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.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Felles Logistics

A correspondent notifies me of "Felles Logistics" at http://felles-group.com/ who appear to be looking for suckers to act as reshippers (receive and remail packages). The job description is like so.

Persons who will be accepted for this position will follow these simple instructions:
1. Receive correspondence from our suppliers to his/her residential address.
2. Report to our managers.
3. Fill in forms and papers as it will be shown in our managers' instructions (you will receive an email with the instructions for each box and PREPAID shipping labels).
4. Mail packages out. You can do this at your local Post Office or we can order a courier pick-up.
5. Provide scans of the mailing receipts.
6. Receive money from our company for each shipped out package.

The usual catch in this kind of work is that you are reshipping goods which have been purchased using stolen credit cards. This creates all sorts of legal complications for the "employee".

The "Felles Logistics" website claims that the company was founded in 1994, but their website is less than a year old.

   Domain Name: FELLES-GROUP.COM
   Registrar: ESTDOMAINS, INC.
   Whois Server: whois.estdomains.com
   Referral URL: http://www.estdomains.com
   Name Server: NS1.RUBY6644.COM
   Name Server: NS2.RUBY6644.COM
   Updated Date: 20-mar-2008
   Creation Date: 28-oct-2007
   Expiration Date: 28-oct-2008

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just receive an email from Felles Logistic, I register online and after that I did the research I'm in shock.
The reply email I received was the same you have described.
After I read your advice regarding this issue I went to register page and change everything.Also I reply the job offer rejected the opportunity. Anyway, can you help me ??? What I need to do to avoid that company use my information. They have my resume with my name, personal address , email and cell phone.
Please help me!!!
By the way, thanks for posted that. this help me a lot and save my life for a lot of headache.
Thanks again and God bless you!!!

Spotter said...

Don't be too worried. The information they have isn't much more than they would be able to find in a telephone directory. What's important is that you don't cooperate with them. Refuse delivery of any goods that are sent to you if possible. Under no circumstances should you forward goods overseas: send them back where they came from.

If you're lucky, no goods will arrive, and they'll just move on to trying to scam someone else. There's no profit in chasing you if you're not going to cooperate.