It’s now common to see spam advertising bogus jobs. Here is an example.
This job spam promises a lot of money for working very few hours. A few things give it away as spam. Firstly the email address given in the message doesn’t match the sender’s address (it’s not even close).
Secondly: I never asked for this email to be sent, I didn’t apply for any jobs recently and haven’t put myself on any work related mailing lists. This is spam (unsolicited emails).
Next, any job ad that doesn’t actually have a job description is suspicious. And when they promise large amounts of money for 1 to 2 hours work per day it’s too good to be true.
Here is the text of the email (complete with grammatical errors):
Subject: The best offers from our company!
Greetings!
You have a chance to start making 1200+ AUD a week spending 1-2 hours a day
Monday-Friday, working most of the time from home.This opportunity is brought to you by APL Sales Company and now is hiring!You received this offer via Worldwide net of advertisement brought to you via paid ads by Google.If you are looking for an additional job or just an extra income – this position is for you.Designed for an ease of use and the best position available nowadays, time wise and income wise.
Although some requirements need to be met:
You are 18+ years old*
You have 1-2 hours of free time a day Monday-Friday*
You are responsible and dependable*
You are located in Australia only*
—–
Some reference:“Best offer on The Net” – “Money” magazine, -John Keppke.
“Employment situation has gotten on a new level” – “The Economist” magazine, -Laura Star.
“Amazing solution for Extra Income” – “Newsweek” magazine, -Dennis Coleman.
—–
If you meet all requirements – don’t hesitate to get more information on this great
position called “Fund Operator”.Reply to: apple.swed404@gmail.com with subject “Interested” to receive full information on this great position. Limited time offer, don’t wait! And Good luck.
They don’t publish a link to a web site, only an email address, so I don’t really know what they hope to gain from this.
In the interest of research for FraudO I’ve replied to this spam email and will update this post when I receive a reply. I sent the reply to their gmail address (which is different to the spam’s From address) with the following line:
Please provide more information on this offer.
That’s all I’ve said. Let’s wait and see what happens.
…
That was fast, I’ve received a reply already. It must be an automated reply. This is what they sent:
Thank You for being interested!
You have a chance to join our team and start making money for your family or just for yourself, as an extra income.
This is a new generation opportunity and it is based on a taxation loop between two countries.
You will represent a role of a S.u.b. Distributor for our company, it means that you will help us handle payments from our customers within Australia,thus we will pay you 10% commission from every payment that you handle. Since you are an individual it gives us opportunity of paying 2% tax for every sale, that’s why we need help from you.Here is a live example:
1. You receive 3100 AUD from our customer to your b a n k account. We send you instructions by E-mail.
2. You go to the b a n k and withdraw 90%, and you leave 10% for yourself.
3. Then you go to a Western Union and send 90% to one of our agents. (will be given in instructions)
4. Then you send us e-mail with report form. (will be given in instructions)
5. As soon as report form received – you get your next transaction the very next day and so on.
Outcome >> You earned 10% from 3100 AUD which is 310 AUD just in your pocket. And it was only one transaction.It is not complicated at all, anybody can try this out and you always can get help from one of our representatives. Feel free to Get started.F.A.Q.
1. Do i pay any tax? This is not your income and bank will know that, we pay fee for this activity to every Australian Bank.
2. Is there a contract? No, for your convenience we made this a part-time position, you can stop anytime and continue anytime, let us know prior 2 days.
3. How many transaction a day, how often? 1 transaction a day, 4 times a week, Monday-Thursday.
4. What products do you sell and what is the average amount i will need to process? Mostly we are big on electronics and computer hardware, but we also can help any other company to make a sale, so it can invole auto parts as well ashousing equipment.
5. When is this offer valid until? Offer is valid until October the 20th 2010.
6. Is this legal in Australia? Yes, everything is above board and regulated by financial government institution. Feel Free to try yourself out in this opportunity, here is the application information required IN ORDER TO GET STARTED:___________
*FIRST NAME:
*LAST NAME:
*ADDRESS:
*CITY:
*ZIP CODE (optional):
*COUNTRY: Australia
*DATE OF BIRTH:
*MOBILE PHONE#:
*HOME PHONE#:
*NAME OF YOUR BANK::
*ACCOUNT# (contains numbers only):
*BSB# (6 digits):
*YOUR E-MAIL(to contact you best):
————
AFTER YOU SUBMIT YOUR INFO – ONE OF OUR REPRESENTATIVES WILL ASSIST YOU BACK SHORTLY! GOOD LUCK AND WELCOME TO OUR TEAM!!!
Notice that at the end of all this text they’re asking for my bank account details. It’s a scam.
Don’t ever provide your bank account details to strangers (unless, for example, you’re selling something online and need to accept payment, then it’s a compromise between security and doing business). Read here to see what happens if you give out your bank account details to everybody.
The rest of the email is just a story about some complicated money transfer scheme. Even if they really did want to do all this and pay me 10% it just doesn’t sound legal. Could it be a money laundering scheme? It’s not something you should get involved with.