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, November 19, 2008

Fabricom Oil and Gas Ltd. (impostors)


A correspondent sent me an inquiry about a job offer received on Craigslist: someone claiming to represent "Fabricom Oil and Gas Ltd" is currently only too happy to employ people as an Administrative Assistant/Accounts Receivable Clerk. This job is also known as "money mule", or more precisely "sucker who will be asked to cash forged checks or money orders and then abandoned as soon as they are caught". In other words, these people are looking for victims, not employees. A quick search shows evidence that there is a real Fabricom Oil and Gas, but they have nothing to do with this scam. As a general rule, all job offers which involve handling money for overseas entities are scams. Those looking for a job on Craigslist should be particularly aware of this, but it holds for those looking for jobs on dedicated employment websites and also in newspapers!

Posted by Spotter at 11:25

3 comments:

Unknown said...

i almost fell for this. Thank you

9:02 pm, November 19, 2008
Anonymous said...

OMG! This was really good!! Scam of all scams! I almost fell for this too. All the attachments, the interview questions, all the detail, etc. it seemed to be for real. But it was almost too good to be true. Then, when I started reading about transferring of money, I got suspicious and decided to see if this was a real company. The worse part of it is that it IS a real company. Shame on that company for not doing something about this. Luckily I went on and saw this posting about Suckers Wanted. BEWARE ALL - especially if you are really desperate for employment - this is not what you want!

4:22 am, December 01, 2008
Anonymous said...

Well, I am glad that I decided to google this company for its credentials. I am so disappointed. :-( The first thing that caused me to become suspicious was the large amount that are willing to pay you for working at home. I was like, "40k, hmmmm". Thanks for taking the time to post this valuable information for people like myself that is in the market for a job, especially since the holidays are here. I hope others will take heed to this information before they get themselves in a lot of trouble. Have a great holiday!

12:59 am, December 06, 2008

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