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 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:
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
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