Job and Recruiting Scams:
Payment Officer Scam
GUARANTEE-TRADING Company or GUARANTEEINVEST, Moscow, Russia
Michael Harrison
Have you received an email from Michael Harrison
of "GUARANTEE-TRADING Company or GUARANTEEINVEST" in Moscow, Russia (or ANYWHERE else) offering you
a job as a "Finance 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"?
If we are correct, 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 "Michael Harrison
"
back and asking:
- 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", "Michael Harrison
" 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!
Dear Tom Johnson
We are glad to inform you, that we have looked your resume and it satisfies
with our requirement.
Our company GUARANTEEINVEST by the current
moment requires workers in the US and EU. Start work with us today! All what you'll need is to have the bank account
and an opportunity to check an e-mail even twice day.
It could be part-time!Your salary depends on the speed and accuracy of
completing our assignments.
It starts from $3,000 USD(2,057 EUR) per month.
Please contact us:
manager-guarantee@safe-mail.net for additional information.
We look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
GUARANTEEINVEST team, Michael Harrison,
manager-guarantee@safe-mail.net
Our response:
Hi,
What can you tell me about the job?
Tom
And the scammers reply:
Dear Tom Johnson,
Here is the additional information you requested:
Right now we are in need of Finance Managers, job description could be found
here:
http://guarantee-trading.com/-page=careers2.htm
To register, please follow this link:
http://guarantee-trading.com/-page=register.htm
Yours faithfully GUARANTEE-TRADING Company,
www.guarantee-trading.com
Our follow-up emails bounced.
So what is found at that website?
Here's the website:
What is the job description:
Here is what we found by following the link they provided:
Finance Manager
Job Description
The task of the Finance Manager is to process payments between our partners'
clients and our company, in particular, to manage cash and balance receipts,
follow up on accounts, etc. The job is related to remote Internet
operations. Every payment order will be accompanied by detailed instruction.
It is also the duty to interact and report all the details of every action
You take to our manager. The brief training course is enclosed.
* Some details of the work with our company are subject for changes. However
that should have give a reason for worries, as our employees are always
notified in advance, and participate in work only if they agree to the
changes.
Salary
5% from each transaction depending on the amount of the deal. The amounts of
our deals vary from $1,000 to $4,000. The number or the deals that You'll
take part in is not limited and only depends on Your personal skills,
responsibility and communication abilities. If our managers see that in Your
work, You will be responsible for more and more valuable deals with bigger
amounts. In other words, Your salary depends on You totally.
What do they claim to do?
Their website
states:
GUARANTEE-TRADING offers the External Financial Management
Services. We mainly work with average and small internet companies all over
the world that are looking for convenience and promptness of monetary
transactions. Those are internet shops, markets, on-line auctions, vendors'
services etc. A separate group of our clients consists of individuals
selling and buying goods online, that are willing to have a fast transaction
with minimum risk and maximum security. Another work direction of our
company is offering our clients the service of buying, selling, delivery and
servicing goods worldwide.
They state their location and contact information as:
This is on their
website:
Corporate Headquarters
GUARANTEE-TRADING Gateway Corporation
street Morozova 107
Moscow, 127001
Russia
Fax:
+1(817)7274322
E-mails:
General Information:
info@guarantee-trading.com
Technical Support:
support@guarantee-trading.com
Customer Service:
customer@guarantee-trading.com
Review and conclusions
This is, at very best, an implausible company. Being based in Russia
raises red flags (literally and figuratively!)
Have you ever heard of GUARANTEE-TRADING? We could not locate even one
customer.
Everything we see here looks exactly like the old "payment manager" scam;
even the title and description "process payments".
Companies do not need individuals in foreign countries to "process payments".
What ever form of modern currency the payment is in (check / cheque, credit
card, bank-to-bank wire transfers, etc.), modern banking and electronic
transfers allows both paper and electronic payments to be entered locally by the
customer directly to a foreign seller.
There is no reason to involve a middleman and to offer that person a
percentage of the transaction merely to deposit the payment in his private bank
account then wire the money to the company abroad, especially by a
non-traceable, irretrievable method like Western Union Moneygram.
If there is anyone who accepted their offer and has any direct experience, we
would like to hear about it - please contact us!
Otherwise, we believe this is a fairly obvious, albeit, slickly done and
presented with sophistication, but nevertheless, a scam.
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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