This one just slipped through my spam filters, and I thought I'd share. As usual, the letter and then a debunking below it.

Dear Sir/Madam,

1st Delivery Inc. offers an opportunity to apply for a full/part time position of Delivery Service Assistant for the United States citizens and legal aliens (Note: Previous experience in the delivery service is not required).

1st Delivery Inc. is a premier global provider of delivery service solutions, specializing in the international delivery solutions, with the long-term commitment history.

1st Delivery Inc. provides time-critical delivery services for clients from more than 80 countries world-wide. Our flexible and reliable transportation scheme and demonstrated expertise in providing time-critical deliveries for over 10 years positions us to provide top quality delivery service, with superior on-time performance.

Job Purpose:

Delivery Service Assistant provides a middle-man delivery assistance between 1st Delivery Inc. clientele and commercial stores that do not offer delivery service of the purchased products to certain regions of the world therefore forcing the customers from such regions to refer to our International delivery service to have the purchased products delivered to their doorsteps.

The position has a high demand of discipline and requires a reliable service provider capable of operating at the highest levels of quality and consistency, with a perfect sense of time management.

General Duties:
- Receiving delivery packages shipped to the residence address.
- Upon the reception, conducting an inspection of the content to verify the undamaged condition.
- Repackaging the content of the deliveries into new outer covers.
- Processing the deliveries further to the clients through the local Post Office.

(Note: 1st Delivery Inc. covers all of the expenses that occur during the delivery process)

Position Offers:

- Full/part time employment opportunity (Note: Full time position is available for apply only after the 2 month trial period has been completed)
- Annual salary of 25.000 USD
- Ability to work home based, remotely from our Headquarters
- Certified professional training
- Great work atmosphere with potential for career growth
- Free health insurance, matching 401(k)

(Note: Certified professional training programs and the employee health insurance plan is available after the 2 month trial period)

Position Requirements:

- United States citizenship or legal alien status with a valid permission to work in the United States
- High school diploma (AA/BS degree is a plus)
- Ability to manage multiple tasks simultaneously within a strict time frame
- Perfect time management skills
- Must be self-motivated
- Time commitment and efforts: up to 8 hours a week, 1-10 packages handled weekly.
- Professional attitude
- Good English oral and writing communication skills
- Basic PC application skills
- Previous internet experience (highly preferred)

To apply or to learn more about the vacant position contact the Human Resources Department by replying to this e-mail : heidivess83@gmail.com . Your request will be forwarded directly to a Recruitment Officer.

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Okay, the first big red flag... Who contacts you out of the blue, offering you what amounts to $60 dollars an hour ($25,000 a year for 8 hours a week of work) to be a shipping clerk?

Second, package forwarding is a well-known scam. Many companies and people running auctions on eBay will not ship to certain overseas countries because too many of the orders are fraudulent. So when you sign up for this job, the fraudsters buy items while pretending to be you, using stolen credit cards and forged checks. They have the items shipped to you in the U.S., so the sellers will trust the order more, then instruct you to ship the products to them in Eastern Europe or somewhere in Africa.

A couple of weeks later, you're pissing and moaning about not being reimbursed for your shipping costs when the cops knock on your door and want to discuss all the fraudulent purchases you've been making.

Third, if they mail you from one free webmail service (in this case Hotmail) and ask you to reply to another free webmail service (in this case Gmail), they're usually using throwaway accounts that they know will get shut down when the scam is discovered. If they've been in business for over 10 years, where's their web site and why isn't the recruiter using an address at that site?

Last, should you really trust a job offer that begins "Dear Sir/Madam"?

So, to review: Job offer thats too good to be true, job that follows a classic scam pattern, contact people using free webmail addresses all over the map, form letter contact. You can draw your own conclusion.

I know how hard it is to be out of work and desperate. I was that way at the beginning of the year. I'd been out of work going on 15 months and my unemployment was on the verge of running out before I finally got a legit 7-month contract position with a well-known megacorporation. It paid $10 an hour less than my last contract, but after 15 months of unemployment, I had to take anything I could get.

That kind of feeling may be causing you to give serious consideration to these scam jobs that keep getting mailed out, it may be causing you to try to rationalize things and find an excuse to go forward with the job even though it's jangling every last warning bell. Don't let desperation make you become a victim of these scammers. Keep your wits about you. Good luck.

IF YOU ALREADY GOT INVOLVED WITH ONE OF THE FAKE JOBS THESE KINDS OF E-MAILS RECRUIT FOR, CALL THE POLICE. THEY WILL HELP YOU.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 1st, 2010 at 8:46 am and is filed under Job Hunting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.