you start work, we inform our clients about you and explain that you receive payments within Australia.
Then our clients choose a form of payment:
1. checks
If a client can not see you personally, he draws you a
check and sends it by mail. When cashing the check you must deduct your
commission (8 %) and send the rest to our financial department to the address
indicated in the instruction.
2. bank transfer
Some of our clients send money directly to your account. We will inform you about the sum and the time of such payments. You must transfer the money to our head office corporate account on the day you receive payment. You must avoid delays, because you will work with money, and
delays may cause us problems.
3. cash payment
Clients will appoint the time for a meeting that is convenient for you, to pass you the payments. However, such an option is only available after 1 month of successful work. During the first month you will not receive cash.
There are distinct opportunities for career growth in our company. The most successful employees gradually gain a position of a Regional Representative, with a few subordinates and a large scope of work. As a rule, this position is achieved within a year or a year and a half.
We respect and promote workers with a conscientious attitude to their work.
The following will be required for your employment:
1. To complete and sign the CONTRACT
2. To send us by email or fax:
a) a copy of the signed contract
b) your photo (your personal file and photo are kept at the Human Resources Department)
c) a copy of any ID paper (driving license, passport or other document)
3. Then you will gain the position of a Sales Representative in our company.
At this stage we inform our clients about you. Within 1 to 5 working days they start making orders for payments. As mentioned above, these will be checks or bank transfers.
4. Some clients will prefer to use a bank transfer. They inform us about the date, the time and the sum and we pass the information to you.
5. Upon receipt of a transfer you have to deduct your 8% commission and send the rest to our Financial Manager to India, Russia or China.
Later you will, of course, receive more detailed instructions.
Charges for the transfer must be deducted from a lump sum after you deduct your commission, and never from your personal money or your commission.
If you are interested in this offer, please send me an email.
You will receive a contract to complete and return. We will send you a contract by email. There will be a form in the contract, where you have to insert your information (full name, telephone number etc).
We will be glad to welcome you as our representative in Australia.
With kind regards,
Human Resources Manager
Andrea Simpson
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