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, November 24, 2008

Our surveys show...

There has been a massive torrent of this particular spam in the last half a day -- instances of this one spam accounted for more than half the spam I received (to this particular address) in that period. Subject lines vary significantly, but the body text remains pretty static. The use of multiple Gmail accounts and the "our surveys show" text strongly suggest that this scammer was also responsible for the "global auto agency" scam early this year.

The kind of scam involved here is a basic money mule scam: they want you to receive stolen money through direct bank transfers, then launder it via Western Union. Gmail contact addresses seen in association with this scam so far are as follows.

5RyanThompsonw665@gmail.com
Daniel.Jones.yl38@gmail.com
Ryan.Williams.cs92@gmail.com
LeeLachlan9dr@gmail.com
WhiteThomas7ma@gmail.com
1SamuelWalkerz880@gmail.com
Liam.Walker.nc48@gmail.com
Martin.James.5281@gmail.com
5LiamWalkerz924@gmail.com
Alexander.Harris.kr75@gmail.com

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: [redacted (false, random)]
Date: 2008/11/24 UTC
Subject: Make up to 502 AUD a week on the sale of our electronics.
To: [redacted (privacy)]


Hello,

Our surveys show that 81% of people of your city are not satisfied with their weekly earnings and wish to make more.

That is why we would like to offer you an opportunity of part-time work. To earn 532
AUD a week you have to spend 3-4 hours a week.
You need a phone preferably a mobile a computer and internet.
If you are reading these lines, it means you have {_mac11_0} you need to start earning..

The proposal lasts till the end of the month; I have 71 vacancies in your country so far.
You will have to help our clients. It is a simple earning., which requires attentiveness and proposal.
I provide training and everything you need for the 71.
country will be happy to help you with any extra information.
To speed up our email , please send me an email to:Ryan.Williams.cs92@gmail.com

earning.

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