Just got a job scam e-mail that got through Yahoo's spam filters, probably because most of it was an image. We'll look at it and then debunk why it's a scam.
Okay, first two big red flags...
1: What stranger is going to pay you $225 an hour ($225 a day for 60 minutes of work is $225 an hour)? There are lawyers and doctors who don't make that much. But some stranger who has approached you out of the blue, is going to pay you that much to do work that doesn't require any special skill.
2: They were kind enough to mention a return address in Romania. Any unsolicited job offer e-mail out of Eastern Europe is immediately suspect.
Combine "if it's too good to be true, it usually is" with spam from Eastern Europe, and you're already 99% of the way to a guaranteed scam.
There are three links in the e-mail. One on the "$225+ daily. Processing rebates at home for 60 minutes" text, one on the main image, and one on the image that includes the unsubscribe link.
I hope you didn't click any of them, because all of them have your e-mail address in them. That means that the crooks will know, even if you don't reply to them and buy into the scam, that your e-mail address is good and that you're at least interested enough to click a link. They may also have a variety of bad scripts trying to hijack your browser and install spyware or viruses when you visit. DO NOT CLICK THE LINKS.
It linked to three different URLs, all of which were at webhostlowcosthost.com. And here's the third big red flag... The domain is less than a month old. Generally, when scammers set up an actual site for a scam, they don't have the patience to set one up 6 months or a year ahead of time. They set it up 2-4 weeks ahead at best so they have time to make the site before they start spamming out their scam mail.
All in all, it's a bit more sophisticated than your average job scam spam. I don't know if they're pulling a check forgery scam, identity theft scam, trying to sell you a bogus service/kit (like the envelope stuffing job scams), or just trying to get you to click over to a poisoned web page where they can try to install all sorts of nasty software on your machine. It might be a mixture that involves more than one of those.
I also found another spam from the same webhostlowcosthost.com domain for the "half water, half gas" scam which has been debunked by PC World and Popular Mechanics. Apparently these crooks are motivated.
All I can tell you is don't click the links. It's dangerous and tells them you're a prime mark for more scams.
Best of luck to you!
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[...] know it's a scam? It's from the Romanians at webhostlowcosthost.com who have recently spammed out a rebate processing scam and a scam about how to run your car on [...]
Generally if you allow an image in a spam e-mail to load, you've already given away your e-mail address, because the image can link to a distinct web address. Just an FYI, for those who think it's OK to open the e-mail as a result of this blog.
Of course, most e-mail programs and free mail services do not load remote images, but some spams contain the images as attachments so they get shown.