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.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Metals UK Limited

This spam originated at IP address 196.3.182.250, belonging to CTAccess, a broadband provider in Abuja, Nigeria. Need I say more? It's a scam -- probably cheque fraud. So far as I can tell, "Metals UK" is a real company (he provides a link to their website, and lists their address), and this Nigerian is an impostor pretending to represent them. Note that he uses a UK +4470 telephone number, which can be forwarded to any other phone number in the world.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Metals UK Limited <info@matals.com> [note: the domain "matals.com" wasn't registered at the time this blog entry was posted]
Reply-to: metals.business@live.com
Date: 2009/5/2 UTC
Subject: BE OUR PAYMENT AGENT
To:




METALS UK LTD
Unit 10/11, Walker Industrial Park Guide,
Blackburn,
Lancashire,
BB1 2QE
Registered in England No. 453 79 01
Phone Number:  +44 703 595 0793
http://www.metalsgroupinc.com/

Attention: Friend,


Our Company is in search for a payment rep that will act as a link between us
and our customer and will also be responsible for the collection of out
standing payment from our customer to us.
Little introduction about the company, following a successful first year the
company formed Metals UK Group Ltd. An indicator of the growth enjoyed, 2005
brought the accolade of Exporter of the Year for the region. Currently, we
export to 36 countries worldwide and we sell to 5 continents The three years
since inception have been years of rapid expansion as Metals UK Group Ltd
brought three UK based businesses into the group, E-Harding and Sons, Loks
Plasma Services and KKS. Over the years we import and export raw materials,
Petrochemical, Chemical, Oil and Gas to different countries in the world,
countries like Canada , America and Europe.So as a representative your job is
to contact our customer that are owning us some outstanding bills because we
are getting it difficult to do so, as soon as we have send you an approval
letter we will be sending you the contact details of our customer in your
region.

We need you to fill and return the form below and we shall send you an approval
for you to work with us As an international agent, you shall serve as a link
between us and our clients and you will also be responsible for the collection
of payments from customers within your region on our behalf. Note that you
shall be on a 10% commission on every transaction u carry out on behalf of the
company that will be your pay.

Fill and Return:
1, FULL NAMES:
2, AGE:
3, PHONE/FAX NUMBER:
4, COUNTRY OF RESIDENCE:
5, CONTACT ADDRESS:

6, OCCUPATION:
7, BANK NAME:



Regards,


Jill Eastbury
International Logistics Controller

----------------------------------------------------------------
This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program.

1 comment:

Virginia Mannino said...

Bastards just tried to get me using the name Mr. Whitehouse. Also, using UPS as their go to person for the response. Thank you for your website! I will put a curse on them!