Job and Recruiting Scams:
Payment Officer Scam
RM FABRICS & TEXTILES, London
Robert Merry
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:
- What is your company's physical address and phone number?
- Where is your company registered / licensed and what is the
business license number?
- Does your company have a web site? If so, what is the url?
- What is the business email address for the company? (the email address
you supplied for reply is a
free, non-business email account - gmail, yahoo, hotmail, etc., not a
commercial email account)
- 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", "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.
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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