So here's one that has signs of being legit and some of the red flags of a scam. Love to get comments on it.
I got the following mail this morning...
From:
Subject: I saw your resume... please complete application. BNR-NationalResponse to your resume posting.
We have received your name and email from your resume posting service while reviewing your information. We may have some job opportunities that will interest you.
Please go to: BNR-National, Job page.
If your are interested in our open positions you can apply on-line.
To view jobs, click this link. Available Jobs.
This email was sent per your authorization of the terms and agreements you accepted on Hot Jobs and/or Monster and/or CareerBuilder. Your current preferences on your resume account need to be
changed if you Do Not want to receive recruiter and/or employer email messages. -- See instructions below.Hot Job's - Resume & Email Privacy Options (as seen on hotjobs.com)
Since the Site is a career site, HotJobs gives you the option of putting your resume in the Hot Jobs database. There are three ways of doing this:
1. With our HotBlock feature, you can store your resume in the database, but not allow it to be searchable by any employers or staffing firms. Not allowing your resume to be searchable means that you can use it to apply for a job online, but it will not be searchable through the resume database.
2. You can store your resume in the database, but not allow it to be searchable by certain employers or staffing firms who are members of HotJobs at the time you set your HotBlock preferences. Not allowing your resume to be searchable means that you can use it to apply for a job online, but those employers or staffing firms that you have blocked will not have access to search it through the resume database.
3. If you allow your resume to be searchable, then those individuals or entities that pay for access to the resume database and all prospective customers who are receiving a demonstration of our product will have access to your resume.
These individuals or entities have the ability to distribute your resume to their own hiring systems via e-mail.Privacy Options - Job seekers can block some or all of HotJobs' member companies from viewing a resume and sending you email messages through the "HotBlock" feature.
Career Builder's - Resume & Email Privacy Options (as seen on CareerBuilder.com)
Managing your privacy is as simple as selecting which pieces of your contact information are displayed. This is done at the bottom of the Review & Submit section of the resume form (shown below).
1. Be Visible. This option gives you the most visibility to the broadest employer audience possible. Select "Make my resume visible..." from the Privacy Settings, and allow employers to see your name, phone, and email.
2. Be Choosy. This option allows you to only display selected pieces of contact information, or none at all. (If you use this option be sure to remove your contact information from the body of the resume.) Select "Make my resume visible..." from the Privacy Settings, and select which contact information you want seen by employers.
3. Be Anonymous. This option allows you to post your resume on CareerBuilder.com without having it searched by employers. The benefit is that you can quickly and easily apply for jobs without retyping your information. Select "Hide my resume..." from the Privacy Settings.
BNR-National.com recruiting services are paid by entirely by the employer. Job Seekers using BNR-National.com recruiting services pay no fee.
Sincerely, BNR-National.com
If you prefer to not receive messages from BNR-National.com, you may unsubscribe by using the link below.
or by mail:
BNR-National.com - Unsubscribe
514 Daniels Street, #342
Raleigh, NC 27605
Now it was sent with Subsrribermail.com and the links within the mail go through a redirect at Subscribermail.com, which is a legitimate e-mail marketing company. So it seems like this may be a legitimate opportunity. But then I dug deeper and all sorts of cracks appeared.
Their site sports a "copyright 2000-2008" statement, but upon checking its registration record BNR-national.com was registered at the end of July of this year. Not only that, but they used a proxy service to hide the name and contact information for the real owner of the domain. So they're claiming to have been around 8 years, but their domain is 10 weeks old, and they're hiding the identity of the owner of the domain.
If you look on their jobs pages, they list some generic descriptions for jobs. It's not even a database, but just a plain HTML listing. If you click on a link for any job, you're sent to their application page which is a form to add your e-mail to their mailing list at AWeber, another legitimate e-mail marketing service which is actually owned by a friend of mine (and boy is he gonna be steamed when I show him this - the reputation of his company is VERY important to him).
So they're using two legitimate service providers, but more cracks show up.
All of the job links on their jobs pages go to their application page without passing a single bit of information about the job you clicked on. I looked at the source code, the link for every job title is a plain vanilla link to "Application.html". They're doing nothing to pass the name or any sort of ID for the job to the application form. And then, on the application page, they don't ask the name of the job, just your "field".
When you fill out the application, you're not filling out an application for the job you clicked on. You're filling out a generic "application" that's intended to gather your contact information.
But that's not the end of it. AWeber (an innocent dupe in this scam, I assure you) collects the form information and then refers you back to the page BNR-national specifies. From there, they say they'd like to recommend a free interviewing skills CD and send you over to a shopping cart for "Interview Concepts".
The cost for your "free" CD is a $6.95 shipping and handling cost. Furthermore, they have a fun little gotcha. They're going to send you more than the "free" CD. They're going to send you all three of their CD's. Then you have a 14-day free trial period... from the date they ship and postmark the package. If you do not call them and arrange to return the extra CDs before the the end of the 14-day trial (with the 14 days starting on the day they sent them, not the day you got them), you will be billed an additional $59.95. And how much do you want to bet that they're shipping via Media Mail or Parcel Post so it takes a week or more for the package to arrive?
All these different red flags tell me that there is nothing savory about this. It looks like a scam designed to build a "suckers" list and sell some overpriced CD-ROMs through a hinky "free trial" offer.
Sorry if any of you got your hopes up when BNR-National contacted you. Best of luck in your job hunting.
Entries (RSS)
Thank you for your research! It is definitely discouraging when companies are using the hope of finding a new job to source potential customers.
Well, their data collection appears to have been curtailed. I sent an e-mail to my friend at AWeber and asked him to read this blog post. Now when you submit the BNR-National application, this error message appears from AWeber: "Sorry, the account "bnr-national" exists in our records but is currently not active. Please push the "back" button on your web browser and notify the website owner of this message."
I asked him what actions they were taking, but he said the official response is that they cannot comment on customer-related matters. I think the error message is comment enough, don't you?
I received this e-mail this morning and after going to the site and being routed to purchase the CD's I decided to google them and came across this site. I thought it was a scam, now I know. They prey on desparate people searching for work.
I received this message this morning, and the only job searching site that I signed up at and posted a resume on was CareerBuilder.com.
I got it today too --- my only postings have been usajobs.gov (highly unlikely it was from this one), and careerbuilder.com (the same people who brought us the evil monkeys in their ads).
THE SHAME OF THIS WHOLE THING IS THAT SITES LIKE CAREERBUILDER AND MOSTER SELL US DOWN THE RIVER BY ALLOWING THESE BASTARDS LIKE BNR TO OPERATE. I THINK MOST OF IT COMES FROM CAREERBUILDER.COM THOUGH. I DID NOT RECEIVE ONE OF THESE SCAMS UNTIL I STARTED TO USE CAREERBUILDER. I HAVE NEVER RECEIVED THESE SCAMS WHEN I USED MONSTER.COM EXCLUSIVELY. CAREERBUILDER.COM CAN KISS MY &*&.
Thanks for the great help Greg.
Thank you for your help. I am about sick of getting things like this. I was one of the FOOLS that went through with one like this (not BNR, but another one - I deleted the email) to be directed to that 'free interviewing skills' website. I am sure that there are plenty of people, dare I say the older generations that is technology illiterate, but can use a credit card online - and thinks EVERYTHING online is legit. -my idiot father being one of them.
I also received the e-mail this morning. It's a shame that they are doing this. I don't know if Careerbuilder has a way to stop this, but I keep receiving this type of e-mails. Thanks a lot.
There is another web-based company out of orlando that does this same thing. Once you click on the link you are asked about continuing education. Your information is automatically sent to the online universities whether you click on the link to them or not. You would think that career builder, monster, and hotjobs would have a way to stop scammers from viewing your resume but they don't. Just be careful what you click on. As these "universities" will attempt to contact you at all hours of the night and on weekends. Even if you are on the do not call list they can still contact you as you, granted unknowingly, gave them consent to call
I got it this this am and clicked a link that OpenDNS (my chosen DNS) denied my access to. Must be on their list of bogus sites. I am sure it came as a result of my posting on careerbuilder.com
Good Luck out there!!
Me Too!
I always mouse over the hyperlinks and if I see any thing that even looks like a tracker- I delete it immediately.
I feel any honest company which has actually looked at your resume will ask you to reply to a person via email and the links will be to their company site.
BNR National's hyperlink to their 'Available Job Page' is has 2 HUGE RED FLAGS in the link address SUBSCRIBERMAIL and TRACKER'.
This is the text-DO NOT CLICK!!!!:
http://tr .subscribermail.com/cc.cfm?sendto=http% 3A%2F%2Fwww% 2Ehypertracker%2Ecom%2Fgo%
I'm sending an email to Hot jobs CareerBuilder and Monster asking them to STOP allowing this. The more people who complain, the more likley they will addresss it, so please join me!
I got one this morning. I deleted the message before I googled it - so thanks a lot for the time and research you put into this!
Maybe there is a way to report this to the FBI or someone who will take an action. Someone earlier mentioned that this kind of spam starts after CareerBuilder. I second that. Maybe they should be slammed with a classA suit?
Thank you for your research! I never go to any of the "job" requests that come into my email box. I go directly to the site, hotjobs, monster, etc. and choose where I apply. And sad to say, I only apply to the big guys. The companies I know.
It is touch enough to be out of work without this crap! The lowest of the low! Usually I just delete, but this one looked sort of legit so I googled. Again, thank you thank you thank you for your site!
Thank You very much because I just received that email. I thought it looked like a website seeking information so I googled the company and got your website. So, I didn't get to the part about the FREE CDs.
I got this email too, and through google i also came across your page. Thank you for doing the research
Add me to the growing list of "grateful to you" folks. *smile* Thank you so much for saving us from what would be a lot of garbage from these LOSERS!!!
Yes, I also only put up my resume on careerbuilder.com only so far, and got this scam message. I also got a scam job recruitment from primerica. This one is even meaner. Beware!
I just got this exact same e-mail this morning. I'm registered in all three jobsites. I also got plenty of "sales person opportunities" from different insurance companies. It drives me crazy... Thanks for your time to research this!
[...] the BNR-National scam, this e-mail used a purportedly legitimate mail service provider, bettermail.ca, to send the [...]
I too have just received this e-mail, and would also like to thank you for the research that you have done. Everyone who has received this e-mail should forward it to TSST@careerbuilder.com This is the e-mail address to report fraud to careerbuilder.com.
I just received the BNR-National "email" this morning. Any more when I receive emails during employment searches, I immediately google the company. This morning, my google brought me to this blog. Thank you!! CareerBuilder and Monster should take the complaints and ban or seek out liability against the scammers- Hello - Big Hint. CareerBuilder and Monster want us to use their services perhaps which we have to provide our personal information to them to list our resumes, should not the "employers" verify who they are when searching our resumes??????
Carefully trying not to be scammed.
Wow, thank you so much. I knew it was "fishy" but wasn't for sure, and like everyone else here, I googled it and found this. Also- I just tried to unsubscribe and first of all, instead of confirming "unsubscribed" it says you've been "updated"....so who knows what they'll do. Also, before I googled this site I found myself compelled to read all of their fine print on their "job posting" page or application page- can't remember which one. But it should be easy to find right, they only have 4 or 5 generic pages. In their fine print they don't guaruntee your unsubscribe in so many words.
I agree that most of the responsibility needs to be on Careerbuilder and other job board sites. This is a quality concern and a major privacy concern for everyone that uses them. For now, just keep marking them "spam" and don't type ANYTHING in their fields/forms. Thanks for your research.
It's so discouraging to be out of work anyway and to have companies like this one praying on us is just terrible. So far every single incoming prospect I've gotten from any of these job sites is a scam or an offer to buy a franchise or sell insurance.
I was so excited about the job postings on BNR. I am back in the job market and am finding the internet search for a job harder than the interviews! When I tried to apply to these so called jobs, it did route me back to the 59.99 interview package. Thanks so much for your words of warning, it's lonely out here, its nice to know someone is looking out for us!
Thank you very much.I am almost fall in this trap.What a pathetic action.This people will have a payback one day.I think this should be a right governing body to filter out this kind of people and put this ass in jail.They deserve it or pay a hefty amount of money for fooling people .Anyhow thanks again and goodluck to all Job Seeker. I am an asp.net developer with SQL background
I am glad that you guys posted this. I received them email this morning and it seemed "phishy"
so I googled it. I do think it comes from Careerbuilder because I have not received these when only signed on with Monster. Of course, I always receive those stupid mass "come work with us and do sales to make $200,000 per year" emails. Those are just as annoying to me.....
Thanks so much for the posting. Have been laid off for a couple of weeks now and am really feeling burnt from all of the e-mails promising to "double my current salary". So sad how these types are taking advantage of all the recently laid off people - I will definitely continue to independently search for employer info before submitting an application on line and will make sure I am applying direct to an actual employer
I completely agree, total scam. They sent me the link to go and register, when I did I got routed to buy the "all important" interview CD's, with no way to get around the trial offer. I immediately left the site. Two days later, I get an E-mail from them saying they saw my resume and I should register at their site. I NEVER GOT TO THE POINT OF GIVING THEM MY RESUME THE FIRST TIME!! The only thing I gave them was the info on the "short form", which was basically my name and E-mail! Also, having trouble finding info on the actual company, not completely sure yet, but it appears to only be a dot.com company.
I've received a couple of these and was suspicious from the beginning when I hovered over the link and saw that the URL didn't just go to http://www.bnr-national.com but instead was directed to http://www.subscribermail.com. Like other posters here, I did some Google searching and found this site to confirm my suspicions.
This is really sad, considering I am a legitimate recruiter who genuinely tries to help professional find employment. I received this same email and googled them to get more information. That is how I came across this blog. True recruiters and recruiting companies will never try to sell you anything. Only seek your trust and cooperation in helping you to find great employment. Fees are always paid by the client who is seeking to fill a position, never the candidate. Most reputable recruiting agencies will offer free resume advice, interviewing tips and techniques, free testing, etc. to the candidate. Companies like this give recruiters and placement agencies a bad name, and it's a shame.
Thank You All...this "service" is still operational as of 9:46 am today...nov 21, 2008...and i actually started to fill it out due to its careerbuilder link...but thankfully i searched...i'd guess we'll see more and more of this as we try to find our way to legitimate sources...Thanks Again...
I also received the email today from
"Human Resources [HumanResources@mail165.subscribermail.com]."
Subject: "I saw your resume... please complete application. BNR-National"
I clicked on one of the so-called positions and an application popped up. I didn't enter any information and just clicked the "Submit" button. The next screen said, "Thank you for submitting...etc." I know for a fact that my information was retrieved from careerbuilder.com, because that was the only site I applied to. Now I get all sorts of emails wanting me to sell secondary insurance...YUCK!!! Though careerbuilder's job postings are mostly legitimate, registering with careerbuilder.com comes with a price. I do have a question about unsubscribing. Does your email actually get unsubscribed or sold to another company to send you further irritating emails?