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, October 14, 2007

Positive International Inc.

Another day, another money mule scam with an improbable name: "Positive International". Same old story: they send you fraudulent transfers or checks, and ask you to launder it by sending back money via Western Union. Don't send them any money, don't deposit their checks, and inform your bank that the transaction is suspicious if they've sent you money via direct transfer.

   Domain Name: POSITIVEINTER.COM
   Registrar: DIRECT INFORMATION PVT LTD D/B/A PUBLICDOMAINREGISTRY.COM
   Whois Server: whois.PublicDomainRegistry.com
   Referral URL: http://www.PublicDomainRegistry.com
   Name Server: NS29.IPNAMES.NET
   Name Server: NS30.IPNAMES.NET
   Updated Date: 09-oct-2007
   Creation Date: 09-oct-2007
   Expiration Date: 09-oct-2008

They may well have registered additional domain names.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: [redacted]
Date: , 14 Oct 2007 18:45:15 +0300
Subject: Are you really looking for a job? (18652)
To: ideceive@gmail.com

Are you really looking for a job?

One of the biggest Finance Company of the East Europe glad to offered excellent work guaranteeing real money for you!!

No need to invest or buy products in order to work with us.
No need any money to start!

About us

Positive International Inc. was founded in 1990 by a team of antiquities experts. By now our company has grown from a small company with 7 employees to an international groupwith several representative offices in different countries of the world.
Nowadays we are not just selling and buying antiques, but are also dealing with organization of international exhibitions, seminars, tours and many other things.

For more information:   http://www.positiveinter.com
Our vacancies:   http://www.positiveinter.com/eng/work.html

Now clients of our company conduct financial operations all over the world including:
USA, Canada, Australia, NewZealand and other countries, but due to sufficient perfection banking service we have some  difficulties in transfers and the organizations of our business, therefore we planning opening offices in which we equire USA, Canada, Australia, NewZealand.

Now we are looking for financial assistants in that will be responsible to accept payments from our clients. At this moment we are provide and offered work at home, after opening offices in this countries you will have an opportunity for working in our offices as well.

Our vacancies.

Today we are looking for financial assistants that will be responsible to accept payments from clients through bank transfer, because of imperfection of bank system Americans and other partners our clients have some difficulties with sending of bank
transfers and checks to the East Europe. You can make 8% commission from every transfer you will receive through your in
relation to our business. The rest needs to be transferred to our company's representative by Western Union, MoneyGram or other payment service. All Western  Union, MoneyGram and other fees are paid by us. On average you will be making 3,000 USD per month.

We are believe that you can get good future and achievements in our business.
If our offer is interesting to you, please feel free and sending a e-mail to our HR office.
For more information our crew of Human Resources is ready to answer to all your questions.
http://www.positiveinter.com/eng/work.html

Sincerely yours,   Positive International Inc.
www.positiveinter.com

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks ike Positive International are getting high tech, look at this website for positive international.net.
I got the following email:
How Are you ?,
surveys show that 84% of people of your age are not satisfied with their
monthly earnings and wish to make more.
That's why we would like to offer you an opportunity of part-time work.
To get 160-530 euros a week you have to spend 3-4 hours a week.
You need a contact telephone (preferably a mobile), a computer and email.
If you are reading these lines, it means you have everything you need to start work.
The employment lasts till the end of the month; we have 34 vacancies in your country so far.
You will have to process payments from our clients. It is a simple work, which requires
attentiveness and accuracy. We provide training and everything you need for the work.
Our requirements include:
- Good responsibility to company requests
- Proved ability to work independently
- Home Computer with e-mail account and ability to check your e-mail box at least twice a day
- 21+y.o. only accepted (we cannot hire underage people);
- 1-3 hours free during the week (mainly in the evening non-business hours)
for communication and 2-4 hours a week more for transfer processing
- NO criminal records
Initial investments from you are not required.
Who are we? We are one of the biggest Finance Company of the East Europe.
We will be glad to provide you with any additional information.
We do not use automated programs for answers and we read every letter and reply personally.
For more information: http://www.positiveinter.net
Our vacancies: http://www.positiveinter.net/eng/work.html
Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and you will not receive a response.
yp

Spotter said...

I have also received one of those.

Domain Name: POSITIVEINTER.NET
Registrar: DIRECT INFORMATION PVT LTD D/B/A PUBLICDOMAINREGISTRY.COM
Whois Server: whois.PublicDomainRegistry.com
Referral URL: http://www.PublicDomainRegistry.com
Name Server: NS29.IPNAMES.NET
Name Server: NS30.IPNAMES.NET
Updated Date: 22-oct-2007
Creation Date: 22-oct-2007
Expiration Date: 22-oct-2008

Anonymous said...

Hi SW,

There is what seems to be a real Positive International at a different web site to the one in the scam email - this is an exert from Google search:

Positive International - Positive International offers individuals challenging opportunities within the booming e-commerce industry.
positiveinternational.com/ - 15k - Cached - Similar pages

Regards, G.

Spotter said...

I really don't know anything about "positiveinternational.com". A glance at the website doesn't inspire much confidence in me, though. It might be a scam.

Meanwhile, the absolutely certain scam that is "positiveinter.net" continues to churn out job ad spam. The most recent one arrived around six hours ago.

Anonymous said...

positiveinternational.com is part of a pyramid scheme scam. Last year, I was personally approached by a friend who was or probably is still involved in this. You can help me out by googling for the phrase "offers individuals challenging opportunities within the booming e-commerce industry" and list all the websites that look like part of the scam. All of them seem to be backed by imart.com.