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, March 12, 2008

Benxi Steel Company (not)

There are a number of things to note about this job scam. The first is not immediately obvious: it originated in Nigeria (ip address 41.220.70.3), although it was sent via hamdard.net.pk, as per the "from" address. The second thing to note is that this scammer is getting his scams mixed up: the "from" name is "Heineken Lottery", suggesting that the same scammer has also been pushing lottery scams. Beyond that, it's safe to say that this job involves the "employee" being duped into cashing forged checks and forwarding the proceeds via Western Union before the forgery is detected by the bank.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: HEINEKEN LOTTERY <heinekenlottery@hamdard.net.pk>
Date: 12 Mar 2008 14:13
Subject: ONLINE JOB OFFER
To:

Benxi Steel Company
1, Kita-Aoyama 2-chome
Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-8077,
China.

I am Mr. Chon Kawasaki, the Director of Benxi Steel company based in
China. We specialize in the production of Iron and steel, which we
export to the US,CANADA and some part of Europe.

We are searching for payment officer in the USA,CANADA,ETC. The reason
we seek your assistance, is that we need you to  pressurize our
customers that are owning the company money, to enable them pay on
time. You can  receive payment via wire transfer, checks/bank draft
etc. In otherwords, you shall be receiving payment from our customers
on behalf of the company. That must be based on trust.

Should you have a present job, you can still be part of our business
as your service to us would not interfere with your working hours at
all. The job is an online business.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED,PLEASE COMPLETE THE FORM BELOW  AND SEND IT
TO  THE COMPANY FOREIGN AFFAIRS MANAGER IN UK (ONLY).

NAME:
SEX:
AGE:
ADDRESS:
STATE:
CITY:
ZIP CODE:
COUNTRY:
TEL:
FAX:
MOBILE TEL:
HOME TEL:
COMPANY NAME:
WEBSITE:
OCCUPATION:
YOUR BANK NAME (s):

COMPLETE THE ABOVE FORM AND SEND IT TO THE COMPANY FOREIGN AFFAIRS
MANAGER IN UK (ONLY), VIA HIS PRIVATE ID BELOW:

Foreign Affairs Manager,
NAME: MR Ellis Bryan.
EMAIL: benxisteel01@yahoo.co.uk

Sincerely,
Mr. Chon Kawasaki.
Director,
Benxi Steel company.

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