by tohmy
Fri Jan 28, 2011 1:17 pm
Hello all, I have been scammed this week but I think I could prevent the worst.
Here is how it came about:
I started applying on job websites in the UK, totaljobs and reed. They were all legit ads and one seemed particularly interesting, multiple vacancies, the company just being around the corner at the local trainstation, reasonable pay, only 10 hours a week, perfect for what i was looking for. After a week or so of replying to several jobs this was the only reply so I was enthusiastic to reply back. I did see the red flags but chose to ignore them at this stage. The header said *my name*, high-paying job which was suspicious. The payment that was mentioned later on in the email was also suspiciously high but i thought, that would be for a full time position, then it would have made sense again. There were also a few subtle spelling and grammare mistakes that made me suspicious. But, never having heard of this kind of scam before, I went ahead. They asked me for my full name, telefone number and availability. I thought nothing of it in my enthusiasm of course. A few hours later I received a text message that I had been entered in a draw for 300 pounds. But i would have to pay 3 pounds a month and that i am already live. to opt out and cancel i was supposed to text or call a certain number. That was more suspicion than I could handle. Today, a day later i then received an email reply saying that I should reply to a different email address and that there is also a company website (before i could not find their website)
website (somewhere in russia, a guy called sergej): http://www.money-visualuk.cc/
first email address (geolocation: somewhere in florida): [email protected]
second email address (geolocation: somewhere in romania): [email protected]
in this last email and on the website I then found out that this company is appearently dealing in arts and needs me as a payment processing agent to receive clients' payments on my PERSONAL BANKACCOUNT to then wire them on to virtual money as this is appearently the fastest way of doing this and they cannot afford to lose time in the arts industry... Well, that was it for me, I told totaljobs (but they haven't replied yet), some other website and eventually came accross some baiting and scam aware websites. As I could only find one forum post about this on the first ecosia search result page I thought it's worthwile telling as many people as possible about this. Similar things seem to happen around the world but it was the main ad on totaljobs that was so realistic that i thought it important to emphasise it here. I thought I would deal with customers who arrive in the city via train and want to exchange their currency for some pounds. It all seemed reasonable. However I still do not know whether this ad is actually afiliated with the scamming people, maybe they just took my CV and saw that I applied there or something like that.
The first add had a 3 hour on/off shift system, reasonable pay, 10 hours a week, 4 vacancies.
the job in the emails then had 2h/day mo to fri 9-11 am and on the website it then only had 3 vacancies left (nice attention to detail sergej!:) but with the pay unrealistically blown out of proportion.
Well, anyway, I hope someone will find this useful, and I hope that totaljobs will reply to me soon as well as warn everyone else who has applied to this job, if it was that job.
Over and Out... tohmy
Here is how it came about:
I started applying on job websites in the UK, totaljobs and reed. They were all legit ads and one seemed particularly interesting, multiple vacancies, the company just being around the corner at the local trainstation, reasonable pay, only 10 hours a week, perfect for what i was looking for. After a week or so of replying to several jobs this was the only reply so I was enthusiastic to reply back. I did see the red flags but chose to ignore them at this stage. The header said *my name*, high-paying job which was suspicious. The payment that was mentioned later on in the email was also suspiciously high but i thought, that would be for a full time position, then it would have made sense again. There were also a few subtle spelling and grammare mistakes that made me suspicious. But, never having heard of this kind of scam before, I went ahead. They asked me for my full name, telefone number and availability. I thought nothing of it in my enthusiasm of course. A few hours later I received a text message that I had been entered in a draw for 300 pounds. But i would have to pay 3 pounds a month and that i am already live. to opt out and cancel i was supposed to text or call a certain number. That was more suspicion than I could handle. Today, a day later i then received an email reply saying that I should reply to a different email address and that there is also a company website (before i could not find their website)
website (somewhere in russia, a guy called sergej): http://www.money-visualuk.cc/
first email address (geolocation: somewhere in florida): [email protected]
second email address (geolocation: somewhere in romania): [email protected]
in this last email and on the website I then found out that this company is appearently dealing in arts and needs me as a payment processing agent to receive clients' payments on my PERSONAL BANKACCOUNT to then wire them on to virtual money as this is appearently the fastest way of doing this and they cannot afford to lose time in the arts industry... Well, that was it for me, I told totaljobs (but they haven't replied yet), some other website and eventually came accross some baiting and scam aware websites. As I could only find one forum post about this on the first ecosia search result page I thought it's worthwile telling as many people as possible about this. Similar things seem to happen around the world but it was the main ad on totaljobs that was so realistic that i thought it important to emphasise it here. I thought I would deal with customers who arrive in the city via train and want to exchange their currency for some pounds. It all seemed reasonable. However I still do not know whether this ad is actually afiliated with the scamming people, maybe they just took my CV and saw that I applied there or something like that.
The first add had a 3 hour on/off shift system, reasonable pay, 10 hours a week, 4 vacancies.
the job in the emails then had 2h/day mo to fri 9-11 am and on the website it then only had 3 vacancies left (nice attention to detail sergej!:) but with the pay unrealistically blown out of proportion.
Well, anyway, I hope someone will find this useful, and I hope that totaljobs will reply to me soon as well as warn everyone else who has applied to this job, if it was that job.
Over and Out... tohmy
I am going to copy those exact mails here below so they can be found by search bots. I will leave the killing to you two.
