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Jobs Scam: GUARANTEE-TRADING Company or GUARANTEEINVEST, Moscow, Russia - Michael Harrison

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!

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Sample "Payment officer" scam emails:

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

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Our response:

Hi,
 
What can you tell me about the job?
 
Tom

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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.

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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

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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.

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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

• multilevel marketing - Primamerica
• credit card applications (in particular, one from "Grey Marketing Team")
• 30biz.com
• Liberty National Recruiting
• Also see these Spam job emails