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 Mr. Scott Ono of "FINANCE INVESTMENT CO LTD" in ??? No address given (or ANYWHERE else) offering you a job as a "Financial Manager", "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.
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 "Mr. Scott Ono" back and asking:
Try cutting and pasting those questions and emailing them back to the person offering the "job", "Mr. Scott Ono" 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, 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!
from: FINANCE INVESTMENT CO LTD <guvh678@gmail.com> reply-to"Mr. Scott Ono" <mr.scottono@gmail.com>,
date: Fri, Feb 29, 2008 at 4:46 AM
subject: Re: call support applicant
Dear Jaclyn,
Sorry that so long did not answer.
I looked through your resume and think that it matches position completely. Unfortunately phone call support position isn't available anymore, but we can suggest you well compensated part time job. This part time job can be combined with any full time job.
New Vacancy in our Company: "Financial Manager"
1. You accept cheques (checks) from our clients.
- You accept cheques (checks) on your home mail box and cash them.
Every month you will get $1800 salary + 3 commissions. You will get commissions immediately after every cashing.
It takes 4-6 days to receive a cheque.
2. You accept Wire/ACH Transfers ON your bank checking account.
Every month you will get $2400 salary + 3 commissions. You will get commissions immediately after cashing.
It takes 1-4 days to recieve a Wire/ACH Transfer.
You may have additional questions that will help you to make a choice.
You should inform us about the choice during 24 hours.
FINANCE INVESTMENT CO LTD
Mr. Scott Ono
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