Job and Recruiting Scams:
Payment Officer Scam
RAC Company, address unknown
Marc Benson
"Job Position For You!!"
Have you received an email from Marc Benson of "RAC Company" in address unknown (or ANYWHERE else) offering you
a job as a "Representative/Book keeper", "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 "Marc Benson"
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", "Marc Benson" 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: Mr. Marc Benson [
marc11benson@hotmail.com ]
Date: April 3, 2008
Subject: Job Position For You!!
Congratulations to you,
I have been directed to bring to you in offer of work
online from Home/Temporarily and get paid weekly? We are glad to offer you for a
job position at our company, RAC COMPANY.
We need someone to work for the company as a
Representative/Book keeper in USA, UK CANADA (and its ENVIRONS)and in EUROPE.
This is in view of our not having an office recently in the USA, UK CANADA (and
its ENVIRONS).You don't need to have an Office,and this certainly wont disturb
any form of work you have going at the moment. Our integrated yarn and fabric
manufacturing operations use state-of-the-art textile equipment from the world's
leading suppliers. Order processing,production monitoring and process flow are
seamlessly integrated through a company-wide computer network.
* The average monthly income is about 4000.00 USD.
* No form of investments from you.
* This job takes only 1-3 hours per day
Your tasks are:
1. Receive payment from Customers
2. Cash Payment at your Bank
3. Deduct 10% which will be your percentage/pay on
Payment processed 4.Forward balance after deduction of percentage/pay to any of
the offices Payment is to be forwarded either by Money Gram or Western Union
Money Transfer) or any Local Money transfers take barely hours, so it will give
us a possibility to get customer's payment almost immediately.
For example you've got 3000.00 USD, you take your
income: $300.00 USD Send to us:2700.00 USD,First month you will have 15-20
transactions on 3000.00-4000.00 USD so you may calculate your income.For example
18 transactions on 3500.00 USD gives you $6300.00 USD Plus your basic monthly
salary is 1000.00 USD Total: 7300.00 USD per month After establishing a close
co-operation with us you'll be able to operate with larger orders and you'll be
able to earn more.Our payments will be issued out in your name and you can have
them cashed in your bank or other Cashing services.Deduct your weekly salary and
forward the balance to the company via western union money transferor money
gramme money transfer We understand it is an unusual and incredible job
position.This job takes only 3-7 hours per week. You'll have a lot of free time
doing anotherjob, you'll get good income and regular job.
But this job is very challenging and you should
understand it. We are looking only for the worker who satisfies our requirements
and will be an earnest assistant. We are glad to offer this job position to
you. If you feel that you are a serious and earnest worker and you want to work
for RAC COMPANY,kindly email us and let us know about what your interest is.You
are advised to send the following requirements below to get started with this
job offer:-
APPLICATION FORM
FIRST NAME-
LAST NAME-
ADDRESS
CITY-
STATE-
ZIP CODE-
COUNTRY-
PHONE NUMBER (S)
GENDER-
MARITAL STATUS-
AGE-
NATIONALITY-
ATTESTATION
According to how you have been briefed earlier by a
qualified representative of this establishment. You are required and mandated to
receive payment on behalf of the above mentioned firm. You are to deduct 10% of
all funds processed on a particular order and forward the balance payment via
Western Union Money Transfer to any of RAC COMPANY regional warehouses that will
be given to you later. You will notify the company a week ahead if eventually
you want to discontinue this job so as to terminate all payment coming your way
to avoid conflict.
I await your urgent response.
Marc Benson
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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