The following job scam e-mail from MIO Group found its way through my spam filters. I'll post the e-mail and then discuss the ways you can tell it's a scam:
From: a-hayashi@acerosbergara.comHello,
We, MIO Group Inc, have considered your resume and we think that you can become a valuable worker in our company. Please, take a look at our vacancy list:
SERVICE COORDINATOR AVAILABLE
This vacancy is valid for American and Australian residents ONLY at the moment.Location: Australia, USA
Status: Opened
Employee Type: Part-Time EmployeeThe major duty of the incumbent is to promptly receive and process stockbrokers' payments to further transfer them applying specified method. Please enquire for detailed work scheme.
Requirements:
* Expert skill in managing payments and transfers between our company and clients.
* Knowledge of basic payment systems.
* Ability to schedule working hours effectively.
* Availability of spare time (3-4 hours per day).
* Advanced user ability to operate computer and to use Internet and e-mail.
* Legal age.Payment basis: During the trial period you will be paid 1500 USD per month. You will also be keeping 8% commission from every payment received from a client. With the current volume of clients on average your overall income will add up to 3000 USD per month. After the trial period your base salary will go up to 2000 USD per month, plus 8% commission.
Benefits:
* Flexible work schedule.
* Possibility to combine the job with primary employment.
* Free training course.INTERESTING FACT:
Our analysts observe strongly pronounced economic growth in all departments of MIO Group Inc. for the latest quarter of this year due to perfect and well coordinated work of our team. According to the statistics, 98% of MIO Group Inc. financial managers being employed for less than three months are completely satisfied with their earnings and would like to upgrade professional skills and advance in their careers in our Company. The management of MIO Group Inc. is striving for strengthening and expanding of the corporation in order to control the major part of financial services market.To see more information about the vacancy, please enter mio-group-inc dot com and click on 'Registration'.
Delivery Manager AVAILABLE
Location:USA
Status:Opened
Employee Type:Full-Time EmployeeWe are seeking a motivated warehouse individual to join our team! This position is 8:00am - 5:00pm 40 hour work week... No Slackers!
Job functions will include the following:
* Work in the warehouse - receiving merchandise
* Inspect all shipments to insure the product matches the paperwork. (Compare quantity, labeling,etc.)
* Deliver items to clients and vendors in Belgium
* Keep accurate records of deliveries, including appropriate signatures.
* Help Warehouse staff organize facilitiesIf you would like to apply to this vacancy and have further information, please email us at: job@mio-group-inc dot com
So here are the big red flags that tell you it's a job scam:
- They send it from an address at a totally unrelated company a-hayashi@acerosbergara.com. If you're able to reply to them at mio-group-inc dot com, why aren't they mailing you from there?
- Whenever they provide a domain name, go to a site like GoDaddy.com and use their "WhoIs" service (linked at the bottom of GoDaddy's main page), or if you're on a Mac or Linux, you can just open up a terminal window and type "whois", a space, and then the domain name. That will get you the domain record.
The domain record for mio-group-inc.com shows three very troubling things. One, the registered owner is hidden by a proxy service. Two, the proxy service is in St. Petersburg, Russia. Three, the domain was registered on August 6th, less than three weeks ago. Why are these bad?
- If the owner of the domain is hiding their identity, that puts their legitimacy in doubt.
- Most of these criminal cons are coming out of Russia
- If the domain is 3 weeks old, this company and their site have no history. They talk about their managers who have been on the job for three months, but their site hasn't been around 1/4th that long.
- "You will also be keeping 8% commission from every payment received from a client." This is a well-known scam. They send you checks and money orders to cash with instructions to keep a commission and to wire the rest to a foreign country via Western Union. The problem is that the checks are forged. Your bank will usually cash them, but a few days or a week later when the forgery is caught, your bank will ask for their money back. Since you cashed the check, you're on the hook to pay that money back, and you'll find that your "employer" is suddenly not answering your e-mails.
- Oh, come on! Who is really going to pay you $1,500 a month for 3-4 hours a day of work, PLUS 8% commission on the payments you process? And, on top of that, they're paying the wiring fees for you to send them the money. When everything is said and done, they're paying 10% or more. Do you honestly believe that's cheaper than going through a real bank? It's way more expensive than any legitimate business would have to pay a legitimate bank.
- If it seems too good to be true, it usually is.
Sorry to disappoint those of you who were hoping this was real, but it's not. Don't reply to these people, and if you have replied, cut off all further communications with them. Don't go to their web site (they may try to infect your machine with viruses if you do) and just count yourself fortunate that you were smart enough to look these guys up first. There are enough people who don't to make it profitable for them to pull this scam over and over again.
Best of luck to you all.
Entries (RSS)
Just received this email and figured it for a scam.
Well I got it too - but from a different address. Thanks for the info and tips on how to pick the scam is obviousky is.
This was the address I got from:
From: "Carolyn Wolf"
Reply-To: afghanistan@ozu.es
Date: Tue, 26 Aug 2008 11:00:58 +0200
Subject: Employees wanted
Hello,
We, MIO Group Inc, have considered your resume and we think that you can become a valuable worker in our company. Please, take a look at our vacancy list:
SERVICE COORDINATOR AVAILABLE
This vacancy is valid for American and Australian residents ONLY at the moment.
Location: Australia, USA
Status: Opened
Employee Type: Part-Time Employee
etc ...
I have gotten a lot of versions of this email and always laugh that anyone is stupid enough to bite on them. For the very reason you point out about $1500 + 8% commission. No legitimate company could afford that kind of "Salary" for very long. Sorry if someone got bit! Next time check it out!!!!
@Jim: They'll often randmoize the "from" address to get around sender-based blacklists.
@C. Edwards: "Stupid" is a strong word. There are a lot of people who are in pretty bad shape and this comes as the answer to their prayers. Sometimes they let their desire for this to be true blind them to the possibility that it might be a scam. Don't be so hard on them. These scams take advantage of two types of people: those who are blinded by greed and those who are blinded by desperation. For those in the latter group, they got kicked while they were down... hard. Laughing at them is just cruel.
From: aabdelmuti@acxgroup.com
Subject: Job Information Mio Group Inc
Here is another one I recieved today:
Hello,
We, MIO Group Inc, have considered your resume and we think that you can become a valuable worker in our company. Please, take a look at our vacancy list:
[duplicate text cut by editor]
I looked up the "MIO Group Inc" on Google and saw this site and wanted to say thank you for informing people that this is a scam.
Here is another scam with a name change as of September 18,2008. I saw that their main address was in NY with a phone number from Ohio... DUH! Same identicle advertisment, worded in a slight different manner. The game is the same though, asking to exchange monies by sending them cash through international methods.
First of all, you need to READ carefully. Know that banks DO NOT clear any types of checks within 24 hours. This is not likely anywhere in the world. The fact is, they will cash it for you and give you the money, if you have enough in your account to cover it, then once you have cashed it, it is up to you to collect it from the fraudulent person. Banks trust you to know who you are dealing with, thus, you are responsible to know if it is a scam or not.
Thanks to all of the people who care and send in responses, we can always look to the Internet to find these undesireables...... Good job all...........