Braxton management group LLC. Scam?

I received this email:
[quote]Vacancy: Finance Assistant No Experience Required
Location: UK
Hours: Part-Time, Full Time
Salary: Part-Time £15,000; Full Time £20,000 - per annum (pro rata) plus bonus

A good eye for detail, the ability to prioritise workload, and to perform in a challenging, dynamic environment, are key characteristics for this role.

To apply please forward your CV ASAP.

HR Manager
Christine I. Pedroza
Braxton Management Group LLC /quote]

then this:

[quote]Training Course Basic Information


Company is engaged in various financial activities, cooperating with national and international payment services in USA and Europe. Now, the company is expanding its business activity on the territory of UK. Both jobs are considered as office-based and home-based, so that you may choose your working hours and your job-schedule at the first meeting that will be held on fourth training day.
Before you start to work, you should pass a free 10-days training course to practice with software and learn theoretical materials ( and other documents) preparing you for all the duties and future responsibilities. After you complete the free training course, company guarantees your employment within one business day (all necessary assignments will be discussed on the 1st interview already – as soon as your local supervisor receives your practical and test results).
The training course is distant, except for two personal meetings with one of the company’s managers in your city. It combines both practical and theoretical part for each lesson. The lessons will be assisted and controlled online by your local supervisor and distantly (only during the 1st lesson) by the training manager. While studying, you will permanently move from the easiest and the simplest tasks to levels that are more complicated. You will receive studying materials that you should learn and strengthen then your knowledge by passing tests after each practical part.

The training days do not have to be consecutive (you can make breaks for one or several days if it's necessary).




Our trading training courses include the following steps:

1. Initial professional level check (distantly coordinated by training manager): Accounts. Payment systems. Immediate transfers.
2. Determinants of Foreign Currency Exchange Rates.
3. Access to company’s software (trading platform & financial messaging network).
4. Types of Markets. Requests handling. Databases.
5. Brokerage and investment banking. Types of investments.
6. Exchanges between payment systems. Records of different transactions. Reports.
7. Volatility and Variance Products. B2B- and B2C- applications.
8. Interest Rates and Interest Rate Products.
9. Accounting documents. Financial Engineering.
10. Practical usage of training experience. Workday rehearsal with Key Trader (local supervisor).Practical usage of training experience.

Initial professional level check (instructions for the 1st lesson).

1. Your Training Manager (TM) calls prescribe you into the list of trade-trainees and to confirm that everything is ready for the start of practical part of the Lesson. (The training manager will assist you by the phone to report about your skills to organize, calculate, communicate, count, etc.)
2. Then TM informs when the money for practicing with elementary operations and your training wage £30 are available on the account that you have specified for training. (The exact amount can’t be specified at the moment since the training money goes from one training person to another by a chain: company sends the initial amount to the 1st trainee, he/she takes £30 as the training wage and sends to the 2nd trainee the rest of the amount after deduction of the commission for the transaction; the 2nd trainee takes £30 and sends to the 3rd trainee the rest minus the commission etc.(subject to the number of the trainees before you in the training chain, the amount that you receive can be different).
3. You call your TM after withdrawing the total amount to receive new details.
First, £30 you should take for yourself as your personal training wage for the lesson (you may leave it on your account) and the rest of the amount you will use for practicing with Money Gram and Western Union payment systems. Then you go to the nearest Money Gram location to perform a transaction using the data you will receive from your personal manager. Pay attention to the details to be able to compare and learn the differences between this and other financial services.
The Receipt that you get from the Money Gram managers has to be saved.
5. Your TM will provide your practical results according to all references to your local supervisor and compose several questions to check your initial professional level. After you complete the practical part, you will receive theoretical materials. You should answer questions in the test form and send it back to company’s e-mail address within next 24 hours. Some of the questions will concern your practicing for the first training day, some of them will be based on your results (to confirm your skills, abilities, etc).The deadline for sending out the test form: next workday, 6:00 pm.

In response to this email, please specify the day when you are ready to start the training. Your personal training manager will contact you by the phone. So, please, make sure to stay accessible by the phones provided.


Every training step was weighed and deeply tested during our trading and training work so that every person may show the best results. Our education initiatives incorporate classroom learning, simulated trading sessions, specialized financial engineering seminars, and a variety of other instructional programs. We view education as a continuous process—as the markets, products, and valuation techniques evolve, we adapt our coursework to reflect those innovations.

/quote]

After this a lady rang me who barely spoke english.

As you can see from the text above, you receive an amount into your account and then take it out (less £30) and then send it via Western Union or Moneygram.

This scam can work in two ways... Either you are paid with a fake cheque and the bank claw back the funds from you when they realise it's fake, or you receive payment from a scammer's victim via Western Union or Moneygram and then send it on, thus making you a money mule.

Either way, you lose. You will face questioning by the police and it may not go down very well with them.

Please let us have the email address that this thief used.

These criminals have infiltrated employment sites and we've even seen the jobs promoted by official government run Job Centres

This seems to be a criminal enterprise, that for all its faults, appears a little better organised than those tasked with its prevention. £30 a time isn't very generous for each crime committed and, if the authorities don't do anything, a very unhappy victim might. All paths lead to your door and usually the unwitting 'mule' is easiest to trace and you're expendable.

Blacklisting a 'money mule' from having a bank account has severe repercussions on their life but, unless the authorities can prevent the fraud at any other stage, it's the only answer. Some unwitting 'mules' will suffer but it'll close down the professional 'mule' gangs, and it's the only way to do it.

The UK has become a playground for these people.

A smart person could work out how to exploit everyone, but that's the risk of operating a lax and poorly regulated banking system.

braxtonmg.com is a money mule website, instantly recognizable to us who've been tracking this gang for many moons. It is in the process of being reported for fraud.