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.

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Hangzhou Taixin Industrial Co.

It wouldn't surprise me in the least if there really is a company of
this name. The party responsible for this spam almost certainly has
nothing to do with them, however. This is a cheque forgery scam: the
scammers send you expertly forged cheques or money orders and claim
that they are payments from customers. They request that you cash the
payments and forward 90% of the proceeds via Western Union (or
similar). The forgery is eventually discovered, and your bank takes
the money back out of your account, leaving you out of pocket.

If anyone corresponds with this scammer, I'd be particularly
interested to know where the Western Union payments are going. (It's
usually a toss-up between Eastern Europe and West Africa.)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Hangzhou Taixin Industrial Co., Ltd" <[redacted (probably false)]>
Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2008 05:13:07 +0300 (EEST)
Subject: REGIONAL PAYMENT RECEIVING AGENT NEEDED
To: [redacted (misleading)]


--
Hangzhou Taixin Industrial Co., Ltd
Puyang Industrial Zone,
Xiaoshan District.Hangzhou
Zhejiang.China

Dear Sir/Madam

REGIONAL PAYMENT RECEIVING AGENT NEEDED

Hangzhou Taixin Industrial Co., Ltd is based in China.
We specializes in exportation and importation of Iron
and steel.We exports our products to North America,South
America,Eastern Europe and Western Europe etc.

We are looking for a payment representative in UK,USA,Canada,
and Mexico.Salary is 10% of every payment you receive on
our behalf.

All charges such as tax and transfer charges will be deducted
from the balance 90% .Details of your account is not needed
in this transaction and you do not to make any upfront payment
to us.

Note:Even if you have a present job,you can still be part of
our business as your service to us would not disturb with your
working hours at all.

If you are interested in this transaction forward your contact
information to my private email: gogen_su86@yahoo.com.cn

1)Your Full names:
2)Your Address.
3)Postal code:
4)Home/office phone number:
5)cell number
6)Occupation
8)Sex:
9)Age:

Note:Your address must be very correct and complete otherwise you
will not receive the payment which my customers will be sending to
you.
Therefore your address should include the following (your house
number,name of street,city,state,country and postal code.)
Thanks for your understanding and co-operation.

Sincerely

Mr. Guogen Sun
Chief Executive Officer
Hangzhou Taixin Industrial Co., Ltd
gogen_su86@yahoo.com.cn

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6 comments:

Ale Cogan said...

I received this letter two days ago. I asked where did they get my email address. As I received another mail with their answer I sent them my info...but without telling my city and country.
After I read your post I looked for more "Hangzhou Taixin Industrial Co." info in internet and sent a mail to a "real" address corresponding this enterprise.
Thanks for your blog! It´s a pity I found it now...

Anonymous said...

I just got a check in the mail! did nothing but give them contact info that they could have got from the phone book. Never sent them a dime and never contacted the "debtor" re the "bill". I am on my way to the bank tomorrow to notify the manager and ask her to check this out w/banking authorities. Stay tuned...

Anonymous said...

I gave my contact information for this position. after a couple e-mails i asked if what i was doing was illegal in any way. i did not receive a response which led me to believe it was some kind of money laundering scam. I forgot all about this until a check showed up in the mail for $9,950.00. drawn on Chase Manhatten bank of Delaware. Someone please advise me on what I should do? Prison is not where i want to end up.
thanks

Ale Cogan said...

In your place I would go to the bank and ask them what to do.

Spotter said...

You don't technically have to do anything: you could just destroy the check and be done with it. However, it may be helpful if you contact the issuing bank and notify them that you have a check drawn on one of their accounts that you believe to be a forgery. They may ask for it, or they may simply tell you to destroy it. I'm really not sure what their standard procedure is in those circumstances.

Unknown said...

I received a letter, but the company is Chuo Denki Kogyo Co., Ltd, of Japan, with similar words. I suppose is the same "kind of jobs".