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, May 07, 2008

Green Tree

This is a typical money mule scam, using a style that I have seen before but am presently too busy to hunt down to a specific entry in my archives. Performing money transfers for unknown parties -- especially those located overseas -- is never a good idea. There may be other domain names in use for this scam, similar to the one documented below. There may also be unrelated and perfectly legitimate businesses using the name "Green Tree" -- please do your own due diligence.

   Domain Name: GRNTWR.COM <-- scam
   Registrar: THE REGISTRY AT INFO AVENUE D/B/A IA REGISTRY
   Whois Server: whois.iaregistry.com
   Referral URL: http://www.iaregistry.com
   Name Server: NS1.NETIPM.COM
   Name Server: NS2.NETIPM.COM
   Updated Date: 05-may-2008
   Creation Date: 30-apr-2008
   Expiration Date: 30-apr-2009

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Green Tree Ltd. <[redacted (random, false)]>
Date: 2008/5/7
Subject: a great opportunity to gain valuable experience whilst earning at the same time.
To: [redacted (privacy)]


Dear Sir/Madam,

Your resume has been furnished to our company by www.monster.com web-site as one of the best-qualified job-seekers for a position offered.

Our company - Green Tree (Warehousing) Ltd., as a Third Party Logistics provider (3PL), works closely with major Blue Chip Companies & SME's, providing mainstream warehousing and materials handling operations, innovative Supply Chain Solutions, Contract Packing and Distribution. We work closely with ou customers to deliver a flexible package that meets their requirements, and place emphasis on value-adding services of proven quality. Business expertise and a high level of diversity gained over 45 years combine to make "Green Tree" an attractive outsourced solution and versatile business partner.

We are currently looking to recruit a Regional Financial Coordinator to manage payments from the customers based within the limits of his country. You will be our financial intermediary in your local area and will be responsible to remit customer payments for the ordered warehousing or shipping to facilitate and fasten payment receipt at the headquarters of the company. This is a brand new part-time position and has been created to improve supply chain performance for the company as we move into a period of substantial expansion where we will double our current turnover.

The role includes dealing with 2-3 customer payments a week; reviewing the balance of the bank account, where the payment is supposed to be debited to; ensuring precise settlements regarding each payment; transmitting the payments to the Headquarters and subsidiaries of the company by means of instant Western Union payment system and providing regular feedback and reports to the Headquarters Office Manager and Supervisor.

It is essential that the candidate promotes positive/can do attitude and discharges his duties urgently, has literate communicational and PC-user skills to interact with other team members and make external contacts related to the job nature.
Successful applicants will need to have a bank account to be used for the customer payments to be debited to, be energetic, enthusiastic and naturally ambitious. This is very much seen as a career progression role that could lead to a management position, so if you are willing to work 1-2 hours a day and be paid on an interest basis (net 10% out of each customer payment you have dealt with) you are welcome to apply now.
So if you are looking for a "career of your life" and would like to find out more about the job specification please visit our web-site at http://grntwr.com

Yours faithfully, Gloria Blackman

[large amounts of white-on-white text redacted]

9 comments:

Spotter said...

I should have checked before posting: they are also using the ".org" version of the domain name.

Domain ID:D152591358-LROR
Domain Name:GRNTWR.ORG
Created On:30-Apr-2008 17:21:20 UTC
Last Updated On:05-May-2008 09:50:02 UTC
Expiration Date:30-Apr-2009 17:21:20 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:The Registry at Info Avenue dba IA Registry (R111-LROR)
Registrant ID:DI_8105572
Registrant Name:Sharon Isay
Registrant Email:mblblucas8@execs.com
Name Server:NS2.NETIPM.COM
Name Server:NS1.NETIPM.COM

Spotter said...

Domain Name: GREENTWLD.NET
Registrar: THE REGISTRY AT INFO AVENUE D/B/A IA REGISTRY
Whois Server: whois.iaregistry.com
Referral URL: http://www.iaregistry.com
Name Server: NS1.MNINK.COM
Name Server: NS2.MNINK.COM
Updated Date: 05-may-2008
Creation Date: 30-apr-2008
Expiration Date: 30-apr-2009

Spotter said...

Domain Name: GRNTWH.COM
Registrar: THE REGISTRY AT INFO AVENUE D/B/A IA REGISTRY
Whois Server: whois.iaregistry.com
Referral URL: http://www.iaregistry.com
Name Server: NS1.NETIPM.COM
Name Server: NS2.NETIPM.COM
Updated Date: 06-may-2008
Creation Date: 30-apr-2008
Expiration Date: 30-apr-2009

Spotter said...

Domain Name: GREENTWLG.NET
Registrar: THE REGISTRY AT INFO AVENUE D/B/A IA REGISTRY
Whois Server: whois.iaregistry.com
Referral URL: http://www.iaregistry.com
Name Server: NS1.MNINK.COM
Name Server: NS2.MNINK.COM
Updated Date: 06-may-2008
Creation Date: 30-apr-2008
Expiration Date: 30-apr-2009

Spotter said...

Domain Name: GRNTWH.NET
Registrar: THE REGISTRY AT INFO AVENUE D/B/A IA REGISTRY
Whois Server: whois.iaregistry.com
Referral URL: http://www.iaregistry.com
Name Server: NS1.SCHEMEETC.COM
Name Server: NS2.SCHEMEETC.COM
Updated Date: 09-may-2008
Creation Date: 30-apr-2008
Expiration Date: 30-apr-2009

Spotter said...

Domain Name: GREENTWLG.COM
Registrar: THE REGISTRY AT INFO AVENUE D/B/A IA REGISTRY
Whois Server: whois.iaregistry.com
Referral URL: http://www.iaregistry.com
Name Server: NS1.MNINK.COM
Name Server: NS2.MNINK.COM
Updated Date: 06-may-2008
Creation Date: 30-apr-2008
Expiration Date: 30-apr-2009

Spotter said...

Domain Name: GRNTWR.NET
Registrar: THE REGISTRY AT INFO AVENUE D/B/A IA REGISTRY
Whois Server: whois.iaregistry.com
Referral URL: http://www.iaregistry.com
Name Server: NS1.SCHEMEETC.COM
Name Server: NS2.SCHEMEETC.COM
Updated Date: 09-may-2008
Creation Date: 30-apr-2008
Expiration Date: 30-apr-2009

Spotter said...

Well, this is different. There is now a registration in the ".me.uk" domain. I don't recall having seen one of those before.

Domain name:
grtrw.me.uk

Registrant type:
Non-UK Individual

Registrar:
GX Networks Ltd t/a 123-Reg.co.uk [Tag = 123-REG]
URL: http://www.123-reg.co.uk

Relevant dates:
Registered on: 12-May-2008
Renewal date: 12-May-2010
Last updated: 13-May-2008

Name servers:
ns1.schemeetc.com
ns2.schemeetc.com

WHOIS lookup made at 12:03:09 13-May-2008

Spotter said...

And so on. If you really want to know all the gory domain name details, BobBear's coverage is way more thorough than mine in that regard.