creditreport.com affiliate company scams

Just wanted to post these online in hopes that someone else reads these and doesn't fall for the same bogus employment scam. My wife recently quit her job in hopes of finding something better and has been using craigslist.com to find a potential employer. She's already been contacted twice, both asking her to check her own credit. At least one of these company's names I've seen on here already as an affiliate scam.

From: Alex McGuire [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2011 5:52 PM Subject: Re: ^^^Reception or admin^^^ (Austin) Hello, Thank you for sending your resume to me. So the job responsibilities areclear, you will be answering the phone, scheduling meetings, and runningcompany errands such as buying office supplies and making bank deposits in acompany car. When running errands you will be provided with a company creditcard to make supply purchases, etc. We have had some bad experiences with prior employees taking advantage ofhaving access to a company credit card in the past, so before we canschedule an interview, we need you to get a credit check. We prefer you usehttp://grademycredit.org/offer1 to obtain this information as they currentlyhave a free trial. We have also found their reports most accurate. When yousubmit your information they will send you your credit score. When you email me your credit score, we can schedule for an interview.Please do not email me your credit report, as this may have privateinformation in it. If you have a low credit score, that will not prevent youfrom having an interview with us, but it does show us that you aretrustworthy and responsible. Please send me your schedule with availabilityfor an interview along with your credit score. I am looking forward to yourresponse. Sincerely, Alex McGuireHR ManagerSkyline Limited

and this company i've seen on here already...

From: Miller Corp & Partners [ Human Resources Dept] [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2011 9:34 AM
Subject: RE:Full Time Receptionist (Grey Fox Rd)


We would like to thank you for sending your resume to Miller Corp & Partners. After overlooking your initial credentials, I think you could possibly be a great fit for our company. Our Human Resource manager would like to schedule an interview with you before she leaves for vacation early next week. You need to complete the pre-interview screening before we can schedule an interview, which can be found at millerhiring.biz or the career link on our homepage. Your applicant code is . Please write down your code, as that is the onlyway you can gain access to your application and employee profile. Once you complete your screening someone from HR will contact you within 72 hours to schedule an interview.


Unfortunately my wife went through with the application thinking the position was real. But before being able to submit the application, she was required to review her credit report, and now we're not able to get back in to see what was the direct link she was sent to to view her credit.

Has anyone else on here considered a lawsuit for emotional distress? I felt so bad for my wife-she spent 2 hours doing the application and checking her credit report as she was directed to for a job that is non-existent.

Welcome to Scamwarners.

Has anyone else on here considered a lawsuit for emotional distress?

Finding the real identity of scammers is almost impossible, and there is little or no chance of them being arrested, or sued. He's not even likely to be in the US.

miller-corp again? Their website was offline for half a year, I didn't think I'd ever see those again. We'll get our site killers to work and get it down soon.

Thank you very much for posting this warning! I received an email from these people yesterday after inquiring about a job posting on Craigslist. Something didn't seem quite right and I am glad I did a little research and came across your post before pursuing this any further!

This is how the email read:

"Hi There <name omitted>,

We would like to thank you for sending your resume to Miller Corp & Partners. After overlooking your initial credentials, I think you could possibly be a great fit for our company. Our Human Resource manager would like to schedule an interview with you before she leaves for vacation early next week. You need to complete the pre-interview screening before we can schedule an interview, which can be found at applyformiller.biz or the career link on our homepage. Your applicant code is ######. Please write down your code, as that is the only way you can gain access to your application and employee profile. Once you complete your screening someone from HR will contact you within 72 hours to schedule an interview.


Regards,
Tyrone Hume
Miller Corp & Partners

I've been seeing a lot of these pre-employment credit report requests. I got one the other day that had a link for both an "aptitude test" and a "credit report." (Sorry, I didn't save those e-mails -- just found this site today.) I'm assuming that the "credit report" is simply a way to get your social security number and whatever else they might need for identity theft. I don't ever click on these things.

I received the same email message this morning. I was laid off from my job approx 3 months ago and I use Craiglist (out of Austin) in addition to the usual Monster etc sites. I have just about learned just from reading the wording of the ad if it is a scammer or not. Thank goodness for this site and others like it. I always search here before taking any further steps if the replies seem a bit hinky. I first always visit their website first - if every tab is "Under Construction" that is another ringing bell of alarm.

Good-Day <name ommited>,

We would like to thank you for sending your resume to Davidson Corp & Partners. After overlooking your initial credentials, I think you could possibly be a great fit for our company. Our Human Resource manager would like to schedule an interview with you before she leaves for vacation early next week. You need to complete the pre-interview screening before we can schedule an interview, which can be found at applyformiller.biz or the career link on our homepage. Your applicant code is XXXXX. Please write down your code, as that is the only way you can gain access to your application and employee profile. Once you complete your screening someone from HR will contact you within 72 hours to schedule an interview.


Regards,
Joy Streaton
Davidson Corp & Partners
-----------------------------------------

Hi Missk78, thank you for posting their mail. I would really love to get my hands on the headers of that mail, so I can report http://davidson-corp.com/ to get it offline. If you are unsure about what headers are, just tell us which email provider you use and we'll explain. Be sure to check the headers for your own email adress and remove it - it may appear a few times. Thanks!

Hi, my wife went through with this and sent them her credit score. They only asked for her credit score and none of her information, but i was suspicious because they linked her to a site to get the credit report. This morning she had a $30 charge on her checking account. Shes pretty embarrassed that she fell for this. We can eat the $30 charge as a lesson learned, but I was just curious what else do you guys think could come from this? She only has a checking account with not much in it. Do we need to cancel her checking? I'm a little worried now that something worse might happen now.

A little more information. Here is the copied mail

Hello

Thanks for your interest in our employment position.

Let me first tell you a bit more about the position we have

* You will be answering the phone and taking messages when applicable
* You will be scheduling the company meetings
* Running errands for the company for things such as purchasing supplies and making bank deposits.
* You will be provided with a company car while working.
* While you are running errands, you will also be given one of our company credit card(s) for all business purchases.

I have gone through your previous resume and you seem more than qualified. I would like to take the next step with you. However, before I am able to schedule a formal meeting, my company will require that you acquire a recent credit report. Let's just say the person we just let go, took advantage of having access to a company credit card.

Both myself and the company will prefer that you use this company to acquire your check as they are offering the check at zero cost to you (unlike other places). I have tried their service myself and their scores contain the most accurate information I have seen, but feel free to use any service you like.

Once you submit all of the required information, they will show your personal report. Please print it out and save it for the meeting. Please do not email me the report, as it will have private content. We can discuss it when we meet in person. If you have a lower than expected credit score, it will never prevent you from a position with us.

Once your finished please e-mail me your phone number that you can be easily reached, and your availability to arrange an interview.

I am looking forward to your quick response.

Have a great week,
Michelle K
BES Group | HR Dept.

the bolded "this company" was a link to creditreport.com but coping the link location gave me

http://bes-group.info/a?3a13jt24p

Here is another email I found

How are you D. it is wonderful to hear from you.

I appreciate you e-mailing us. In case the posting was not clear, the responsibilities of this position are as follows: you will be answering the phone and taking messages whenever applicable, you will be scheduling the company meetings, and running errands for the company for things such as purchasing supplies and making bank deposits (you will be provided with a company car). While you are running errands, you will also be given one of our company credit card(s) for all business purchases.

You seem definitely qualified for our job opening, and more so than the other 16 applicants we received applications from. I would like to take the next step with you. However, before I am able to schedule a formal meeting, my company will require that you acquire a recent (past 14-21 business days) credit report. We started this because our company had some bad incidents with prior employees taking advantage of having access to a company credit card.

Both myself and the company will prefer it that you use this link to acquire your check as they are offering the check at zero cost to you (unlike other places). We also discovered that their scores always report back the most factual and accurate information. (Please note link will not work with either safari or google chrome)

Once you submit all of the required information, they will show your personal report. Then, you need to email me the reported credit score, a phone number that you can be easily reached, and your availability schedule to arrange an interview.

I ask you to not email me the entire report, as it will have private content. If you have a lower than expected credit score, it will never prevent you from a position with us. I had a fairly low score whenever I started.

If you do not want to complete a recent credit check, unfortunately the company will require that I contact the second choice.
Personally, I am hoping to fill this position with a new friendly face and am looking forward to your quick response.

Have a fantastic Tuesday,

Kind Regards,
Lois Freeman - HR

again, the bolded "this link" came up as

http://www.myoff.info/redirect.php?uid=l9foncRJRlonWqMo

Welcome evilolive,

Assuming the one she was scammed by led to creditreport.com (which has ultimately been the site in >90% of the scams I have seen - the link is just a "click-through" that the scammer uses to get credit for the referral), she is probably now signed up for the monthly monitoring service--so the most important thing to do is to go to the site and cancel her membership--follow all instructions, make sure you have requests in writing, keep all documentation and follow up to get confirmation from them that it is cancelled, preferably in writing. I have not dealt with them myself, but what I have been told is that once the membership is actually cancelled, they are not a problem.

As for the two "referral" sites, our site killers will try to get those taken down ASAP to help others avoid being scammed.

Thank you for the quick reply. Hopefully canceling the subscription is all we need to do. I tried searching for what to do after being credit scammed and a lot of the sites were saying that we need to contact her bank, the police, all three credit agencies, and anyone that she has any kind of account with. So that no one can open a false account in her name. What a pain in the butt when all she was trying to do was get a job.

So just so I understand correctly, is this typically an identity theft scam, or just a simple $30/month subscription scam?

When you say "get credit for the referral" it seems like the scammer is actually affiliated of creditreport.com and the referral number would be a way to trace who the scammer was. Maybe I'm just naive, but with that much evidence how does a site like that even stay up without getting a bunch of criminal charges? It's a really sad day when most of the postings on jobs sites are scams in some way or another. Anyway, I digress. Thank you for your help.

If your wife had handed a complete credit report over, identity theft could be a concern--but from what you said, she only gave them a score.

In these "affiliate" scams (you will see similar bait and switch tactics for porn/webcam sites and I've even seen a couple for other types of companies), the scammer is signed up as an affiliate with the company. As an independent affiliate, he gets a referral fee for each person he brings to the company (last I checked on creditreport.com it was $24 for each person successfully billed for a month of membership). That's why she had to click through the scammer's link--so he would get credit for the referral.

Maybe I'm just naive, but with that much evidence how does a site like that even stay up without getting a bunch of criminal charges?

The answer is, they don't stay up, but criminal charges aren't as easy to get as you would think. These scammers are like many of the fake loan companies you see listed here. They set up new links (often on hacked/compromised servers), spam their ads everywhere, pick up as many targets as possible, and within weeks (sometimes days, or even hours), they have moved on to a new identity, new sites, etc. In the end, the victims have paid for and received a service, they were just misled into signing up.

The truth is, resources just aren't available to dedicate to investigating these scammers (real names/locations would have to be tracked down, it would have to be proven that there was no job, etc, and if international individuals and/or bank accounts are involved, which is very possible, it would be even worse). Given the small amount of each individual loss (and once again, the victims did receive a service, which does complicate things), these are not on any agency's priority list.

Nobody has ever met in person. The scammer signed up online as an affiliate, undoubtedly under a false identity. The company doesn't much care who the person is, as long as he sends referrals. The company will have deniability (the affiliates don't work for them).

Thank you Dotti that all makes sense. I feel a little better now, this doesn't seem to be as huge a deal as I originally thought. I'll make sure we take the steps mentioned above so we can put this behind us. Thank you all.

Hi,

I applied for a few jobs at my local hospital posted on simplyhired.com. I had clicked on a few other jobs from other places but never actually applied to them. So when I recieved an email titled Human Resources I didnt even think twice about it and automatically assumed it was for the hospital position. It asked directly for my full name, phone number and address and the following page asked me to obtain a credit report if I hadnt in the last 2 months. It was linked to creditreport.com. So I did the credit report. But then I relized that after the credit report it didnt ask for any additional information except to email them titleing it credit report complete. This is when I became suspicious and went back to the email to realize it was not from the hospital it was from a company called American Jobs Institute. I did some research and found out about the creditreport.com not actually being free and I am going to call and cancel today but I'm worried that something more serious will come out of this and dont know if I should get some kind of identity theft protection.