Protect Yourself and Report the Latest Frauds, Scams, Spams, Fakes, Identify Theft Hacks and Hoaxes
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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:
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 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.
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!
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
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
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