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, October 07, 2008

Emerald Fabrics

Here's an odd thing. For reasons that I no longer recall, I requested more information from an employment scammer claiming to be Ashley Furniture last month. I didn't get a response back, but now I note that this "job offer" (which claims to be in response to my "initial requesting") is also using a btinternet.com reply address, just like the Ashley Furniture scam was. The Ashley Furniture scam has been listed on this blog for about a year now, so perhaps the scammer figures it's time for a name change?

The "from" address in this scam is a tad suspicious. The domain "employmentopening.co.uk" was registered on 31-Aug-2008, and the authoritative nameservers for the domain (based on WHOIS data) claim that the domain doesn't exist. I think we should assume that it's been registered by a scammer until proven otherwise.

I should mention, for the sake of completeness, that this scammer is not actually named "Mark Johnson" and does not represent a company called "Emerald Fabrics". He's a scammer that wants you to cash forged cheques for him so he can rip you off. Everything else is a cover story to hide that fact.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mark Johnson <emeraldfabrics@employmentopening.co.uk>
Date: 2008/10/7
Subject: Government Approved !!! Part-Time Job Offer !!!
To: ideceive@gmail.com


HELLO

WE HAVE A JOB OFFER AVAILABLE FOR YOU IN RESPONSE TO YOUR INITIAL
REQUESTING THE JOB SEARCH DIRECTORY IS FOR USA/CANADA ONLY.WE BASED IN
UK.WE HAVE BEEN RECEIVING ORDERS FROM NORTHERN AMERICA, WHICH WE HAVE NOT
BEEN ABLE TO PROCESS COMPLETELY SINCE WE DO NOT HAVE A PAYMENT RECEIVING
PERSONNEL IN THESE AREAS.WE HAVE DECIDED TO RECRUIT PAYMENT OFFICERS ONLINE HENCE
WE WILL BE NEEDING A RELIABLE REPRESENTATIVE TO PROCESS OUR PAYMENTS IN THESE AREAS.
If you are interested get back with this information requested:


FULL NAME,
FULL ADDRESS(NOT P.O BOX )
CITY:
STATE:& ZIP-CODE:
CELL PHONE NUMBER:
OCCUPATION:
PREVIOUS OR CURRENT ANNUAL INCOME:
DO YOU HAVE:HOME  EQUITY LINE OF CREDIT ACCOUNT? YES/NO :
NAME OF BANK:

WHENEVER YOU RECEIVE PAYMENT YOU WILL GET 10% ON EACH. IF YOU GET PAYMENT OF
$3400 YOU WILL GET $ 340 FROM THAT AND GET THE 90% TO THE COMPANY.

Yours Faithfully,
Mr. Mark Johnson
Payment Officer,
Emerald Fabrics
Gallery Road, Dulwich Village,
London SE21 7AD
Rc:122132


Email all the information requested to: emerald.fabrics@btinternet.com

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Spotter, please note alleged address of "Mark Johnson." I assume that the Dulwich Picture Gallery money mule scam has been attempted on your side of the world in Australia as well as here in the USA. This could be one of the same scammers. You have mentioned his possible relationship to the Ashley Furniture scam-I have posted on that blog also.