Job scam quick guide: it's a scam if...

  • they want you to collect and forward money in any way (a "money mule" job). You'll wind up engaged in money laundering, personally defrauded via expertly forged cheques, money orders, etc, or defrauding someone else who pays for goods that never arrive.
  • they want you to receive packages and reship them somewhere else. The goods will have been obtained fraudulently, and they're just using you to make the shipping address appear local. You will be aiding fraud.
  • they want up-front payment (either to them or someone else) of any sort for anything before you can get the job. This is advance fee fraud: there is no job -- it's just a big con to extract money from you.
  • they want you to buy any kind of "membership" or "kit" in order to start. Forget it -- it's not a real job at all: they're trying to sell you something, and they're probably making a bunch of other false claims about it if they're pitching it as a "job".
  • it's a job offer, and it's spam. There are LOTS of these scams about, as you can see.

Monday, March 24, 2008

LCD Systems

This is a typical money mule recruitment scam, targeting Australians. There may be one or more real companies with a name like "LCD Systems", but this one is just a fabrication -- a pretext to disguise the money laundering which is actually taking place. They're currently using the domain name "lcd-systems.com", but may also have other variations on the same theme.

   Domain Name: LCD-SYSTEMS.COM
   Registrar: DIRECT INFORMATION PVT LTD D/B/A PUBLICDOMAINREGISTRY.COM
   Whois Server: whois.PublicDomainRegistry.com
   Referral URL: http://www.PublicDomainRegistry.com
   Name Server: NS1.MGVRK.ORG
   Name Server: NS2.MGVRK.ORG
   Updated Date: 20-mar-2008
   Creation Date: 20-mar-2008
   Expiration Date: 20-mar-2009

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: LCD Systems <[redacted (false, random)]>
Date: 23 Mar 2008 XX:XX UTC
Subject: work for international company from your home
To: [redacted (privacy)]

LCD Systems is a market-leading provider of world-class technologies is once again beginning a global campaign of employing new staff in Australia. We are offering you one more opportunity to earn extra cash working with us.

We are looking for honest, responsible, hard-working people to operate with our company in your particular region. To optimize our work with existing clients and to expand our business we need new staff that can dedicate 2-4 hours of their time per day and earn extra 300-500 AUD weekly. All offered positions are currently part-time and give you a chance to work mainly from home.

Please visit LCD Systems for more details regarding these vacancies.

There are no fees or monetary expenses for you whatsoever. We offer an honest and dependable opportunity for you to get some extra income working with us from home.

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