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 19, 2008

Shamrock Holdings (not)

There is a real "Shamrock Holdings" at shamrock.com, but this spammer has nothing to do with them. The use of English is better than average for this kind of scam, because a substantial chunk is plagiarised from Scottrade. The spam makes no mention at all of the kind of work available, but it's a foregone conclusion that it's a money-forwarding job. Stay clear: spam job ads are attempts to recruit victims, not employees. More than one Gmail contact address is being used in this scam.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: [redacted (false, misleading)]
Date: 19 Mar 2008 XX:XX UTC
Subject: make your career
To: [redacted (privacy)]

Shamrock Holdings's Career Center

Looking for part-time job?  Try us and you'll be glad you did!

Providing quality customer service is the foundation of our business model.  We work hard to make our customers happy, and have been consistently recognized by industry watchers for our efforts. We take pride in our ability to please our customers and always do our best to do what is right for them.

Shamrock Holdings's approach to service for our online customers sets us apart from other online brokers that have set up personal brokers to handle customer inquiries. Our customers tell us they want a Personal broker who can be easily reached to answer financial and account questions. . We call it "Online Finance With a Personal Touch" and it comes with every Shamrock Holdings online brokerage account regardless of account size or trading activity.

What happens when the best employees come together with the best online investment tools and services? We achieve great things.

In your career with Shamrock Holdings , you will work together with a team of energetic, driven individuals, each with their own unique talents and skills, but all dedicated to one common end goal - providing the best customer experience in the financial services industry.

Interested?

Send  us an e-mail to:    shamrock.hr@gmail.com

with  phone numbers  to reach you, and one of our representatives will contact you and answer all your questions.

We are proud to have so much experience working with investors and look forward to serving many more investors' needs in the future.


Best regards,
Tina Lee, Senior Asset Manager of Shamrock Capital Advisors

4 comments:

Spotter said...

A fresh batch of this junk has arrived. Contact addresses include the following.

Sholdings.Hrdept@gmail.com
srholdings.hr@gmail.com
shm.holding.hrdept@gmail.com
capitaladvisors.hr@gmail.com
shamrock.hr@gmail.com

Spotter said...

More "Shamrock" scam-spam has arrived. Contact addresses include the following.

capital.advisrs.hr@gmail.com
Schamrockhold.hrdept@gmail.com

Spotter said...

Again, a fresh batch of Shamrock scam-spam. Most of these were first seen around May 6th, but I didn't get around to reporting them at the time.

shamr.advisors@gmail.com
shamrockholds@gmail.com
Shamrock.hold@gmail.com
Shamr.capitaladvisors@gmail.com
hr.shm.dept@gmail.com

Spotter said...

Just a couple more... unless they start afresh next week.

capitalad.hr@gmail.com
shamrock.hr.dept@gmail.com