Patricia Townsend, Rail Europe Travel

This is a scam message I received today, it does not contain any exact offers, but all symptoms like a "well-known" but really unknown company, very vague position description, no sender's exact coordinates, "flexible schedule" (5-8 hours a week) and, of course, bad English, give the scammer away immediately. Here it is:

Hi XXXXX XXXXXX,

This is Mrs Townsend, I am recruiter for the company RE, Llc, your
experience is impressive.
It seems you may be great talent to be reviewed for opening of Travel
Director.

I like to shortly describe business, I represent large international
voyage company which constantly developing. The agency provides desirable
employment, we give desirable income and the agency
allows for flexible timetable, as an advantage of this you be able
maintain your current responsibility plus have extra revenue. With our
company it is possible for you to expand your career and
be capable of finding use for your skills.

You will be getting following compensations as a member of our agency:
- High compensation
-flexible schedule: five to eight hours weekly.
-No out of pocket expenses.
-Provided time off other reimbursements.

I also want state the fact that all training is completely free, in
addition to that you will not be expected to have any expenses related to
hiring process or related with this opportunity. Instead we give every three
months bonus for satisfactory achievements.

In our friendly environment you'd feel continuous compassion and support
of friends, you always can find help and sympathy.

In case you are like my information, please let me know ASAP, or if you
got questions then feel free to ask, I'll gladly answer. I'm waiting for
your email.

Yours very sincerely.

Patricia E. Townsend
Senior Director Manager

And the headers:

Received: by 10.14.29.67 with SMTP id h43csp33021eea;
Tue, 10 Sep 2013 09:19:39 -0700 (PDT)
X-Received: by 10.236.133.145 with SMTP id q17mr1219764yhi.176.1378829978594;
Tue, 10 Sep 2013 09:19:38 -0700 (PDT)
Return-Path: <[email protected]>
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by mx.google.com with ESMTP id o10si6836339yhd.22.1969.12.31.16.00.00;
Tue, 10 Sep 2013 09:19:38 -0700 (PDT)
Received-SPF: neutral (google.com: 209.86.89.62 is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of [email protected]) client-ip=209.86.89.62;
Authentication-Results: mx.google.com;
spf=neutral (google.com: 209.86.89.62 is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of [email protected]) [email protected]
Received: from [65.17.29.16] (helo=europe.com)
by elasmtp-dupuy.atl.sa.earthlink.net with esmtpsa (TLSv1:AES256-SHA:256)
(Exim 4.67)
(envelope-from <[email protected]>)
id 1VJQfB-0002ig-N1
for [email protected]; Tue, 10 Sep 2013 12:19:38 -0400
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Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, 10 Sep 2013 23:32:27 +0800
From: "Senior Hiring Director" <[email protected]>
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; de; rv:1.8.1.17) Gecko/20080914 Thunderbird/2.0.0.17
X-Accept-Language: en-us
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: "xxxxx xxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Voyage Arranger opportunity for xxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-ELNK-Trace: 35bc1057c88123f471057519a181115d239a348a220c2609ecdf692a23ec4ce1f48c8194c704a03b3ca473d225a0f487350badd9bab72f9c350badd9bab72f9c
X-Originating-IP: 65.17.29.16

Moreover, the same person had the audacity to INSIST and try to make me reply, so I've just received the second email from her! (If it is "she", because the name is certainly fake). Here it is:

Hello again,
How do you do? I suppose you know who I am.

I don't like to present myself as intrusive, and I like to make an apology
if in case I'm causing you any problems, but I do believe this is helpful to
get in touch with you again. At the moment I have sent to you several
letters talking about our new opening; to my surprise I didn't get your
reply, may be that my messages arrived in the spam mail folder may be
because of this I did not see email from you.

Just in case you did see letters from me and have made a decision not to
reply, even so please reply despite how you feel about the position, if the
decision is positive or negative. In case desired, I can prepare all
information regarding the vacancy; don't hesitate to request information,
I'll be happy to answer to all questions you might have.

I appreciate your time.

Sincerely yours.

Patricia E. Townsend
Human Resources Manager

I just started receiving emails from this same person using the same email today as well. The incredibly broken English was an immediate red flag. I took it upon myself to contact Rail Europe's HQ in NY to inquire about the emails, and they said it is indeed a scam, that they have received multiple calls about this already and that eventually this person is going to end up asking for me to send them money. Watch out!

The source IP address is 65.17.29.16, which is in birch.net in Missouri. The headers below that are fake. But the writing looks like that of a Slav (probably not Bulgarian).

Hi,
My  name  is  Michael Basnin, I am working for the travel company Rail
Europe,  LLC  (raileurope.fr).  Patricia,  from  our  human  resources
already  contacted  you  in  regard  to  the  current  opening and has
informed  me  that  you  are  interested in the opportunity. I like to
thank  you  for your interest in our company, I believe that this will
become  the  career  that  you were looking for. My title is Personnel
Manager  and  starting  today  I will be consulting you, answering any
questions  that  might  arise,  and  provide  you  with  step  by step
instructions!

--Do we have a website?
Yes. Please follow this link raileurope.fr

--What do we do?
I  like to state few words about our company. We have great experience
working  in  travel  industry,  and our specialists always helpful and
ready  to a trip to satisfy any taste and desire! Throughout the years
we  have  become  professionals  in  tourism  and  have  gained expert
knowledge  in  the  industry, which means that we provide high quality
travel  experience,  which has not gone unnoticed, and made us leaders
of the industry. Yet we don’t allow ourselves to become satisfied with
our  achievements;  therefore,  we  continue to expand horizons of our
success, and every year we conquer new countries of the world! Because
we  are  in  the  process of expending onto American market, we have a
need  in growing work force, and for this reason we like to invite you
on board of our company as a Travel Coordinator!

--How much you will be paid?
By  now  you  probably have questions such as what exactly I should be
doing, or how much am I going to get paid and so on, so let's take one
step at a time, and go over all of the questions you have. First let's
look  at  your  income,  it has two parts to it, one part is your base
salary  which  is  $48,100.00  a year. You are in titled to this money
regardless  of  how  much commission you will make. The second part is
your  commission  that  you also will be making from every transaction
that  goes  through  your  hand.  Let  me give you an example how this
works.  For  example  you  have a transaction that is in the amount of
$2000.00,  for  that  transaction  your commission is 5 percent, which
makes  100  dollars that are in addition to the annual $48,100.00 base
salary. I hope this explains how your income is calculated.

--How and how often do I get paid?
You will be paid in the following way. First you have three options to
get  paid;  by check, by direct deposit or by QuickPay. Your first pay
day  is  scheduled three weeks after the day you start. The start date
is  considered  as  the day of your first transaction. After that, you
will  be  paid  every two weeks. Because we do not withhold any taxes,
you will be receiving the full amount, which makes your first check to
be  for  $2775.00,  because this check is for three weeks. Thereafter,
you  will receive checks for the amount of $1850.00 every second week.
And  on  top  of this, you will be receiving 5 percent commission from
all transactions.

--What responsibilities I will have?
Let  me  go over your job responsibilities, and provide a step by step
description of your typical day. Your main job is to process payments.
You  will not be selling tickets, book hotels, or deal with the client
in  any  way.  All  that you are responsible for is to process checks,
both business and personal. When client makes a purchase, they will be
instructed  to  send  check  to  you, written in your name. Before you
receive  a  check,  you will get an email from me, notifying you about
the check. I will tell you who is it coming from as well as the amount
of  the  check.  You will be receiving checks in the mail. When you do
receive  it,  you need to make a deposit to your personal account. Two
days  after  you make a deposit, the money for the check will transfer
to  your account. You will need to take these money and keep 5 percent
of it as your commission. Then send the rest over MoneyGram or Western
Union. You will be repeating same process for every check.
Again, your responsibilities are:
1. receive a check.
2. deposit it, and wait two days for the funds to become available.
3. receive your 5 percent commission.
4. send money to our representative in Russia.
5. start over.

--What do I do with the money, after I cash the check?
You will keep your 5 percent commission, and send the rest to our
representative in Russian Federation.

--Why do I need to send money to Russia?
The owner of our company is Russian, and he keeps his finances in
Russia.

--MoneyGram and Western Union has a fee, who pays for it?
Good question, thank you for asking it. You will not be paying for any
job related expenses. We pay for it. So let's use this example, let's
say you received a $2000.00 check, the 5 percent of it is for you to
keep. Subtract 5 percent from 2k, you'll get $1900.00, then subtract
the Western Union fee, let's say it's another $80.00, that leaves you
with $1820.00, this will be the amount that you will be sending.

--Is this work from home?
No. There is nothing for you do at home. You will be responsible for
going to the post office to get the check, then going to the bank to
cash it, and then going to the MoneyGram or Western Union office to
send money.

--What to do if check bounces back?
We got you covered! In case bank asks for the money back, you are
completely covered. We will fully reimburse you for the full amount,
and on top of that you will keep the 5 percent commission. But that's
not all, we will also add additional $100.00 "trouble free" bonus.

--Where are you located?
We  are all over the world. Me personally, I am in Seattle. The company
headquarters are in France. The finance department is in Russia. The
sales people, are in Asia, Europe, USA,...

--Why do you need me to cash checks, can't you do it yourself?
Have you ever asked yourself, why there are still AM radio stations in
business? The answer is simple, because they are making profit! We
have you processing our payments because this is profitable for us.
Your position saves us time and money, and this is why we have it.

--Why this position is offered to me?
We see you as a qualified candidate for the position. We believe that
your past experience, training and skill make you the person we want
to have aboard.

--Will there be an interview?
No. You have been selected from the large pool of candidate. At this
time we see no need in additional scrutiny.

--Is it even legal?
Yes.  This  type  of  financial  operation  is  perfectly  legal. Many
companies  use  similar  method  of  payment processing. By having you
processing  our  payment,  we  are  not  breaking  any  international,
federal, or state law.

--This is too good to be true!
I'm sorry you feel that there is no gain without pain. You probably
had bad jobs all your life, and now you're at the point where you have
convinced yourself that good jobs do not exist. But just look around,
there are many happy faces around you, they are happy because they have
good income with little effort. And you are on the way to become one
of these happy people.

--Can we talk about this over the phone?
Below is the form you need to fill out, the form includes your full
name, your mailing address, your phone number and other items. You
must provide this information, before we move on!

--Are there others like me?
Yes. We have travel coordinators in every country, where we conduct
business, such as Asia and Europe.

--Let's sum it up!
You are being offered a GOOD JOB. Yes, that's right, the good job. Ask
yourself, if you're tired of the one you have now. I know you are. I
know that you're tired not only from your job, but from your boring,
and mostly meaningless life. You always in need of money, often cannot
even afford the things you need, not mentioning the things you want.
With us, you will be making alot of money. The base salary, is good
enough, but you will be making good commission as well. Your monthly
income will run between $7,000.00 to $8,000.00. That's alot of money,
just imagine how you can spend it and what you can buy. Do you need a
new car? Are you late on credit cards? They problems you have are
real, and we do understand them.
So here is the plan. You will submit required information, and then I will
prepare documents for you, the employee agreement. After I get all
needed info from you, I will send you contract for you to read. Then
you will return signed copy of the contract back to me, and from that
moment you will be hired! So we will finish up documentation this
week, and then next week you will start working. Just think, next week
you will start making good money. So don't wait, reply to my email
immediately. I will be waiting for it.

In  order  for  us  to move forward, please provide the
following information:
Full legal name:
Full mailing address (include street/city/state/zip):
Email address (one that you prefer to use):
Phone number:
Monday:       AM____:PM_____
Tuesday:      AM____:PM_____
Wednesday:    AM____:PM_____
Thursday:     AM____:PM_____
Friday:       AM____:PM_____

Don't wait, provide all of the required information immediately, so
that we can continue with the hiring process.


Regards,
Michael Basnin
Personnel Manager

Rail Europe, LLC
tel/fax: 206-350-9580 was contacted again by this company. this time by s Michael basin. here's what he said

I got the exact same reply. Here are the headers:

Delivered-To: [email protected]
Received: by 10.182.107.199 with SMTP id he7csp94616obb;
Wed, 11 Sep 2013 12:16:36 -0700 (PDT)
X-Received: by 10.60.117.198 with SMTP id kg6mr2440041oeb.80.1378926996675;
Wed, 11 Sep 2013 12:16:36 -0700 (PDT)
Return-Path: <[email protected]>
Received: from mout.perfora.net (mout.perfora.net. [74.208.4.194])
by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id i3si14793124obz.55.1969.12.31.16.00.00
(version=TLSv1 cipher=RC4-SHA bits=128/128);
Wed, 11 Sep 2013 12:16:36 -0700 (PDT)
Received-SPF: neutral (google.com: 74.208.4.194 is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of [email protected]) client-ip=74.208.4.194;
Authentication-Results: mx.google.com;
spf=neutral (google.com: 74.208.4.194 is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of [email protected]) [email protected]
Received: from Owner-PC (cpe-74-78-236-232.twcny.res.rr.com [74.78.236.232])
by mrelay.perfora.net (node=mrus4) with ESMTP (Nemesis)
id 0MUYvr-1VTQZY431v-00QpLz; Wed, 11 Sep 2013 15:16:35 -0400
Date: Wed, 11 Sep 2013 11:55:31 -0700
From: Michael Basnin <[email protected]>
Reply-To: Michael Basnin <[email protected]>
Organization: Rail Europe
X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
To: ????? ?????? <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Voyager Arranger opportunity for ????? ??????
In-Reply-To: <CAMUjpjownW-sd-XCWOOqB5Hb6SDfvW=rvUrEhTcQo5FXRRpm8w@mail.gmail.com>
References: <CAMUjpjownW-sd-XCWOOqB5Hb6SDfvW=rvUrEhTcQo5FXRRpm8w@mail.gmail.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1251
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
X-Provags-ID: V02:K0:HngYwfeZJNGGyFJjjZg2hWttrDKVw3j8RycwysY5RdS
cqNargmh387AS59FEpI4orr+LJQ3eRN/vLiZTQpGYyQvxV5/hi
/SEk0ee2uEtWEv6Rt0QXE0fIR3zGM8nbly0PCf6VHfWz5Pqhld
QqDyfAYYSWF5VUWWjm9HEQ7ThqPtQggxklWbS5LsTQKoAjQEQ2
f+XsfP4UlvHHCZo7eMZY+gaYe6FC/symZKyRA7LLIkDvCE7PNV
4IQXQLNfg16G57nFdswaIfziYc1sCxdO1Ri6EWaLq0qteQELyI
7eTBVGXAelucpPnVDoOL2kI7MEDy7cn7e0kpmxLQHKVLs7MTwk
+OiFrUIgbgpzWX3XGeYRRPk36WDKQzMKxij2f1yGK

The IP address is a Road Runner address; whether it belongs to the scammer or a botnet, I don't know.

I got the exact same reply. Here are the headers:

Delivered-To: [email protected]
Received: by 10.182.107.199 with SMTP id he7csp94616obb;
Wed, 11 Sep 2013 12:16:36 -0700 (PDT)

The IP address is a Road Runner address; whether it belongs to the scammer or a botnet, I don't know.

I wonder why there are Russian characters in your message. Did you receive the email with these? Being Russian myself and knowing the language, and also bearing in mind the name in the email (Michael Basnin), I can say that there's a high probability it was written by a Russian-speaking person. It has mistakes which are typical for people trying to apply the Russian language's rules to English. The name certainly looks Russian (Michael is an analog of the Russian name "Mikhail"). Also, this string in the email address ([email protected]) is extremely suspicious, as this sequence of symbols corresponds to "asdfkl;' " on the English keyboard, if you type it in Russian layout. In other words, this person just took the first four (asdf) and last four (kl;') keys in the second row of keys on the standard keyboard, and in the Russian layout it makes ????????. So I am 100% certain the author of this email had Russian layout on his/her PC.

Well, all I can say, don't think all Russians are like this, I am not, for example . But unfortunately, we also have our crooks and thieves, this is inevitable. I hope this "railroad trip specialist" will have his next trip to the jail or at least to the police station .

I use "???????????" or "?????????" to redact the names and addresses of the made-up characters I use for scambaiting. That has nothing to do with Basnin or Townsend being Russian. My character is American.