Job and Recruiting Scams:
Payment Officer Scam
Child Africa, East Africa
Jean Paul Deprins
Have you received an email from Jean Paul Deprins of "Child Africa" in East Africa (or ANYWHERE else) offering you
a job as a "payment representative / Receptionist / Bookkeeper", "Payment Officer", "local agent" or "local representative" in which
you "receive payments", deduct your "Processing fee", deposit the checks and
then wire most of the money to an overseas "company"?
It is an AFF / Money transfer Scam. The
organization "Child Africa" appears to be legitimate, as is the name used; but
it has been hijacked by a scammer who has nothijng to do with the organization.
He'll send you counterfeit checks which you are supposed to deposit, take out
some percentage (typically, 10%) for your work, and then MoneyGram or Western
Union wire the remaining 90%. Notice that although you receive checks, they
won't let you forward a check to them, only Western Union or Money Gram. There's
a reason for this: Western Union and MoneyGrams are cashed immediately and are
untraceable and irretrievable. Bank checks can take 1 or 2 weeks to clear!
Of course, since the check is fake, it will bounce a week or so later after
you deposit it. But you have already moneygram'ed the scammers the 90% of
the amount, and that is transacted almost instantly. So you now owe the
bank for the full amount. You may also face criminal charges for passing
counterfeit checks. See
this page for a step-by-step explanation of how the scam unfolds.
In the email below, there are some many red flags, we
can't imagine any way it could be legitimate. But you can try emailing "Jean Paul Deprins"
back and asking:
- What is your company's physical address and phone number?
- Where is your company registered / licensed and what is the
business license number?
- Does your company have a web site? If so, what is the url?
- What is the business email address for the company? (the email address
you supplied for reply is a
free, non-business email account - gmail, yahoo, hotmail, etc., not a
commercial email account)
- What is the value to the company of people like me receiving
payments (checks, wires, etc.), cashing them and forwarding the money?
- Why aren’t the payment deposited directly into your own banking
account, as any major bank can receive checks and wires drawn on any legitimate bank
anywhere in the world, in any currency?
Try cutting and pasting those questions and emailing
them back to the person offering the "job", "Jean Paul Deprins" in this case and see how he
responds. We’ll bet it will be with hostility, like:
“Why are you asking me these questions? We are
offering you a legitimate job helping children, but you are treating us like we are scammers!
If you are not interested we can find someone else; it is YOUR loss!”
Which, of course, is how a scammer caught with questions
that expose his scam, will reply!
Do you have a resume posted online? We'd like to hear from you about your
experiences recruiting emails that turned out to be scams or misleading -
click here to write us.
Notice the passages we have highlighted in the actual scam email below.
They illustrate some of the additional clues that it is a scam, such as the email
comes from a free email account (such as Yahoo.com, Hotmail.com, Aim.com, Gmail,
cox.net, etc.). Wouldn't you expect a company to have its own website and
email address (after all, it only costs about $200/year; every reputable company
has its own website these days!) And don't be surprised if the scammers do put
the names of real companies, real websites and events in their scams; it doesn't
mean anything at all!
Hello,
How do you do?
My name is Jean Paul Deprins, Chief Finance Director,
Child Africa.
There is an Open Vacancy in the Organization. I came
about your email address in an online directory and the Board of Directors of
Child Africa is willing to offer you a good Part- Time paying job in which you
could earn a lot. This job would be based on contract and commission terms, it
is a part-time job and it would involve quite a handful of trust and honesty. If
you would be interested in including a good-paying, part time job to your daily
list of activities and earning up to $4000.
I just took time to make this explanatory enough so you
could understand what the job entails, before I go further I thought I'd inform
you of both who you would be working for and what you would be doing.
As I have previously already informed you, my name is
Jean Paul Deprins,
38 years of age, 3 kids, all boys and the love of my
life, my Wife, Martha.
The aim of Child Africa is to put an end to Poverty
which is common in East Africa. Many children become orphans due to AIDS.
At Child Africa, we work hard to support the community.
As a brand, we aim to help improve the quality of life for children and their
families. This is demonstrated in our role as corporate partner with the Well
Child charity with money raised going towards helping sick children and their
families.
Mother Theresa was once asked “How can we ever end
poverty?” She replied with one simple word…”Share”.
You can read more online at:
www.childafrica.org
Presently, the foundation, Child Africa was granted
funds and donations to head a charity support project in the tropical regions of
Africa regarding the fight against heart disease and also supporting the
treatment of many childhood Heart Illnesses.
However, Our Donated Funds were by our American
counterparts and they mostly come in US based Money Orders, Travelers Checks and
sometimes Cashier’s Checks and are also some time done by Wire Transfers.
Getting an accountant in the states or opening an
account would have been our best choice but I have a deadline to meet and taking
any of those choices would cost our time and a whole lot of other requirements I
am not ready to deal with as I would be travelling a lot in the meantime.
So presently, having read your resume and 'assuming' you
would be able to deal with cash, I would be willing to employ you on contract
basis to be my payment representative / Receptionist / Bookkeeper back in the
states, this way I could issue and make these money orders out to you, you could
then cash them easily, withdraw Ten Percent (10%) of the total amount on these
money orders as your commission for the great service you would be rendering and
then send the rest back to me through Western Union Money transfer.
You would have to keep Detailed Transactions in a
Spreadsheet so the process would be recorded just for verification purposes.
Bear it in mind that we would be dealing with quite a
handful of cash and you could be making good money working with us in a short
period of time.
I would be glad if you accept my proposal as I intend to
commence with you as soon as you are ready. I would be issuing and mailing over
my money orders to you, which would be issued out in your name and sent over
through a reputable courier service. Like I said, the funds and donations was
granted to head a charity support project in the tropical regions of East Africa
regarding the fight against heart disease and also supporting the treatment of
many childhood Heart Illnesses.
Once you get them in the mail, you would be cashing them
at your bank, deducting Ten percent (10% Alongside the Western Union Transfer
Charges) of the total amount cashed as commission to the great effort you are
rendering to help build the third world and any other transfer charges incurred
during the transaction.
The rest fund would be wired via Western Union to
wherever It might be needed at that point in time.
I have attached an employment form in this email which
you could fully fill on your computer and send back as an attachment, just so I
know who and where I would be sending DONATIONS to.
Do provide an address where you will be able to sign for
the collection of the payment.
IF YOU ARE NOT INTERESTED IN THE JOB OFFER BUT ARE
WILLING TO DONATE FOR THE CHILDREN PLEASE INDICATE.
“Be FOR something - rather than against something"
Any individual or group insisting in their idea being
right simply creates more righteous people.
Support where support is needed.
Thanks and God Bless.
Jean Paul Deprins
Finance Director
Child Africa Charity Organization
childafrique@gmail.com
www.childafrica.org
..........Building a better tomorrow.
APPLICATION FORM
FULL NAME:
HOME ADDRESS (NOT POST OFFICE BOX) :
CITY :
STATE :
ZIP CODE:
COUNTRY :
PHONE NUMBER (S) Home : Cell :
GENDER :
MARITAL STATUS :
AGE:
NATIONALITY :
(Information included in this application form is
CONFIDENTIAL between you and me, and the full name and contact info should be
included as it should be written on the payments being issued over to you, you
should also include a valid phone number for easy contact) In agreement to this
kindly append signature below
Jean Paul Deprins
Finance Director
Child Africa Charity Organization.
Other Jobs Scams
There are a variety of sleazy scams that look, at first glance, like
legitimate job offers. Before you write back to them, pause a moment and read about the scams below!
Some of the more common job scams are
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