Protect Yourself and Report the Latest Frauds, Scams, Spams, Fakes, Identify Theft Hacks and Hoaxes
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Have you received an email from "Barry Z Fard" of "Parsco" offering you a job as a "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. They'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.
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 point out 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!)
-------------- Forwarded Message: --------------
From: Parsco Oil and Gas < online102@cox.net >
Subject: Hello;Please respond asap
Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 01:23:17 +0000
Parsco International Limited,UK
Suite 720, Crown House,
North Circular Road,NW10 7PN
London,United Kingdom
Tel:+44 701 114 0131
Dear Sir / Madam,
Parsco International Co. Ltd. is a company based in the United Kingdom(UK) with great specialization in the distribution of various oil & gas products. Due to the current expansion project of our services on the markets of Europe & Northern America (Canada and the United States of America respectively), we are searching for Representative/Payment Officer's abroad.
Kindly Respond if you are Interested in being a Representative/Payment Officer by providing your Complete Legal Names and Mobile/Telephone Numbers for easy access.
Best regards,
Mr. Barry Z Fard
Parsco International Oil & Gas Co. Ltd.
UNITED KINGDOM.
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