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 Robert Merry of "RM FABRICS & TEXTILES" in London (or ANYWHERE else) offering you a job as a "representative", "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 "Robert Merry" back and asking:
Try cutting and pasting those questions and emailing them back to the person offering the "job", "Robert Merry" 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: scholar@mail.uh.edu
Date: February 29, 2008 11:59:40 PM EST
Subject: COMPANY OFFER 10% NEEDED!!
Reply-To: robertmerry_04@yahoo.com.hk
Dear Sir/Madam,
My name is ROBERT MERRY. I am the owner of RM FABRICS & TEXTILES COMPANY IN THE UK, I am pleased in offering you a part time paying job. We are looking for representatives in America & canada.
This project has been developed in a way not to affect your present job nor bring you any form of stress but in order to help take care of those extra costs in the area of Financial Independence. We empower people by providing the keys to controlling your income and quality of life. 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.
My company is based in london we are into the production sales of Chinese/African textile and fabric material. My clients make payments for our supplies every week by checks which are not readily cashable outside of the US or Canada, so we need a representative to assist us in processing the payments. checks,money orders, Travellers Cheques etc will be made out to you.
You can then easily cash at your bank or cash point centers, then deduct 10% of the total amount as your commission and send the rest back to me through Moneygram money transfer OR Western Union money transfer.
IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN THIS PROPOSAL FOR EMPLOYMENT PLEASE COMPLETE THIS APPLICATION LETTER
OF EMPLOYMENT BELOW.I NEED YOU TO FILL THIS POSITION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. LOOKING FORWARD TO
HEARING FROM YOU SOON.
RM FABRICS & TEXTILES
E-mail:robertmerry_05@yahoo.com.hk
APPLICATION FORM
Full Name:
Full Address: City,State,Zip code. (NO P.O.BOX
ADDRESSES ALLOWED)
Phone Number:
Age:
Nationality:
Marital Status:
Sex:
Occupation:
Bank:
*Please make sure your telephone # is correct -- I will need to call you when everything is in place.
*If you are interested please email back with the
application form.
ATTESTATION:
You will Follow the rules as advised earlier in this e-mail and Job Description. You will notify the company one week
ahead if eventually you want
to discontinue these funds from coming to your address in order to avoid conflict.
If in agreement to this kindly append signature
below.
RM FABRICS & TEXTILES.
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