Cyrus Limited

I am sick to my stomach over this. I received this exact email on July 22nd from someone named "Jana Dean." After my initial response, I then started corresponding with Lauren Brock. Because they stated they found my resume on CareerBuilder.com, I thought it might be legit but I spent some time researching them the same day. Nothing out of the ordinary came out of my search and they did show the A+ rating with the BBB so I continued to show interest in this position. I was a bit skeptical about giving my bank information so I went to a different bank and opened an account just for them. A friend of mine who does a work at home job told me she has a separate account for her work as well, so I figured this was the norm for any work at home position. Not only did I sign the contract, but they sent a W-4 form which I filled out as well, which means they have my social.

I registered and logged into their portal this morning and received a message from a lady who I was told was going to be my supervisor, Angela Kovach. The first message I got from her said I would have client by noon, and she was going to help me through working with them. Two hours later she send me another message saying that I will start work tomorrow.

If you are saying this is a brand new scam then I fell right in it and I am in tears over this. I lost my job back in March and this position was a godsend. I guess it's true what they say, if something is too good to be true it probably is.

I guess the only upside to this is that I have HORRIBLE credit so they won't be opening any accounts in my name.

Since I'm already in this over my head, I'll wait it out and see what transpires. In the meantime I'll let you all know what happens.

Samantha

[AlanJones]

I would advise you not to "wait it out and see what transpires". I'll tell you what will happen, you are going to be implicated in money laundering and fraud.

Get in touch with the new bank, tell them what has happened and close the account immediately - any money that is transferred in to it will be fraudulent and it is not going to look good for you that you set up a new account at a totally different bank just to receive these particular payments.

I don't plan on taking any money, I just want to see what happens tomorrow when they contact me. My reason for setting up this account at a different bank was in the event they were scammers, I didn't want them to have the name of the bank I actually do business with, and they also said they deal with this bank so that's why I went to them.

[AlanJones]

Whether you take the money out or not is irrelevant - just receiving it when they transfer it into the account involves you in fraud and money laundering and as I said before, you've put yourself on the back-foot when you have to try to convince the authorities that you are an innocent victim - you'll be relying on them believing that you only opened the new account to protect your existing one.

If you think your credit history is bad now, think what fun you'll have trying to open a new account when you have a fraud marker on it and your existing bank decide they don't want you as a customer.

Oh no, I didn't mean that.....I closed that bank account. I'm also changing passwords, just incase.

Please post the emails and the messages you received on the website. The more evidence we have of what kind of scam it is, the better, hopefully, we can kill the site.

I really truly hope no one falls for this scam. It was a very well planned idea by whomever is behind this. I did not seek this company out, they contacted me and said they found my resume on careerbuilder.com. That was the first reason why I thought it was legit. Now looking at this, I can't believe I was so stupid to believe this was a legitimate job, but I've never worked from home before. As a result of this, I had to close a bank account, put a fraud alert for my social security with all three credit agencies, and change the passwords for every thing I do on the internet, which is pretty much everything. They have my name, address, two phone numbers, my social, my date of birth. I had to log into a web portal to "work" so I don't even know what other information they could have gotten from me by doing that, hence the reason for changing passwords on all my online accounts.

Michael Barber was the founder of the original Cyrus Limited, but that company was acquired by another company called McMurry in 2009. I took it one step further to get absolute confirmation that this company was fake....I contacted Michael Barber through his LinkedIn account and he messaged me hours later and told me this was a scam.

~ORIGINAL EMAIL~

Sent by: [email protected]

Wonderful news: your profile was successfully chosen among numerous others, it seems you possess all qualifications for the Client Manager job that has brrn announced by our company on Careerbuilder.com recently.

As our new Client Manager, you will be responsible for functioning as a core person between our clients and outside personnel by providing accurate and up-to-date information regarding orders, requests, and complaints.

There are both full-time, and part-time shifts available, so you may select an option that fits you most. We offer the initial pay of $2,900 monthly plus incentive bonuses and a promising benefits package including medical, dental, disability/life insurance and a 401k plan. And since this position is based out of your home office, you won't be required to relocate. No previous experience in this field is needed, our team will provide all employees with free training materials and friendly support by personal supervisors.

If you are interested in the Client Manager vacancy, please reply to our message, and we will forward you further information to proceed with the employment.

Looking forward to your reply,
Janna Dean

From: "Lauren Brock" < [email protected] >
To: xxxxxxxxx
Sent: Monday, July 28, 2014 2:30:52 PM
Subject: Client Manager Opening with Cyrus Limited



Good afternoon,



Thank you for such a prompt reply and my apologies for not getting back to you earlier: we're quite busy with clients in a high season. I'm sending you our standard Employment Agreement in the attachment to this message, please take your time to read it, as it has detailed information on the position duties, pay, schedule, benefits, etc. Any additional information about the company can be found at our website: http://cyrusonlinefl.com.



Just to refresh the details on the position: we're an IT company, and thanks to our sales department the list of our clients has grown significantly during the last couple of months. However, looks like we won't be physically able to take all orders for web services wwith our local team of developers only. It would be a shame to lose clients who are already eager to sign contracts with us, especially since we've been in this business for many years, so we know many remote contractors who can take them. However, we're in need of a person who will take care of finalizing contracts with clients and managing remote developer teams to make sure the clients get what they ordered on time and well done, which would be your role as a Client Manager.



Now, you don't need to be a programmer or have any IT experience, because your job duties won't include any coding/networking. You won't be selling anything either: looking for clients is the task for our sales department. If you know how to manage a team and multitask or at least have good communication skills and are highly organized, this is the job for you. We will provide you with the full documentation and manuals, explain our general procedures, and help you with your first clients. Please note that in no way do we require any upfront fees or other payments to ensure employment!



We will provide you with the information on the clients, the contacts of freelance teams and pay you not only a fixed monthly salary as our employee, but also a percentage of the total price of each order you help to finalize as our Client Manager. There are a lot of web developers on the IT market, and losing clients simply because our staff is currently overloaded with local orders would be a waste of perfect business opportunities.



There are 2 work schedule options: you can work either part-time, or full-time. Being a work-from-home job, this opportunity will allow you to manage your time efficiently while setting priorities for your daily duties yourself. Also, just to clarify, the starting salary of $2,900 for full-time (and $1,450 for part-time) is given before taxes, and this is a guaranteed monthly salary, it's not commission-based. There are, of course, bonuses given for each client you take, which can double your base salary per month. The pay is direct deposited into your account every 2 weeks since the start date.



Finally, the training: I will supply you with the guides and manuals to read, explain our general procedures, and in less than 2 days you will be ready for your first clients. Here at Cyrus Limited we believe that practice is more efficient than theory, and getting to actual work right from the start will be more helpful than taking long training courses.



Please print out, sign and send the employment documents back to me by email, I will review them and set you up an account at our corporate server to work remotely. As soon as you sign the official employment agreement, I will send you the W4 form for taxation purposes and a Banking Form for financial details. If you have questions, please feel free to send them to me or give me a call to confirm everything.



--
Best regards,
Lauren Brock, HR
Cyrus Limited, Inc.
Call us: (407) 219-9141

A good friend of mine has gotten sucked into this scam. They had her fill out a W-4 and send it back to them. Unfortunately, she did fill it out and send it back. I found this site by searching for Cyrus Ltd. I suggested that she join, and I think that she's almost registered. I'll let her give all the details once she's in. She's scared to death that by filling out the W-4, they will have access to all of her information. What should I tell her to do?

Tell her this: Do not complete the signup. If the fake Cyrus tries to contact you, pretend to be dead. Post the job description here.

This is a money laundering job. The others have posted enough information that we who deal with scams are sure of it, but I'm not sure if there's enough info to prove it without a doubt to the hosting company. The guides and manuals should be enough to prove it.

Tell her this: Do not complete the signup. If the fake Cyrus tries to contact you, pretend to be dead. Post the job description here.

This is a money laundering job. The others have posted enough information that we who deal with scams are sure of it, but I'm not sure if there's enough info to prove it without a doubt to the hosting company. The guides and manuals should be enough to prove it.

She's already returned the W-4. They have emailed her the information to log in and she's logged in to access the manual and guide. Is there any other information that I can relay to you (she's having problems getting her account on here activated) or from you?

I told her to contact her bank and close the account that she had given them. What else do I need to tell her? She's a very good friend and isn't quite as computer savvy as I think I am.

Another update:

My friend went to her bank and requested that her current account be closed and a new one opened. The woman she spoke to proceeded to do some search on the Internet and told my friend that everything seemed to be legit with the company (basically refused to close her account).

She finally got her account set up on here (Hi Zane!), and I showed her how to print out this message thread. She's going to go back to the bank and shove them in the banker's face.

Post here, or have her post here, the text of the manual and guide. That should contain a description of the job clear enough that anyone can see it's fraud.

Another update:

My friend went to her bank and requested that her current account be closed and a new one opened. The woman she spoke to proceeded to do some search on the Internet and told my friend that everything seemed to be legit with the company (basically refused to close her account).

She finally got her account set up on here (Hi Zane!), and I showed her how to print out this message thread. She's going to go back to the bank and shove them in the banker's face.

The bank cannot refuse to close her account, whomever did that to her needs to be reported to the bank manager.

The reason why this company appears to be legit is because there used to be a company called Cyrus Limited. Cyrus was acquired by another company called McMurry sometime in either 2009 or 2012. I have been in contact with Michael Barber (his name is on their "employment contract") and he has confirmed that this is indeed a scam. I found out about this on Monday, and those people are still sending me messages as if I am still working with them....the messages are always duplicates.

Please tell your friend to close her bank account and put a fraud alert on her credit reports. Fraud alerts stay on your credit for 90 days. According to my bank, scammers need a lot more than just a social security number to access your existing accounts these days.

First, I would file a complaint with the bank. She needs to go over this woman's head and raise the issue up the ladder.

Clueless employees like that giving bad advice are one of the reasons scammers are successful. We've dealt with several victims over the years who thought they were safe because a bank teller told them a check had "cleared."

Since your friend filled out a tax form, which means she undoubtedly gave her date of birth and social security number at a minimum, it would be best if she had a flag put on her credit report as a proactive measure to avoid identity theft.