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.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Finance International Ltd

"Finance International Ltd" is the most unconvincing and unimaginative name I've seen since "Finance Corp International". Also, "Management Department" is a really stupid concept. It goes without saying that this isn't a real company: it's a scammer doing a very bad impression of one. Like all these scams that target Australians, the job involves receiving stolen money via direct bank transfer and then forwarding (laundering) it via Western Union. The domain name given in the "unsubscribe" address, "finance-int.net", is not registered at the time I post.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: [redacted (random, false)]
Date: 2008/9/9 UTC
Subject: Australian position
To: [redacted (privacy)]


Good day.
We would like to offer you position the of transfer manager. Due to
Company expansion onto Asia-Pacific financial market we will need
regional representative in Australia.

-POSITION: Regional Representative,
-POSITIONS AVAILABLE: 15,
-COUNTRY: Australia (New Zealand),
-SALARY: 2200-3500 AUD P/MTH,
-TRIAL PERIOD: ONE MONTH,
-OCCUPATION: part-time (1-3 hours a day),
-EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE: We will provide full training for suitable candidates,
-HOW TO APPLY: Email (open.new@icmail.net) Viktor Lesken for details.

Unsubscribe: Send an empty message to unsubscribe@finance-int.net.

---
Finance International Ltd,
Management Department,
Oliver Lesken

No comments: