Job and Recruiting Scams:
Payment Officer Scam
www.yournetcareer.com or Hill Investments, England
Susan Hall
Have you received an email from Susan Hall of "www.yournetcareer.com or Hill Investments" in England (or ANYWHERE else) offering you
a job as an "administrative position which affords each assistant the opportunity to operate remotely", "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"?
The websites may look slick, but 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 "Susan Hall"
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", "Susan Hall" 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!
Below is the email CFR received from a potential victim, alerting us to the
scam
Below is the e-mail I received. I went to the
website to check it out. I looked up the domain information and the site is
owned by
HILL INVESTMENTS
HILL INVESTMENTS (admin@yournetcareer.com)
HOLYOAKES LANE, BENTLEY REDDITCH
WORCESTERSHIRE B97 5SR
BENTLEY
Barnsley,18646
GB
When applying for a position with the company it
asks for the last 4 digits of SSN, and also ask credit history score and
what credit cards you will use. Please verify and add to your site.
Investigation
The address on their website is fictitious, None of the
pieces of the address match anything, the post code (sw1 e6sh) does not even
exist (we checked in MapQuest.co.uk). Google Earth could not find the address or
any parts of it. The email addresses the recipient as "Potential Hire" which is
incongruent with the next line that says "Your resume and or contact details
was viewed by our HR Staff"- if they viewed your resume, they would know
your name and address you by it.
If they are interested in you, why can't you email back
to the human being who claims to have written you?
As near as we can determine, the telephone code
associated with the owners of the website starts with a country code, 465, that
does not exist. In other words, in registering the website, they probably
gave a fake name, address and phone number.
Notice that the website was created on April 1, 2008
(just 3 days before we heard about the scam and created this page)
Clearly, this has SCAM written all over it!
And here is the scam email the potential victim received via CareerBuilder:
CareerBuilder: Administrative Position Available
Potential
Hire,
Your resume and or contact details
was viewed by our HR Staff
for possible consideration of employment with our Company. The position
available with Hill International is an administrative position which
affords each assistant the opportunity to operate remotely. This means each
assistant employed to this position will be able to work from their home or
home office.
The position pays a guaranteed $2,000 per month. In
most cases this amount will be exceeded, however the guaranteed wage is
$2,000 per month. Medical, dental, and life insurance benefits are available
after a 6 month probationary period. Worthy assistants employed to this
position will be considered for advancement to staff after their 6 month
probationary period.
Please visit our site below for consideration for
this position. Browse the site to become more familiar with the company and
position available.
If you feel you are or will be a good candidate for
this position ensure to view the Employment section and submit an
Application for Employment.
Even though your resume or contact details was
briefly viewed by a member of our Staff, YOU MUST resubmit it when
completing the application.
Be sure to comply with the requirements before
applying for this position.
You will be contacted by management ASAP once you
have applied for this position.
Please Note: This is a position that allows each
applicant to work out of their own personal office or from home remotely. On
Hill, to get a better understanding of each section, click the "Red Links"
at the bottom of each Page.
If you are interested in this position please visit
http://www.yournetcareer.com
Also Note: This is a do-not reply to email address.
Any emails received to this address will not be read. You may utilize the
contact form on the website for any and all inquires.
--
Best Regards,
Hill Management
Susan Hall
http://www.yournetcareer.com
Whois Information
To find the people behind the scam, we look at who the
domain belongs to:
WHOIS
information for:
yournetcareer.com:
[whois.PublicDomainRegistry.com]
Registration Service Provided By: OPENHOSTING
Contact: +111.1111111111
Domain Name: YOURNETCAREER.COM
Registrant:
HILL INVESTMENTS
HILL INVESTMENTS (admin@yournetcareer.com)
HOLYOAKES LANE, BENTLEY REDDITCH WORCESTERSHIRE B97 5SR
BENTLEY
Barnsley,18646
GB
Tel. +465.22255562
Creation Date: 01-Apr-2008
Expiration Date: 01-Apr-2009
Domain servers in listed order:
ns.openhosting.ru
ns2.openhosting.ru
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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