Taylor Capital Corporation

Hi, I recently joined a new, bonafide, job board and uploaded my CV. My settings allow recruiters to view my details. Unfortunately, I've just been contacted by 'Ward Global Corporation' within 24 hours.

The remuneration seemed quite reasonable, for what amounted to an admin type job:

24k + bonus full time
14k + bonus part time

Two word documents were sent to me by email, one to detail the job and the other as an application. However, the application form was like no other I've ever seen; poorly laid out, asking for bank details and using 'quaint' English.

I've a good mind to strike up some dialogue with them, to find out as much as I can, perhaps see if I can bait them. We'll see! I haven't given them my bank details. I can only assume they have all the other details off my CV, which is a bit worrying - with a bank account and sort code, I thought they could only pay money in. But with all the other details from my CV - they could perhaps do all manner of things :/

So, if I hear anything more from Lisa S. Brown, HR Manager, I'll post my dialogue here.

Somebody here mentions that they actually had money paid into their account! Amazing. Well, if you apply for a job and get paid up front (unusual though it is), I don't see that there's any problem or crime keeping that money. The recipient isn't guilty of any crime, neither have they committed fraud - the money was not received as a result of any deception. If the company is trading under a different name by tomorrow anyway, what does it matter? Drinks are on you!

If I thought that £1500 was going to get paid straight into my account, I'd gladly give them my account details this week - and close it the next! LOL!

I suppose if you alert the authorities after the money has been paid into your account, there's the small matter of money laundering....

My guess is that they will expect you to pay most of that 1500 to their 'consultants', on behalf of their 'clients' but let you keep a percentage as a commission.

Agreeing to that would be proper dodgy. On the other hand, if you're still waiting for training day and have received no instructions - consider it a windfall bonus! LOL

consider it a windfall bonus!

Until the real owner of the money that was stolen goes to the authorities, and the trail leads straight to you.

You, as the account owner, are ultimately responsible for deposits into your bank account, and for alerting the bank to unauthorized transactions.

"I didn't know the money was stolen--I thought I was just ripping off my employer" isn't exactly a defense that will get you off the hook.

The money does not belong to the scammers--it belongs to innocent people or companies that were scammed, hacked, or phished--and keeping their money is both unethical and illegal.

Horatio, if you're going to bait them, please see http://419eater.com. There are some cautions that must be taken when baiting; you can find them all listed over there.

This family of money mule sites dies pretty quickly. This site died earlier today. There's another family of money mule sites that takes longer to kill and jumps around in the process.

If money is sent to your account from this fake job, tell your bank and show them the emails. Do not withdraw it. The reason you were told it was sent is probably completely different from the reason the sender thinks he's sending it.

Horatio, Ward Global Corporation is a domain name created on 2013/01/31 by an organisation called James Daniel in Shobonier, Illinois. He's not wasting any time gathering recruits.

consider it a windfall bonus!

Until the real owner of the money that was stolen goes to the authorities, and the trail leads straight to you.

You, as the account owner, are ultimately responsible for deposits into your bank account, and for alerting the bank to unauthorized transactions.

"I didn't know the money was stolen--I thought I was just ripping off my employer" isn't exactly a defense that will get you off the hook.

The money does not belong to the scammers--it belongs to innocent people or companies that were scammed, hacked, or phished--and keeping their money is both unethical and illegal.

I completely understand what you're saying. To a degree I'm playing devils advocate I am now fully aware that this is purely a money laundering operation.

However, if I had gone so far as to 'apply' for their job, send them my sort code and account number for remuneration and my 'employer' had put money there in advance to pre-empt travelling and training - as the new 'employee', you would have no real cause for concern - ignorance is bliss. In the UK, I find it rather appalling that the CPS - should they choose to - can imprison the recipient of such funds for up to 10 years! In my mind that's akin to putting a victim of crime behind bars.

Ignorance is no defence, even if it's genuine

Most people would NOT be savvy enough to arrive at this site had they just applied for a new job and been paid in advance - I mean - what's the first thing a newly employed person is going to want to do? They'd be celebrating.

If your new employer paid money into your account in advance, bearing in mind they were implying a certain number of days training, I think it would be very easy to make a mistake.....

Regardless of the CPS, or spending the money, the banks themselves can flag up these transactions as 'suspicious' and then close down the account that the money was paid into. To make matters worse, such actions are communicated to the other banks and genuinely innocent people are left without any form of bank account, or the option of starting a new one - just because they applied for a job.

The only give-aways were:

Crude/Poorly written word application forms (People with average reading/writing may not pick up on this)
A company name with virtually no web presence (but this is true of many smaller bonafide companies)
Application form asks for bank details - the main worry.

With a real employer, they will only ask for bank details once you have been appointed - NEVER at the application stage.

It's a jungle out there.......

Horatio, if you're going to bait them, please see http://419eater.com. There are some cautions that must be taken when baiting; you can find them all listed over there.

This family of money mule sites dies pretty quickly. This site died earlier today. There's another family of money mule sites that takes longer to kill and jumps around in the process.

If money is sent to your account from this fake job, tell your bank and show them the emails. Do not withdraw it. The reason you were told it was sent is probably completely different from the reason the sender thinks he's sending it.

Ok, I'll check out the the 419eater site. It sounds like a great site...

As I understand it, the only reason any money is 'paid in' is because at some point they [the scammers] want you [the victim] to pay 'money out', via Western Union, to offshore accounts. At that point the money is then 'clean' and 'untraceable'.

The money comes in from 'clients', supposedly for work done by 'consultants' - you then pay the consultants by transferring money via western union under the pretense that it's a way of speeding up the payment process. That's the cover and it's not all that convincing. If someone says to you 'here's 1500 quid - pay 1100 via western union to this swiss bank account and you keep the rest' - that's somewhat worrying. Yet apparently, it's going on all over the place!

The girl here who had AU dollars paid into her account obviously didn't get as far as transferring the money.

http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=61689

You can end up in prison through involvement in this type of scam.

The advice we give is for the protection of members and visitors, as that is our fundamental purpose and function. We don't make moral or character judgements other than to give advice within the law as we know or understand it.

Don't get me started on what's wrong with the world and what doesn't work properly, but that's not for this forum. We're overworked and unpaid as it is.

Horatio, Ward Global Corporation is a domain name created on 2013/01/31 by an organisation called James Daniel in Shobonier, Illinois. He's not wasting any time gathering recruits.

No, he certainly isn't hanging around. So I wonder who sends the emails then?

Linda S Brown

[email protected]

I'd love to know what the source of all the cash is. What sort of operation is he running?

Large scale mule recruiting operations are typically tied to the bigger hacking gangs.

If you are interested in understanding the bigger picture, Krebs has some very interesting reading. They have several articles that cover many aspects of the cybercrime world, including this particular part.

http://krebsonsecurity.com/tag/money-mules/

Our function is to protect and aid victims, or potential victims, but in doing so we do collect information on scams and scammers, and in doing so, those with the time and inclination can collect and collate that information, to aid other victims and pass on to the authorities if it might be of interest or use to them. indeed that could be seen as a legal obligation on us.

Victim information is of no interest to us and we always tell people to remove their personal details, or we do it ourselves from their posts, for their own protection.

How this scam operates isn't a secret and either involves counterfeit cheques or phished card details. in the first case the scammer is stealing your money and in the latter case that of an innocent third party whose card company will have your bank details and a bad attitude when they locate you.

What sort of operation ? - large and organised I'd say.

"host wardglobalcorp.com" now brings up neither A nor MX record, so they can't receive replies at that address.

Large scale mule recruiting operations are typically tied to the bigger hacking gangs.

If you are interested in understanding the bigger picture, Krebs has some very interesting reading. They have several articles that cover many aspects of the cybercrime world, including this particular part.

http://krebsonsecurity.com/tag/money-mules/

Thanks, great link, I'll read all about it with interest.

Much appreciated.

"host wardglobalcorp.com" now brings up neither A nor MX record, so they can't receive replies at that address.

This must have been a very recent development, because they responded to my emails yesterday afternoon. that said, I sent one last night but have not had a response today - so I guess that domain is busted already.

http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=61689

You can end up in prison through involvement in this type of scam.

The advice we give is for the protection of members and visitors, as that is our fundamental purpose and function. We don't make moral or character judgements other than to give advice within the law as we know or understand it.

Don't get me started on what's wrong with the world and what doesn't work properly, but that's not for this forum. We're overworked and unpaid as it is.

Yes, there's no doubt. The thing is though, in the UK, the CPS can press charges even though you remain concvinced you are starting a new job - completely oblivious to it.

The case you link to, the person going to prison was obtaining money through deception offering a vehicle for sale that didn't actually exist. And then he managed to sell it twice! LOL Sounds like a dodgy ebayer

The funds he obtained through deception were transferred, presumably to an off shore account, and cannot be traced (alledgedly). It's only right that he went to prison, not that it's much consolation to the victims, because they obviously didn't receive a penny of their money back.

The work you all do here though is invaluable. I'd particularly like to thank those that contributed to this thread because it removed all doubt from my mind that what I was being offered was infact a scam.

Cheers.