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, January 28, 2009

AREM Networks

Although this is clearly a scam, the job description goes to great lengths to make it all sound legitimate. I can't say what the scam is without further detail. If anyone has corresponded with this scammer, please post details of the correspondence here for analysis.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: [redacted (unconfirmed)]
Date: Wed, Jan 28, 2009
Subject: Need a job?
To: [redacted (privacy)]


Dear Job Seeker,
Our company, AREM Networks has an immediate opening for a home-based Regional Client Manager position in the North American region. This opportunity offers a great way to gain valuable experience and learn sales skills in the IT industry.
AREM Networks Company is one of the largest world service providers on offshore programming for IT companies and telecommunications equipment manufacturers. Fifteen-years of experience in the field of offshore programming, highest-level infrastructure, more than 800 of skilled programmers and permanent cooperation with the leading world IT corporations make it possible for AREM Networks Company to guarantee the creation of the product you need within the shortest possible deadlines and with optimal quality-price ratio. Main technological directions of the company are networks and communication systems including wire and wireless (including cellular and satellite) systems, IP telephony, Internet and Intranet applications, digital signal processing, embedded software and many others.
Job Responsibilities:
- Maintaining correspondence with potential and existing customers;
- Sending business proposals and contract documentation to future customers;
- Assisting in signing contracts with new customers;
- Customer support.
General Requirements:
- US residents (21 year of older);
- Fluent spoken and written English;
- Home computer with access to Internet and e-mail;
- Experience with official documentation and business correspondence;
- Opportunity to devote at least 3-4 hours each business day to work;
- Energetic, self assured, self motivated, enthusiastic and achievement oriented;
- Strong ability to focus on streamlining processes and procedures;
- Analytic-problem solving.
Pay Ranges:
- $24,000 - $26,000 per year
Benefits:
- Bonus of 5% of the sum of each signed contract;
- 401(k) and Profit Sharing Plan;
- Vacation & Personal Holidays;
- Opportunities for professional growth.
Please email your resume and cover letter (if any) to aremsupport7@gmail.com with �Regional Client Manager� as the topic. A brief phone interview will be held with successful candidates.
Best regards,
HR Department
AREM Networks


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23 comments:

Unknown said...

Thank you for putting this up because I did receive the same job offer. I always look into companies before replying to them.

Again thanks for saving me time and money.

Unknown said...

Thank you for putting this up because I did receive the same job offer. I always look into companies before replying to them.

Again thanks for saving me time and money.

magy69 said...

To whom it is my concern:
Thanks to have this web site it really helps me, because I received this message asking me to work for them and it is wear because i never know arem networks and it get me by surprasing. However, since i was a victim of these bad scam i always do my homework before any action.
So thanks you to care for the public and let me know how nasty are these scamers who do not care for the public wealfear only them.

God bless you
Maggy
Massachusetts

Anonymous said...

Thanks A LOT for this! I received the email and was skeptical.

Job Seeker
St. Louis, MO

Anonymous said...

The word "Offshore" caught my attention, so I thought that more research was necessary B4 proceeding. HAS to be a scam!

Anonymous said...

I received the same email and in this time of economic hardship I was happy to hear about an opportunity but as I always do, I looked into the company. This was the first site that came up and confirmed my suspicions. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Thank you very much for posting the letter. I just received one that looks exactly the same.

Be cautious buddy especially at a time like this when the economy is bad.

Anonymous said...

I received this email. I won't go so far as to say it is a scam without further evidence, however, I do think it is highly suspicious. They don't ask for the standard full name, birthdate, full address, and etc. that standard scams do.

This email assumes that I want to work in the IT industry. I don't wish to work in that industry because I know myself well enough to know where I would fit the best and it isn't the IT industry.

"Highest level infrastructure"..."highest" in what country or what standards?

Are these people programming satellite and cellular systems by disrupting existing infrastructure?

Does this email contain a worm?

Why does a person have to be over 21 years of age to be a sales representative? This doesn't make sense.

$24-26K per year for suspicious activity is a very low salary.

The worst of this email is that it appears that they want to disrupt both wire and wireless cellular and satellite systems by changing the pathways. That isn't all. They wish to program different internet pathways, create viruses for intranet users, change VOIP telephony protocols, jam digital signal processing, it appears that they want to take over already embedded software and use it to their advantage which may mean draining their victim's bank account.

The problem with this email is that the law actually allows people to hack in to wireless signals and etc.

What if we actually have a credible security threat that could use these measures against us? The law would allow this to happen as it currently stands.

I am not responding to the email. It is just too risky.

If you work for law enforcement maybe you could reply to one of the addresses listed from the email I received which shows up as "Please email your resume and cover letter (if any) to aremsupport7@gmail.com with �Regional Client Manager� as the topic. A brief phone interview will be held with successful candidates.
Best regards,
HR Department
AREM Networks"

or the address in my "from" line is from: Rakesh Swindell rakeshswindell1960 at hotmail.com who may be a victim.

Unknown said...

I've gotten 3 of these. What I want to know is, who did I give out my email address to that passed it along to these scammers? My GMail had been spam free until now, I was really hoping it would stay that way.

Anonymous said...

I am one of those fools who could easily be just the vector for any further disruptions that would be channeled via my computer... Thank goodness for your website and, perhaps, for an ounce of personal curiousity (or intuition?) that prompted me to check the company out first before I replied to them. This is the first time I became a target for scammers. The message came at the opportune time when I mentioned to several people my current interest in getting a part-time home-based job requiring similar skills. That's why my guard was somewhat down. Thanks again, guys!

Anonymous said...

All Suspected Web fraud should be reported to the US Government by forwarding the offering to the following address: spam@uce.gov
Additional reporting agencies:
Internet Crime Complaint Center: http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx

Please report suspected Web Fraud and be Vigilant.

BruceG
New Jersey

Anonymous said...

Thanks all. I received this too. I appreciate your input and am glad I did not respond.

Unknown said...

I just got this e-mail with the job offer, thank Gog I always look for info on internet about any company...jsut to let you know another way to verify if a company is legit or not is to call the Better Business Bureau or the chamber of commerce. Anyway, what I want to know is if there is any way at all to track these people down or know where they are so that we can put a stop to things like this and not have other people get rip-off or in trouble because of something like this?...thank you anyway for posting this information.

Anonymous said...

Did you notice that you can not google their web site and get a professional representation?When I emailed and asked for their web site,I got an email from Brenda Moore,their Rep with a link to a sucky web site
Their "contact us" is suspicious.

Anonymous said...

I also want to know where the heck they got my email from -- seriously. Does anyone know who we are applying to jobs to who is a fake and/or then giving/selling our email addresses to them? (And not only did it raise a red flag because I'm not looking for work in the IT or sales fields but because of the "offshore" mention and the fact that every major corporation has its own domain name as opposed to asking you to respond to a hotmail or gmail address.)

Anonymous said...

I got the same email with the job offer and sent them a reply. Apparently, they got my email at monster.com, where I recently posted my resume... Anyway, I received a message not from a gmail, but from their corporate website; I also got to speak to one of their reps, Brenda. She told me that they actually didn't send all these emails, they turned to an HR agency in NY, that actually used direct mailing as a method of recruiting. Now they got lots of trouble because of it and aren't going to continue working with them.

So far nobody asked me to provide any personal info or bank acc details, so I don't see why everyone is so buzzy about them) Looks like a usual sales per position to me. Let's see what will happen after I sign a contract with them, I'll keep everyone posted)

Maximillian Bryan and Marcell Technologies Internationale LLC said...

I got the e-mail from someone at a hotmail address and for some reason I just felt like it was a scam after I e-mailed them my resume. So I tried to find their corporate web site and an I found this blog. Thanks for saving me time and money, Lord knows I have enough headaches as it is.

Winston

Lana said...

If you look up their domain name under whois, you will find Stanislaw Podlewski as the domain creator. The IP address is registered in Italy, but his info is from Warsaw, Poland. Googling his name, you will find him involved in another scam.

I got the same email from Brenda and just had a feeling it was a scam. I am positive it is. Also, the website was just created in January, so why would a "well established leader in the field" just create a website?

Lana said...

I just reported them to Internet Crime Complaint Center: http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx.

Anonymous said...

I responded to this email about the job they had available and here is the response I got. I have never been in the IT field or Sales field so not sure why they sent me this job posting. They asked for all my personal info and I responded to them by asking how I could look up their company since I couldnt find anything besides this scammer website. Here is the response they sent me.

Hello Sarah,




My name is Brenda Moore, I am a recruiting manager at AREM Networks, Ltd. I received your message for the position of a regional client manager with our company. You can always find more about it and other positions with AREM at our website: www.aremnetworks.com.




First of all, I would like to thank you for the interest in our company and this position in particular. Let me tell you more about this position.




AREM Networks is a software development and telecommunication company, one of the leaders in this aspect of IT industry in Europe, especially in the United Kingdom. We specialize in offshore programming solutions, or in other words, in outsourcing programming. Our office is located in the UK, however, we do communicate and work with many businesses and individuals all over the world. We are constantly looking for people, who will represent our company locally and communicate with potential and existing clients in their countries.




At the moment, we are hiring client managers in the United States. We have found a great number of potential clients in the US, so we need people who will contact them, present them our business proposals, answer their questions, which will result in signing a contract with us for our programming solution/product. Your work functions will include correspondence with potential clients, answering their questions by email and over the phone, sending out the papers and contracts and finally receiving and processing payments from new cleints. Your annual salary will be $24.000, however, you will also receive a bonus for each successfully signed contract, which will make 5 of its final amount. Note that an average sum of a contract for complex website solution is $8.000-10.000.




The first month will be considered as a probation period; basing on its results we may continue our co-operation, cease or develop it. If your sales and support efficiency will be high enough, we may discuss opening a local office of AREM Networks and registering an affiliated company for operating with larger businesses and enterprises.




Please let me know, if you are ready to proceed with the employment - I will send you an Independent Contractor Agreement to sign.




Best regards,

Brenda Moore

HR Department of AREM Networks

Spotter said...

Note that aremnetworks.com was registered less than a week before this scam started circulating.

Domain Name: AREMNETWORKS.COM
Registrar: ENOM, INC.
Whois Server: whois.enom.com
Referral URL: http://www.enom.com
Name Server: NS1.SRVDNS.CO.UK
Name Server: NS2.SRVDNS.CO.UK
Updated Date: 23-jan-2009
Creation Date: 23-jan-2009
Expiration Date: 23-jan-2010

The "payment processing" aspect of the job description clarifies things: it's a money mule scam (laundering stolen money) as usual.

skeewee said...

Thanks for the blog...Brenda was quick to respond when I questioned the legitamacy of this "client manager" position...

To Brenda:
The Contractor will maintain correspondence with potential clients, communicate with them by email and/or over the phone, send out the papers and contracts, and finally receive and distribute payments from new clients. The Contractor will report directly to his/her personal manager and to any other party designated by the personal manager in connection with the performance of the duties under this Agreement, and shall fulfill any other duties reasonably requested by the Company and agreed to by the Contractor.

>

> The receiving and distributing payments part...How does this happen? Will money be wired into an account and then I have to send it via Western Union/Money Gram to another person in another country? Please ellaborate regarding the receiving and distributing payments please. There are a whole lot of scams, and I don't want my personal integrity to be questioned.

> Also, what are the "strict regulations" you have for the home-based business positions? Is there a local or toll-free number for the company?

Brenda's response

Thank you so much for your questions. First, let me explain the working process to you. We have a list of potential clients in the USA. These are the people who would like to order a website, a local network solution or a certain piece of software with us. However, they would prefer to work with a local representative of our company in the US due to many reasons, among which are taxes, time spent on communication and many others. Your job would be to communicate with these people, sign contracts with them and basically sell our services.




Basically, you will be an authorized representative of AREM Networks in the US, so the clients will actually sign contracts for this or that web/software solution with you personally. Thus, they will send you fees for these projects, which you will need to distribute. A part of a fee will go to our corporate office, another part should be delivered to one of programming/designer teams, finally 5% of the fee for each contract you sign will be your bonus.




As you will be receiving payments from our clients and dealing them on behalf of our company, we would definitely request a copy of any ID confirming your identity. This is a matter of security, as we can't meet and sign the agreement in person. As for the phone numbers, we don't have a US number, since there are no AREM offices there. Should we have ones, we wouldn't be looking for local representatives... However, if you'd like to, I can give you a cal.




---

Best regards,

Brenda Moore

HR Department of AREM Networks




> Hello Brenda,

>

> One question regarding the "Duties"

>

> :

Anonymous said...

Spotter (and others); this was posted on your friend bobear's site on 5th February. indicating clear money mule scam: http://www.bobbear.co.uk/arem-networks.html