So, I got another job scam from a company calling itself Guardian Consulting. It's remarkable how much effort they put into this, even sending a multi-page "contract" attached with the e-mail, yet let little things show through that show this is a scam. Here's the e-mail:

Hello, you have received this message because you have published your CV at one of the job searching web site and you meet our criteria.

Our company (Guardian Consulting) emerged in 1992 as a result of partnership of German entrepreneurs, striving for development, and a group of experts in the field of classical and investment consulting. Currently the company has a gained a unique reputation in the Germany as a consummate consulting professional and the owner of real estate of high commercial value.

We provide the best working conditions for our employees: iPhone or BlackBerry (upon employee's choice) as a gift for easy communication with our managers, as well as a laptop for exchange operations. We also provide medical insurance and an annual salary of $165,000 and $225,000 of MBA degree holders. The salary is paid monthly.

You can read further about job details in a copy of contract, which is attached to this email. If you agree to the terms of the contract, send it to us via email which is shown below. The contract is rather flexible so if you wish to alter some clause, we are open for a discussion.
Please do not confuse us with companies which operate with fake checks, etc. This is a fraud. We NEVER operate with any checks.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask them via email haber.eva.gc@gmail.com

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.

What do you think of our offer?

We are looking forward to hearing from you.

Regards
Eva Haber
Hiring Manager

Okay, they're going to pay me $165,000 - $225,000 a year for a job that "will not take a lot of your time," without an interview, and they're totally open to me modifying the employment contract. These are HUGE red flags. As the old saying goes: "If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is."

Additionally, though the company has been around since 1992 they provide no web site address. Furthermore, Miss Eva's using a free e-mail account at Google, and the sender of the e-mail is "Antonio O'Neal" with an address at commerceone.com which actually resolves to perfect.com and makes no mention of Guardian Consulting at the site. More big red flags. They're so big and reputable, but they don't have their own domain for sending or receiving e-mail?

On top of this, if you look in the e-mail headers you see:

softfail (google.com: domain of transitioning ten.marquard@commerceone.com does not designate 60.22.11.188 as permitted sender) client-ip=60.22.11.188;

Commerceone.com says the IP address (network location) Antonio O'Neal used is unknown to it and not permitted to use its mail servers. He's faked the address and is not sending the mail from a computer/location that is known of or approved by the company he's claiming to have sent it from.

Now, if you double-clicked the zip attachment or opened its contents without properly virus-checking and sandboxing them to make sure they couldn't infect your system, slap yourself. NEVER EVER open attachments from people you don't know until you've done everything you can to protect your system from being damaged by them. If you aren't experienced in protecting your system, then just don't open them.

I didn't find a virus (not saying that means there wasn't one), and there was a contract in Microsoft Word format. And inside the contract is the unmistakeable kicker on it being a big honking scam.

b) open separate bank account for exchange operations and provide the COMPANY with on-line access for exercising total control of the Employee's actions. If desired by the Employeehe may use his personal bank account, but shall also provide the COMPANY with on-line access to it.

You must open a bank account and then provide them with online access to it. If you want, you can use your own, but you have to provide them with online access to it. Let me repeat that... you have to give them online access to a bank account you open. Complete strangers send you a job offer, promising obscene amounts of money for work that won't take a lot of time, and all you have to do is give them online access to your bank account. Is any of this sounding fishy to you yet?

I'll keep on posting and debunking e-mails like this when I get them. Good luck to you all.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 13th, 2008 at 11:54 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.