This scam slipped through my spam filters this morning. Let's run the letter, then I'll show you why it's bogus:
From: Jerrold Sellers <ipmrhgyb@blitzbuilders.com>Greetings,
You have received this message because you have published your resume at careerbuilder.com and you meet our criteria. And we offer position in our company.
Our company Steiners Jewellery (SJ) is one of the most prestigious manufacturers of exclusive jeweller production in the Western Europe.
SJ Production differs by uniqueness of each product and makes individually for each client.
The individual, professional approach and long-term experience allows to achieve high parameters in the jeweller industry field.We provide the best working conditions for our employees:
Working with us you will get:
- fixed salary
- material bonuses
- a bonus for the housewives
- qualified support of the skilled manager
- work in one of the best team of the Europe
- we can help you to open credits with minimal percent
- challenging experience in the highly perspective field of business with great future career possibilities.We also provide medical insurance and an annual salary of $65,000/year. The salary is paid monthly. If you have kids then you'll receive additional income.
The contract is rather flexible so if you wish to alter some clause.If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask them via email: anna.keiser.sj.co@gmail.com
It's not multi-level marketing, not sales position and absolutely free for start.
We would like to point out that this job may become a good additional employment for you. You may have a primary employment or a running business and still cooperate with us because this job will not take a lot of your time.
We are looking forward to hearing from you.Regards
Anna Keiser
HR Manager
Steiners Jewellery
Here's the first big red flag and the most common: Why is a guy at a Kentucky construction company (whose e-mail is a string of nonsense - "ipmrhgyb") sending you a job offer from a European jeweler which asks you to reply to a gmail.com address? It's a classic trick, but a dead giveaway. They fake a "from" address at a legitimate domain (and many of you may have seen different "from" addresses), then they ask you to reply to a throwaway account at a free mail service like Yahoo, Gmail, or Hotmail. So the multiple signs within this:
- The sender's address is different than the address they ask you to reply to.
- The sender's address is a nonsense series of letters and/or numbers at a company totally unrelated to the company they're recruiting you for.
- The address they ask you to reply to is at a free mail service.
Another dead giveaway is that they're going to pay you $65,000 for part-time work that "will not take a lot of your time," bump it up if you have kids, and you're free to alter the employment contract. Let's say that "not much of your time" is 3 hours a day. If you worked 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year, that would be 780 hours a year and a starting salary of... $83.33 per hour.
How many strangers are going to approach you out of the blue and offer you that much for part-time work when you're having trouble finding a job at less than half that hourly rate? How many employers give you more if you have kids? How many employers tell you to feel free to edit their employment contract? It sounds too good to be true because it is.
Now, some folks would say the fact that they spell it "Steiner's Jewellry" instead of "Steiner's Jewelry" is a giveaway, because misspellings can be a sign of a scam. This isn't a misspelling. It's a very British spelling that is not common.
In the long run, though, they're probably going to use you to cash bogus checks, forward stolen materials, or cash out fraudulent PayPal transactions. These are the top three scams going on via this kind of job scam e-mail.
I know you're probably hurting and really wish this could be true. E-mails like this never are. Sorry to say, but you should not even bother to reply to "Anna Keiser". You should run the other way.
Best of luck to you.
Entries (RSS)
Ya this is definately a scam or a very dodgy job at best. These scammers are either really stupid, really lazy, or both. It costs about 10 dollars a month to register a unique e-mail domain and can be used with services such as gmail or hotmail. This is very similar to the "Rhonda Smith" or Robert D. Sells & Associates scam. It automatically red flags when a company doesn't even have its own domain name.
Also the fact you start out at $65,000 a year! What a great deal! I've never heard of ANY company that will pay you more if you have family, give a bonus if you're a housewife (a bit of gender discrimination), and let you work part time. You also get to:
"Work in one of the best team of the Europe"
We'll let the grammatical mistake pass because they are "European."
Having had my resume on Monster.com, CareerBuilder, and various job boards, the ONLY people that ever seem to contact you are annoying recruiters and scammers. Your best bet is to take your resume off these sites and apply directly through company web sites or use Craigslist. Craigslist is also falling prey to scammers and recruiters but not to the extent of the main job boards.
Kevin,
I wouldn't call the Robert D. Sells e-mail a scam. My critique of them was that their letter was very scam-like (and then Rhonda engaged in some duplicitous behavior which didn't help), but overall their opportunity is a legitimate job selling some questionable insurance products.
This, on the other hand... they probaby didn't even find me on CareerBuilder as I get e-mails with the same claim at addresses I never registered there. And when these scammers do have a URL, they either use a legitimate company's name and web site and hope you'll still be dumb enough to contact them at their gmail address instead of trying to go through the company, or they put up a professional looking site at a domain name they registered 2-3 weeks ago.
The thing to look for is when the sender is not the same as the person you're supposed to mail back and the domain in the from address has nothing at all to do with the business they're representing themselves to be.
Actually when you see this:
Please fill out this form and send us the completed copy.
Full Name -
Date of Birth -
Address, City, State, ZIP -
Home Phone -
Cell Phone -
This is a true sign of this scam. Yes, I fell for this particular one a while ago and no, I did not cash checks, etc, instead, they had me write the checks that were part of the scam and then they had me set them up for FedEx to be mailed to the suckers who went for the other letter. After understanding that they were using a University that I had been a part of, using a particular background on the check that the University would never use and they were not caring whether you used security paper and metallic ink for the checks, I felt that I now was doing something illegal. I calculated out what I was doing for them. All I needed to do was write the checks and mail them out. I would be paid for those checks that I sent out and they would receive a huge amount per check sent out. It is a very lucrative scam and many people fall for it.
Another thing that they do is that they insist that you talk with them through Yahoo Messenger. Then when you talk with them on the phone, they guide you through the set up. If you do not respond to them quickly, they get very aggressive. Yes, a lot of money is on the line!
Watch out, you could get in trouble for writing bogus checks.
Yeah i recieved one of these emails today knowing it was obviously a scam seeing as i have never even signed up to careerbuilder.com or even heard of it before. Also i live in australia and most likely careerbulider.com isnt a website built for australians. yea and how much they want to pay you and everything like as you all have said its so obvious its a scam its ridiculous.
Yes, a scam, only mine came from an Alex Muller with an email address of "agathon@icp.csic.es". There is a Steiner "Jewerly" in San Mateo, but they aren't looking for help! A big scam. I also received another spam from an Alex Butcher with email address of "a-prime@ac-hotels.com" offering a virtual Admininstrative Assistant position... $1,500 per week for part time work! Scam!
Looks like the scammers are trying to pull a scam on my blog. A poster named "Michael" tried to post a note (in ALL CAPS) that they're a Swiss company looking for people in the U.S. to sell or buy their jewelry and pointed me to a steinersjewellery dot com web address. It came up with a 404 (page not found) error from a Russian web hosting service. Further investigation shows that the domain was registered 6 weeks ago by a guy in St. Petersburg. 'Doh!
I got the same letter from Steiners Jewellery/Alex Muller today too! I went to their website and they looked legit, so I ALMOST replied to them...Luckily I saw your website listed under theirs: Steiners Jewellery SCAM! Thank you. I've been inundated with all kinds of job offers from non-specific companies since I sent my resume to my local newspaper online. It was suppose to be posted for LOCAL businesses only! What did they do - sell my email address to anyone who wanted it? It's sad that people who desperately need work get scammed by bogus job offers. Thank God for websites like yours! Keep up the good work!
Hi,
I also got an email from Alex Muller, however as a past military cop nothing seemed to fit. That's when I found your website. Thank you for making it so easy to find this site and Thank you for your service. Have a great day.
Natasha
Hi folks. Seems like Alex Mueller is a busy guy. I too got the email and tried to check the site. Bogus. No shock there. I got the 404 message as well and eventually ended up here.
I thought since everyone was tossing out their investigations, thoughts and whatnot about this particular scam...I would too. So, I copied this information and sent it back to Alex with a message that not everyone walks around with blinders on.
A resounding....thanks.....but no thanks.
Hey, I was only offered $50,400 by Alex Muller. Must be because I am from New England and he figures I won't work during the winters.
Also got the Alex Muller email. The site they list - steinersjewelery.com - now does exist. However , a check online came up with it being hosted in "Russian Federation". Definitely a scam!
Mr. Muller does not give up! Just received the following:
Sorry for the delay.
Everything is fine. You are accepted as our employee, and I'm ready to
give you our company's account information. But before that, due to
Switzerland law, I need to ask by email, if you're ready.
To work with our account you should Open (or use the existing one) an
account with WaMu with online access.
Here is the link to find the nearest WaMu branches.
http://www.wamu.com/store_locator/default.asp
Or you can open the WaMu checking account online using:
https://online.wamu.com/apply/StartApplication8.aspx?AppType=FC
All I need right now - is just a confirmation that you understood the
process – You will open an account (or if you have an account with
WaMu – skip it), I will give you the Company's account information to
work with, you will initiate the payment to your account, we will
approve the transaction, and as soon as the funds will be available at
your account - I will send you the list of required equipment or
services to be paid.
The transfer amount is depending on your status with our company. For
the first time it will be about $10K. As soon as you'll spend that –
you'll receive another one.
Your total salary will be $4,790.00 / month (57K / year). The salary
is based on the combined method. It means that you'll receive it as an
advance payment $200.00 - $800.00 from each transaction, depending on
its amount), and the rest part in the month's end. So, you'll receive
$200.00…$800.00 / each transaction immediately and the rest part of
$4,790.00– on the end of the current employment month. For example,
you'll complete 4 transactions (you'll receive $2,200.00 total from
that) – and you'll receive $2,590.00 on the month's end. The salary
might be paid by the international wire transfer.
Let me also tell you that I am do not asking you for your information.
Just to be sure that you got it.
Do not hesitate to contact me for further information.
Best regards, Alex Müller
Steiners Jewellery
US +1(941)623-4347
steinersjewellery.com
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Yup. Definite scam. It's good that you publish these kinds of things, cause I did notice that many people aren't so aware of the mail they receive and can be quite easily fooled. Too bad they are posing as "Jewish jewelry" and giving the Jews bad rep