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Employment Scam

Introduction

Welcome to the latest section of my Celtnet Information site. This section of the site deals with various internet scams — how to spot them and how to avoid them. Many of these types of scam are perpetrated over the internet and quite a number are easy to spot though the scamsters are becoming more sophisticated.

I'm going to start with an increasing nuisance: the Employment Scam which is effectively a variant of the Advance Fee Fraud, already discussed on this site.

In the Employment Scam unscrupulous persons posing as recruiters and/or employers offer attractive employment opportunities which require the job seeker to pay them money in advance, usually under the guise of work visas, travel expenses, and out-of-pocket expenses. The scams can also involve lucrative offers of employment in Europe, the Middle East, West Africa, or South Africa with money demanded to be paid to an agency or travel agent for visas or travel costs. These companies often present themselves with official looking websites and documentation. Once the victim has paid the advanced fees for employment, the business either declines employment or ceases operating as soon as the transfer is finalized.

This type of scam has become more and more frequent recently due to the popularity of Nigerian 419 scams, and growing suspicion towards e-mails offering to transfer money from bank accounts, especially those originating in Africa. Unlike 419 scams, job scams tend to mostly target persons looking for employment in other nations such as hopeful immigrants or contractors and operate out of nations with high immigrant and foreign employment rates.

How it Works

This scam usuallt targets those who have posted their CVs (resumes) on a legitimate employment site. The scamsters use this information and send you an email offering something like the opportunity to become a 'financial representative' of an overseas company you have never even heard of before. The reason they want to hire you is that this company has problems accepting money from US customers and they need you to handle those payments. You will be paid 5 to 15 percent commission per transaction. To apply you need to provide personal information which could include bank account information, so this acts as a phishing scam. Alternately a genuine-looking bank draft will arrive and you pay the monet to your employer only to find out that the bankers draft was either fake or never verified by the issuing bank.

To show you examples of these scams in action here's an email I recently received:

Scam email starts:

From: patterson_dc04@yahoo.com.hk
Subject: employment opportunity
Date: 08 April 2007 19:41:54 BDT
Reply-To: patterson_dc04@yahoo.com.hk

AFBI (Agri-Food Biosciences Institute)

Dear Sir/Madam,
My name is Patterson Dc.I am a freelance researcher.I would be
very interested in offering you a part-time paying job in which
you could earn alot.I just resigned my job as a research scientist
for AFBI(Agri-Food Biosciences Institute) but i still work as a
freelance consultant for the instistute which gives me very much
time to do my own work which is basically being a freelance
researcher who could be employed by research institutes to do
research projects anywhere in the world.

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO FOR US
Presently, I have just been granted a funding to head a research project
in the tropical regions of West Africa regarding rare and vulnerable plant
species and this would be commencing very soon, However my fundings were
by my American counterparts which sent me the bunch of payments mostly in
US based money orders. Getting an accountant in the states or opening an
account would have been my best choice but I have a deadline to meet and
taking any of those choices would cost me time and a whole lot of other
requirements I am not ready to deal with as I would be traveling a lot in
the meantime.So presently, assuming you would be able to deal with cash, I
would be willing to employ you on contract basis to be my payment
representative back in the states, this way I could issue and make these
money orders out to you, you could then cash them easily, withdraw 10% of
the total amount on these money orders as your commission and then send
the rest back to me through Western Union wire transfer.

JOB DESCRIPTION?
1. Recieve payment from Clients
2. Cash Payments at your Bank
3. Deduct 10% which will be your percentage/pay
on Payment processed.
4. Forward balance afer deduction of
percentage/pay to any of the offices you will be contacted to send payment
to(Payment is to forwarded by Western Union Money Transfer).

HOW MUCH WILL YOU EARN?
10% from each operation! For instance: you receive 7000 USD via cheques or
money orders on our behalf. You will cash the money and keep $700 (10%
from $7000) for yourself! At the beginning your commission will equal 10%,
though later it will increase up to 12%!

ADVANTAGES
You do not have to go out as you will work as an independent contractor
right from your home office. Your job is absolutely legal. You can earn up
to $3000-4000 monthly depending on time you will spend for this job. You
do not need any capital to start. The employees who make efforts and work
hard have a strong possibility to become managers. Anyway our employees
never leave us.

MAIN REQUIREMENTS
18 years or older
legally capable
responsible
ready to work 3-4 hours per week.
with PC knowledge
e-mail and internet experience (minimal)

And please know that Everything is absolutely legal, that's why You have
to fill a contract!
I would be glad if you accept my offer and I intend to commence on the job
as soon as you are ready. If you are interested, email me back
at patterson_dc04@yahoo.com.hk so we can make concluding arrangements.

Please note when replying fill the form below:
Name:
Full Address (not p.o.box):
Phone Number(s):
Age:
Sex:
Current job:
Email:
REPLY TO THIS EMAIL: patterson_dc04@yahoo.com.hk )

Thanks for your anticipated action.And i hope to hear back from you.


Patterson Dc
AFBI(Agri-Food Biosciences Institute)
Ireland,Dublin.Hillsborough
(patterson_dc04@yahoo.com.hk )

Scam email ends

This is suspicious as it did not address me by name, as a genuine employment offer would. It does not mention where my details were obtained and it mentions the dganger words of 'West Africa'. The email contact details are also to a yahoo account which is always suspicious and there's no contact number.

Basically this is a classic example of the old-fashioned employment scam.

Resume Blasting

This is by far the simplest form of employment scam where a company contacts you offering guaranteed employment within a fixed period (say 30 days). This company then distributes your CV to prospective employers in the hope of tricking the victim into believing that their business is actually genuine. The victim then pays money to have his or her details sent to employers who are hiring, but what the fraudsters do instead is spam hundreds or thousands of employers, industry websites, and online magazines with a victim's details in hopes of having the companies send them correspondence they can use to scam new victims. Occasionally, they will also have the company pay for travel and other work related expenses by passing themselves off as the victim, thus scamming both the employers and job seekers.

Bogus Job Offers

A more sophisticated version of the scam happens when the scamsters actually advertise jobs with companies and offer lucrative salaries and conditions with the fraudsters pretending to be recruitment agents. A bogus telephone interview may take place and after some time you are informed that the job is yours. To secure the job you are instructed to send money for your work visa or travel costs to the agent or a bogus travel agent who works on their behalf. No matter what the variation, they always involve the job seeker sending them or their agent money, credit card or bank account details.

Increasingly these scams are being perpetrated thorugh internet job boards. r example, a fraudster places a bogus job listing on a legitimate employment site, which is then e-mailed to thousands of job seekers wishing to find a job meeting that criteria. The fraudsters then take advantage of those who contact them, by asking for employment, visa, or travel fees in advance before they can consider the person for employment. Often, they create fabricated websites mirroring the real company sites, or create fake websites parodying a non-existent company which is legitimately registered in their origin country for the sole purpose of scamming victims.

As always, if something seems too good to be true then it probably is. And if you are contacted by anyone always do your homework regarding the company that's contacting you. And if the contact email is one of the 'free' email sites: hotmail, yahoo etc then give the email a wide berth.