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.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Internet Auction Service

This looks to be the exact same scam as "International Auctioneers Group" operating under a slightly different name. The associated domain name was registered little more than one day ago, and was last updated only hours ago.

Domain ID:D154468340-LROR
Domain Name:IAS-JOBS.ORG
Created On:14-Oct-2008 22:52:08 UTC
Last Updated On:15-Oct-2008 19:24:13 UTC
Expiration Date:14-Oct-2009 22:52:08 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:Bizcn.com, Inc. (R1248-LROR)
Registrant ID:orgsl24024725840
Registrant Email:supportnewest@safe-mail.net
Name Server:NS1.EUROGOLDEN.NET
Name Server:NS2.EUROGOLDEN.NET

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: [redacted (false, random)]
Date: 2008/10/16 UTC
Subject: Current Open Position
To: [redacted (privacy)]


Internet Auction Service provides business support, retail distribution, franchise operations, direct sales, and a variety of auction as well as accounting and billing services. We are currently recruiting for the positions of Virtual Office Assistants in Australia and New Zealand, part-time and full-time available. The positions focus on providing administrative assistance in online sales. Part-time and full-time positions available: Part-time: 3 hours per day during either one of these shifts: 9:00am-12:00pm 11:00am-2:00pm 12:00pm-3:00pm 2:00pm-5:00pm Full Time: 6 hours per day during either one of these shifts: 9:00am-3:00pm 11:00am-5:00pm Salary: Part-time: $1,500/month plus commission Full-time: $3,000/month plus commission Professional Qualities: - Customer focused decision maker - Demonstrates a high level of personal accountability - Thinks about the team first over personal agendas - Learning adaptive - Process driven Basic Requirements for Virtual Office Assistant: - Internet Access - Microsoft Office - Basic Accounting skills If you are interested in this position please send us an email to Monica.Parker@ias-jobs.org expressing your interest and we will forward you the detailed job description and the agreement. Best regards, IAS Team

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just got one too!
===================================

Internet Auction Service provides business support, retail distribution, franchise
operations,
direct sales, and a variety of auction as well as accounting and billing services.

We are currently recruiting for the positions of Virtual Office Assistants in the
United
Kingdom, part-time and full-time available. The positions focus on providing
administrative
assistance in online sales.

Part-time and full-time positions available:

Part-time: 3 hours per day during either one of these shifts:
9:00am-12:00pm 11:00am-2:00pm 12:00pm-3:00pm 2:00pm-5:00pm

Full Time: 6 hours per day during either one of these shifts:
9:00am-3:00pm 11:00am-5:00pm

Salary:

Part-time: 1,100GBP/month plus commission
Full-time: 2,200GBP/month plus commission

Professional Qualities:
- Customer focused decision maker
- Demonstrates a high level of personal accountability
- Thinks about the team first over personal agendas
- Learning adaptive
- Process driven

Basic Requirements for Virtual Office Assistant:
- Internet Access
- Microsoft Office
- Basic Accounting skills

If you are interested in this position please send us an email to
Jennifer.Edwards@ias-jobs.org
expressing your interest and we will forward you the detailed job description and
the agreement.

Best regards,
IAS Team
=========================

3 said...

Me too. However my Spam filter picked up on this.

I have quite a bit of knowledge in this area owing to my job and performed a whois check on the domain - and also googled the domain name... (found this blog).

It's rather different from the usual apparently nonsense spam, and gives specific detail, to create the impression there are jobs available. Perhaps rather attractive considering the current economic state and redundancy is visible these days.

It really pays to get a spam filter in place and to report these types of mails and have them blacklisted.

Let's hope not too many people fall for it.

Good work with the blog though.

3 said...

... also received the same fake email form this address;

lrgdekalb@mail2hot.com

Mail2hot appear to be a legitimate organisation in the states. Perhaps they should be informed their domain is being used/ hijacked.

Anonymous said...

Me too - !! Shame - sounds like a nice job LOL

Anonymous said...

Oh rats.... I was taken in for the first few seconds..... then alarm bells started ringing... why send me job details when they don't even know who I am?

I asked Jennifer.Edwards@ias-jobs.org
to send me details.... and got the following contract asking for my bank details.... Hmmmmmm .... Rats.
Salary Full-Time
During the first month of employment which is considered as the training and step by step guidance period for new employees, for working full-time, 6hours per day, Monday-Friday; you will be paid 2,200GBP per month, plus 5% commission from every payment received and forwarded. The salary will be sent in the form of wire transfer directly to your account. After the first month of employment your base pay salary will go up to 2,500GBP per month, plus 5% commission. Saturday is an optional day for working; receive 10% instead of 5% for sales on Saturdays.

Taxes
You will receive a monthly salary statement stating your total income. All applicable taxes are covered by the company.




The Commencement Date:____________________________________________________________

The Employee, __________________________, acknowledged the Detailed Job Description Outline,
First and Last Name

and signed ______________________________________, on the _________ of ___________, 2008.
Signature date month












Confidential Page 3 10/16/2008

EMPLOYEE INFORMATION FORM
(Complete the Following Form)

Personal Information

First and Last Name:
Residential Phone Number:
Mobile Phone Number:
Full Address:
Date of Birth:

Hours

Preferred Working Hours (please write or type in X for the time you prefer):

Part-Time:
SHIFT A: 9:00am-12:00pm SHIFT B: 11:00am-2:00pm

SHIFT C: 12:00pm-3:00pm SHIFT D: 2:00pm-5:00pm

Full-Time:
SHIFT A: 9:00am-3:00pm SHIFT B: 11:00am-5:00pm

Payments

In order to receive payments from clients and your salary please provide with the account information:

Account Holder’s Name:
Type of Account (Checking, Savings, Business):
Name of Account (If Business):
Name of the Bank:
Account Number:
Sort-Code:
IBAN (optional, if you would like to receive transfers from Europe, not only UK):

Anonymous said...

I replied also and got the contract, thanks for this posting I was almost sucked in, but as they say if it sounds too good to be true it probably is!

Anonymous said...

I have just been looking at the contract and alarm bells went off when they wanted bank details, so looked it up and came across you - Thank God!!!!Sounded to good to be true and it was. Thanks for being out there

Anonymous said...

Hi from New Zealand
I also got the e-mail and responded to Monica Parker - sounds like a real neat name - and got the same letter back as above. Googled the address given and it exists and the telephone number is similar to other businesses at 12345 Lake City Way NE, Seattle, WA 98125, United States. The Suite provided is #228.

Like everybody I got a bit worried when they asked for all my bank details and found the "Sucker Wanted blog".

Quite strange is the fact that they offer to pay all the taxes without knowing my IRD details.

Their fax number actually works so there is a link to nail the bastards. All we need is somebody in the USA to inform the Seattle police to pay them a visit - un-announced.

Anonymous said...

I got one as well:

Internet Auction Service provides business support, retail
> distribution, franchise operations,direct sales, and a variety of
> auction as well as accounting and billing services.We are currently
> recruiting for the positions of Virtual Office Assistants in the
> UnitedKingdom, part-time and full-time available. The positions focus
> on providing administrativeassistance in online sales.Part-time and
> full-time positions available:Part-time: 3 hours per day during either
> one of these shifts:9:00am-12:00pm 11:00am-2:00pm 12:00pm-3:00pm
> 2:00pm-5:00pmFull Time: 6 hours per day during either one of these
> shifts:9:00am-3:00pm 11:00am-5:00pmSalary:Part-time: 1,100GBP/month
> plus commissionFull-time: 2,200GBP/month plus commissionProfessional
> Qualities:- Customer focused decision maker- Demonstrates a high level
> of personal accountability- Thinks about the team first over personal
> agendas- Learning adaptive- Process drivenBasic Requirements for
> Virtual Office Assistant:- Internet Access- Microsoft Office- Basic
> Accounting skillsIf you are interested in this position please send us
> an email to Jennifer.Edwards@ias-jobs.orgexpressing your interest and
> we will forward you the detailed job description and the
> agreement.Best regards, IAS Team

Anonymous said...

Thank you very much for posting this information. I was very very close to emailing my completed application. The email I recieved was actually forwarded from a university website in australia, and I blindly thought that it must be valid considering they went through the university careers website. But, you always need to be suspicious of internet jobs that don't even request a resume, but want your bank account details.
I just forwarded seattle police the link to this website in case they aren't already investigating. So cheers again, hopefully if this is a big fraud, it will be shut down in no time at all so no one gets sucked into dirty money laundering.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for being out there
I was almost convinced
but had the same misgivings
1)bank details requested
2)why me
3)not even an interview
You're right
When it's too good to be true..
Regards
Kevin

Anonymous said...

I received an email from Jennifer Edwards [Jennifer.Edwards@ias-jobs.org], to fill in the contract it was a friend that said, it seemed too good to be true and found your blog and her email was sent to me today with all the above details.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this blog - I checked it out the moment they asked for bank details.

Penny from UK

Anonymous said...

here's a new similar one to avoid


From: Alison Wood [mailto:rb@shocking.com]
Sent: 24 October 2008 12:43
To: kevin@capableconsultantslimited.com
Subject: New Vacancy Proposal!


The perspective commercial firm seeks for new members

If you have 3 free hours per week, a small experience in computers and free phone to which we can join you, you have chance to begin cooperation with us and get more than 2000 US dollars

If you are interested in our job offer, contact us by e-mail: lovesunfk@bk.ru and we will send you further information.

Kindest regards

The IDC Business Group

Anonymous said...

SHIIIIIT

I just sent the email, and I didnt see this before.

What can they do with the information

Spotter said...

So long as you haven't sent them your bank account details, there's not a lot to be concerned about. If you have gone as far as divulging bank account details, then you need to report to your bank any transfers that the scammers make into your account. The incoming money is stolen from other accounts, and they use middle-men like yourself to launder it.