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, January 10, 2008

PCF

Like every other money mule job I've seen which targets Australians, this one involves receiving stolen money from compromised bank accounts via direct bank transfer, then forwarding it (minus your cut) to the thieves via Western Union or Money Gram. The "PCF" charity thing is a complete fiction. There are various charities which use the initials "PCF", but these guys aren't working with any of them -- they're just thieves.

Domain ID:D150565435-LROR
Domain Name: PCFJOBS.ORG
Created On:06-Jan-2008 23:19:38 UTC
Expiration Date:06-Jan-2009 23:19:38 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:OnlineNIC Inc. (R64-LROR)
Registrant ID:ONLC-3125807-4
Registrant Email:staff@pcfjobs.org
Name Server:NS1.RELEASEBPB.COM
Name Server:NS2.RELEASEBPB.COM

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: [redacted (false)]
Date: 9 Jan 2008 XX:XX UTC
Subject: Response to Resume
To: [redacted]

CHARITY MANAGER

A serious Swedish charity organization, PCF actively seeks virtual Charity Managers to join its team. This position provides support in the daily operation of benefits administration. We have reviewed your resume and would like to consider you for this position.

PCF was established as a charity organization to help poor in third world countries. First the foundation was considered to be temporary, only for rising funds for the victims of civil wars in Central Africa, Balkans and South East Asia, but after two months of work it proved to be highly successful and continued its effort worldwide.

Essential Functions & Responsibilities:

Charity Manager duties will include receiving charity money or second-hand/unused items from our donators worldwide and resending them to our warehouses for future repackage and usage, consulting potential donators about our charity programs, reporting online daily.

General Requirements:

  Maintains confidentiality of private information
  Possesses administrative reporting skills
  Honest, responsible and prompt in operations
  Great at multitasking, and has an adaptable, flexible, professional attitude
  Proficient PC user, Internet and E-mail

Compensation:

Salary - 1,500AUD/month, plus commission
3 weeks of Paid Time Off (PTO); increases after 2 years

Location and Working Hours:

  Work at home, online position
  3hours/day, Monday to Friday, schedule can be flexible

If you are interested to join our team today please see the attached contract. The trial period will last for two months, during which you will receive training, salary, and commission. Upon successful completion of the trial period you will have an option to change from part-time to full-time or continue working part-time with PCF.

Please read carefully the trial period contract, complete, sign, and forward back to us via email to Robert_Preston@pcfjobs.org If you have any questions feel free to ask.

Thank You,
PCF Team

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

thanks for your blog. we received that kind of scam too.

Anonymous said...

But I can earn $1500 a month plus commission!

What always alerts me to spam scams is the poor english of the writers. This one is passable, but has a few glaring mistakes which are unacceptable for true business correspondence.

Anonymous said...

i wonder what would ahppen if i were to agree to this, get the money, then leave?

the scammers could do nothing about it, its not like a real business where you have stolen, its a fake company, its not real, you are being sent money for free!! >_>

Spotter said...

You're being sent stolen money. Easily traced stolen money. If you receive any, I suggest you inform the bank that it's a suspicious transaction, otherwise you may (at the very least) have your account frozen.

Anonymous said...

I just received an email from them a few days ago! They even sent me a 'trial contract' and kept corresponding with me. Quite persistent too!

Thanks for the info!