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.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

North Trade (northpremium.com)

A correspondent just informed me of this job scam, which came via Careerbuilder. They are recruiting for money mules, to forward stolen money to them. The domain name used by this scam is "northpremium.com", and it was registered a week ago at the time of this post, so this is still a relatively fresh scam.

   Domain Name: NORTHPREMIUM.COM
   Registrar: DIRECTI INTERNET SOLUTIONS PVT. LTD. D/B/A PUBLICDOMAINREGISTRY.COM
   Status: clientTransferProhibited
   Updated Date: 14-sep-2010
   Creation Date: 14-sep-2010
   Expiration Date: 14-sep-2012

Customer Service Position (application procedure)  
Dear X,

Thank you for your interest in a employment with North Trade. I would like to give you a succinct synopsis of the Customer Service Specialist's job description and position requirements.

Company Overview

North Trade is a private investment program backed by gold, Forex, bonds, stock trading, and investments in various funds and activities all over the globe. Our mission is to provide our investors with a great opportunity to grow their money by investing as cautiously as possible in a wide variety of arenas while obtaining the highest rates of return. North Trade is a well constructed investment portal; we provide a safe, secure, 100% guaranteed investment environment to all investors, all over the world. We have constructed an exceptionally secure system to provide our clients with this protection.
Visit Our Website at
http://northpremium.com

Job Type: Customer Service
Position Type: Work at home
Employment Type: Full-Time or Part-time (20-30 hours per week minimum)
Opening Date: 9/13/2010
Closing Date: Open until filled

Job Description

Operational hours: 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday-Friday, your local time.
Salary range: $19 per hour, plus bonus remuneration for every processed task.
The salary is paid every two weeks.

Position Requirements

This is not a telemarketing or a direct sales job, and there are no initial deposits or payments to be made prior or after taking this position. You're going to be processing client requests, performing day-to-day operations (e.g. editorial work with documentation, processing company's product-related paperwork, communication with clientele), and providing daily reports to your personal manager. You will be receiving assignments on a daily basis via online back-office system. Every assignment contains detailed directions on how to proceed with the current tasks, and must be processed within the designated timeframe.

Our Benefits

Each Customer Service Specialist is provided with employment benefits after successful probationary period (30 days). The employment benefits include:

- Stock options;
- 401k;
- Flex-Time;
- Health & Dental;
- Professional development programs

* Detailed information concerning the employment benefits will be provided after probationary period successful completion.

How to proceed with your employment process?

To get started with the Customer Service Specialist position we recommend you to review this step-by-step guide:

1. Download an Employment Application (Your application form is attached to this letter)

2. Please carefully review this form, print out, fill in by hand and fax back to one of our U.S. numbers: +1-800-537-6909 or return a scanned and signed copy via REPLYING to this e-mail.

3. Fill in the form below to confirm an offer. It must be completed and sent back via REPLY.

Offer Confirmation Form
---------------------------------------------
Full name:
Address:
Phone #:
E-mail:
---------------------------------------------

4. As soon as we receive required forms, we will provide you with all necessary instructions within 48 hours and a registration link to our online back-office system which will allow you to communicate with your personal manager and schedule interview time.

Please don't hesitate to contact us to eliminate any difficulties or if you have questions. Our support team and a free training course are always available for our applicants.

Sincerely,
Matthew Howard,
HR & Operational Manager,
North Trade.