Got the following job scam slipped through my spam filters just a few minutes ago. I'll post the e-mail and then point out the scam warning signs.

FROM: NEWMAN BENTON <newman9d8a5rul03benton@hotmail.com>
SUBJECT: Your Resume is considered for the job position. ID 3135

Hi.

Exclusive Realty is a European prosperous real estate company. Exclusive Realty offers a whole range of professional services associated with realty. Because of a need to expand targeted group population and to amplify areas for the services that we offer, we are looking for regional Customer Service Manager.

Candidate must be able to support the sales and administrative teams in the fastest and most efficient way possible.

Customer Service Manager Responsibilities.

First of all you are responsible for transactions preparation and distribution; also you must provide promptness of all operations. All orders from customers must be received and processed by you in person or by mail/phone. You must report for each transaction and collect them for monthly reports, and ensure all payments are disbursed in time.

Salary and Benefits:

- You will be paid five percent from each customer's transfer.
- Base salary 2,000-3,000 USD after your trial period expire.
- We reimburse all your work expenses.

So, if you liked our offer and suppose this Job fit you, send your respond to: exclusive.hrdep@gmail.com as soon as possible, because numbers of candidates are limited.

You will be provided by further instructions, after we receive your respond.
Attention: If you wish to speak with our representative directly - a toll free number along with office hours will be provided.

Thank you.

Marina Parinier,
Exclusive Realty.

The first scam warning sign is the mismatched addresses. Notice how they're supposedly sending the mail from a Hotmail account and they're asking you to reply to a Gmail account. This is extremely common in job scam spams. The one you received may have a different set of addresses than the one below, but you'll most likely see two things: 1) the sender is different than the person you're asked to reply to, and 2) the reply address is at a free mail service like Hotmail, Gmail, AOL, etc.

Also note that on my e-mail, the name of the person who owns the sending address is Newman Benton, but the name of the person "signing" the e-mail is Marina Parinier. If Marina is signing it, why isn't she sending it?

The second scam warning is the element of processing payments. Legitimate foreign companies can have payments from U.S. companies processed through U.S. banks and then wired to their foreign accounts or kept on deposit to pay any U.S. bills for a LOT less than the cost of hiring someone off the Internet and paying them a salary, a commission (5% in this case), and the associated transfer fees. The reason they're being so generous is because the payments are bogus. They're forged checks, stolen credit cards, and hacked PayPal accounts. You cash them out, pocket a portion, and then wire the rest off, usually through Western Union. But when the fraud is discovered, the cops come looking for you, and you're responsible for paying back every cent you cashed out. In the meantime, the contact points for your "employer" have stopped working and the only real piece of information you have is the location(s) of the Western Union office(s) where the money was picked up, usually in Africa or Eastern Europe.

This is one of the most common job scams around. The other is package forwarding, where your "employer" buys stuff online with forged/stolen/hacked payments, has it shipped to you so it looks legit (no one trusts buyers in Russia and Africa anymore), then you FedEx it out to them in their home country. When the payments turn out to be bogus and the seller reports fraud, they give your address to the police.

Plain and simple, if someone offers you a job cashing checks or forwarding packages for a foreign company, it's a scam. There are NO legitimate jobs I know of with these duties.

I know how hard it is out there. I've been out of work for months. But don't fall for an offer like this because you want it to be true. No one is going around the Internet handing out easy money to complete strangers, but there are a lot of scammers, swindlers, and outright thieves who are going around and pretending to do it to prey on your desperation.

Good luck to you.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 14th, 2009 at 5:26 pm and is filed under Job Hunting, Techno Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.