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Job and Recruiting Scams:
Payment Officer Scam
Wintercoats, Careerwithwintercoats.com
Kelvin Smith
Have you received an email from Kelvin Smith of "Wintercoats" at Careerwithwintercoats.com (or ANYWHERE else) offering you
a job as a "online 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 "Kelvin Smith"
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", "Kelvin Smith" 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!
Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2008 11:32:57 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Kelvin Smith" <
careerwithwintercoats@yahoo.com
>
Subject: Re: Accounts Receivable Position
Goodday,
My name is Kelvin Smith.I'm contacting you regarding
your response to our Company's ADS. Having gone through your resume,I'm
convinced that you are qualified for this position.Now I want to know if You
would like to work online from home and get paid without affecting your present
job? Actually I need a representative who can be working for our company as
online book-keeper.We make lots of supplies to some of our clients in the states
for which i do come to the states to receive payment and have it cashed after i
supply them raw materials.Its always too expensive and stressful for me to come
to the states and receive such payment twice in a month so i therefore decided
to contact you. I am willing to pay you 10% for every payment received by you
from our clients who makes payment through you.Pls note you don't have to be a
book keeper to apply for the job..Kindly get back to me as soon as possible if
you are interested in this job offer with your:
First Name:
Last name:
Sex:
Age:
Home, Office and Mobile phone number:
Address:
City:
State:
Zipcode:
Best Communication you prefer : Phone or Email
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 Company's group
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.
Thanks for your anticipated help.
Regards
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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