Category Archives: Scams

Information about work related scams –

Eterna Refinery & Shenzhen Bank Scammers again

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Hmm, these scammers keep on trying!

Just received a letter in the snail mail claiming that the Shenzhen Development Bank in China holds the estate of a long lost “relative”. When you read the letter it becomes clear quite rapidly that this is another scam. (Besides a major give away of the letter not being on a Shenzhen Bank letterhead.)

The letter is littered with weird expressions which are clearly not English. It’s probably literally translated from Chinese. “the money has been willed to you” Duh….

This person claims to have the KEY to many millions in the bank, but needs your surname to claim. He offers to go 50/50 on it. And then proceeds to claim that no one is getting hurt…. Yeah right. Wait until they tell you that you have to pay a certain amount to release the funds. Who’s hurting then? You won’t see that money back again. Ever.

Moral of the story: Don’t been too greedy as it will catch up with you.

The other scam the system just removed from the site claimed that the Eterna Refinery in Scotland has a job opportunity. The text then goes on to claim expatriates can work in fields like Engineers. Never knew that being an engineer was a field…. Is it not engineering? They have also gone through your CV/Resume. Huh, I thought this was a job advert? Why do they have to put up a job advert when they have gone through your CV? Sounds like a case of scammers not knowing what they are doing.

Other indicators this is a scam are (again) the weird language used, the long list of unrelated jobs and the fact they use a gmail account rather than a company account.
A quick search on Google reveals that there is no company website any more for the Eterna Refinery. It was probably removed from the servers by the hosting company after a deluge of complaints as it shows in Google that the site once existed.

Anyway, as always, be aware of scams. If in doubt, research the advertiser before you apply. And make sure you do NOT send copies of passports, diplomas, bank account details, etc. Anything that can identify you can be used by scammers to open bank accounts in your name, withdraw funds and leave you with an overdrawn account. Nice huh?

What to do when you’re caught up in a job scam

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Most Effective Steps for Victims of Job Scams

Unfortunately, not everyone will escape job frauds in time. Jobseekers who are the victim of a scam are advised to take the following steps.

1. Close all bank accounts at the bank where the scam took place. It is a good idea to change banks to avoid “”social engineering”" attempts by the con artists to fool bank workers into giving out new account information.

2. Order a credit report from various credit bureaus every 2 to 3 months. Watch the reports for unusual activity.

3. Report the scam to your local police force or a national crime squad.

4. Report the company name, the job posting, and all contact names to the job sites where the scam was posted. Demand that the posting is removed and that the site reports this to the police. (Ask to be given a case number)

5. Permanently close all email addresses that were associated with the job fraud.Your IT department can do this or simply close your Google mail, Yahoo, etc account.

6. Keep a copy of all emails sent by the scammers as this will contain valuable IP address information about where the email was sent from. Check the extended header of the email.

7. Report the scam to your email provider.

8. Report the scam to various scam detection sites.

9. Report the scam to your payment provider. If you paid through PayPal or via a credit card you can generally get your money back.

10. If you sent your ID, report your ID stolen and replace it immediately.

Resources
There are numerous websites with a lot more information about scams. To name a few:

World Privacy Forum
Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
Scam Busters
Scammerhunter
Hot Scams

Credit Bureaus to check your financial rating:
Equifax
Experian
TransUnion

 

 

Ten ways to recognise online scams

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There are numerous scams on job sites disguised as vacancies, job offers, MLM or work from home opportunities. Over the years we have seen some very well disguised scams, so I thought I give you an update as to how they’re trying to fool you into handing over your money.

Before you read further, remember:

1. Never hand over your personal bank account, PayPal, or credit card numbers to an employer you have not met nor work for.

2. Never agree to have funds or paychecks paid into any of your accounts by a new or untested employer.

3. Never forward, transfer, or “”wire”" money to an employer.

4. Never transfer money and retain a portion for payment.

Abuse of your bank details
Legitimate employers do not usually need your bank account details. One of the ways a fraudulent employer will try to get consumers’ bank information is by stating that they will only pay via bank transfer, direct deposit of a paycheck, or something similar.

While direct deposit of a paycheck is convenient, if that is the only option an employer offers, then you should be cautious about accepting the job unless you have carefully vetted the potential employer.

If companies want you to accept money on their behalf and transfer it through your own account, you will most likely be laundering drugs- or illegally gained money. The police will be onto you in no time and you could face a lengthy prison sentence. (And have to pay back the money you transferred. Double whammy!)

So, moral of the story: don’t get involved!
Warning signs scammers might be involved

Many scams contain some easy to spot “”red flags”". Indications that should alert you to the presence of a job scam include:

1. Request for your bank account, your social security number or a copy of your ID/passport. No real employer will ask for these details unless you’ve actually started working in their offices. Never, ever send them via email before you have met them in person and you trust them. All of these can be used in identity scams and could cost you a lot. You might end up with a mortgage in your name without ever having seen the money, but you might be liable for paying it back.

2. A contact email address that is not a primary domain. For example, an employer calling itself “”Omega Inc.”" should have an email address similar to their company name, e.g. anyone@omegainc.com and not have a Yahoo!, a Google or a Hotmail email address. Even if they appear to have an email address linked to their name it is worthwhile checking that the domain part of the address (the bit after @) actually works.

3. The domain name is owned by a person rather than the company. Check who owns the domain name. If the company claims for instance to be headquartered in Luxembourg, but their domain is registered to someone in a small village in the middle of nowhere in Russia, you know you most likely will be dealing with a scammer.

4. The person you’re dealing with seems not to exist on the internet. Google the name of the person who contacted you. If they’re legitimate you will find blog posts, references, an entry on LinkedIn, etc. indicating that you’re dealing with a real person. This is not a cast iron guarantee, but a start to confirm their identity.

5. Misspellings and grammatical mistakes in the job ad. Scammers often have a poor command of the language they write in.

7. There are a number of descriptive words in job postings that are tip-offs to fraud. These include “”package-forwarding”", “”money transfers”", “”wiring funds”", “”eBay”", “”PayPal”", “”payment clerk”", etc.

8. Their website does not contain any contact details or the contact details don’t work. They obviously don’t want to speak to you as it might give them away. A real company will enable you to contact them one way or another.

9. The job seems to good to be true. They’re offering thousands of pounds/euros for a very simple job. You could earn a brain surgeons’ income just to be a security guard for which you won’t need any qualifications. Scammers will prey on people who want to become rich without putting any effort in.

10. You receive a job offer (which might be totally irrelevant to your experience) before you have been interviewed or even before you have sent your CV. Employers generally check you out and don’t offer jobs on the spot. It is too costly and too difficult firing someone, so they are very careful when it comes to hiring people.

11. The charge you for getting a job. They’ll call it an admin fee, the cost of a visa or work permit or any other debatable cost. Normal employers absorb these ‘costs’ and you should not expect to pay anything. On the contrary, you should be reimbursed for your costs.

So, always check the employer if you don’t know/trust/recognise them. Put a little effort into discovering who you are dealing with. This will save you a lot of trouble and money in the longer run.

What to do about a job scam

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Scammers use social engineering techniques to win people’s trust. They send out millions of scam email messages, pretending they have found your CV on a well known website, by pretending one of your friends recommended you or by using other information known to you to create an aura of trust.

There are a number of things you can do to bust their bubble.

1. Make sure your ISP has implemented SPF. We have written about this before.

2. Check the domain name they use.
- Do a whois check on a domain registration site. If the domain has been registered in a remote location compared to where they claim to be based, be very careful. Be especially careful when the ISP is based in Russia, China. the Netherlands, Nigeria or the USA. These countries are notorious for harbouring scammers. If you’re sure they’re a scammer, complain to the ISP.

3. Check the email address.
- The return email address should be linked to a reputable company. If they use gmail, ymail, rediffmail, hotmail or another free email provider, be very careful.
- Double check the domain name in the email address. They often use slightly different addresses from the address you’re familiar with. (E.g. instead of eurojobs, they use europjobs, eurojobbs, eurojobs-nl, etc.) If the domain name in the email address is different check if it is genuine.
- You could do a reverse email check to see where the email came from and complain to the ISP so they will be removed from their servers. You will have to email them the raw header of the offending email.

4. Email us the raw code of the email header so we can complain on your behalf.

5. Mark them as spam in your email program in order to bin their messages when they come in.

Email is dead – use RSS feeds instead

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It is pretty evident why we don’t send out email campaigns anymore.

More than 90% of all email sent is now spam or some sort of scam. Email as a communications medium is almost defunct now. Email seems to be dominated by Russians, Nigerians and Thai trying to make a quick buck out of unsuspecting and desperate people.

We are now using social media, rss feeds and direct communication to communicate with our users.

We have mentioned this many, many times before: if you want scam and spam messages to stop make sure your ISP implements SPF (Sender Policy Framework). This will get rid of most of the spam and scam.

It’s still beyond belief why big ISP’s such as Yahoo and BT (in the UK) have not implemented this. Not doing so sustains the tidal wave of spam. Guess they’re earning from it, so they won’t do anything about it. And politicians don’t get it either. They’re neolithic and still use handwritten letters, so don’t expect anything from them anytime soon …..

The latest scam we came across goes as follows:

I would like to take this time to welcome you to our hiring process and give you a brief synopsis of the position’s benefits and requirements.

If you are taking a career break, are on a maternity leave, recently retired or simply looking for some part-time job, this position is for you.

Occupation: Flexible schedule 1 to 3 hours per day. We can guarantee a minimum 20 hrs/week occupation
Salary: Starting salary is 3000 EUR per month plus commission.

Region: Europe

Please note that there are no startup fees or deposits to start working for us.

To request an application form, schedule your interview and receive more information about this position please reply to ************** with your personal identification number for this position IDNO: 9120

This is another classical phishing scam. They’re trying to get to your personal details in order to scam you out of money. This can be used to open bank accounts, get loans, etc in your name.

They get the money, you get the bills. Not something you want to end up with.

Always check out ‘offers’ like this, or simply do not respond to them and bin them straight away.

If you do get one of these, please forward the email header containing the IP address of the sender to scamreport (at) eurojobs (dot) com so we can investigate who is behind this and shut them down.

Globotec scam (Logwin Logistics rip off)

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The scams seem to be never ending!

There are a few things that give away a job offer is scam. In this case a ‘company’ called ‘Globotec’ tries to lure people into thinking that they could manage a logistics company. The reality is that this is most likely a scam whereby they will send money to your bank account and you then have to pay or forward the money to another account. This account will also be owned by the scammers.

This is a typical money laundering scam and you could end up in jail for participating, knowingly or not.

The scam identifiers are:

1) The recruiter claiming to offer the position is using a “hotmail” account and not a company specific account you can check through “whois” services.
2) The website of the “company” is not mentioned in the email. When you check online there is no company website.
3) The email arrived out of the blue and you did not apply for the position. The requirements don’t match your experience (at all) and a proper recruiter would not offer a serious position to just anybody.
4) There is no contact number on the email.
5) Their command of English is not very good. There are spelling and grammatical mistakes.
5) When you check out Globotec Co, you won’t find it. It doesn’t exist. You’ll find all sorts of companies, but not the one offering you a job.
6) When you do a search on “Daria Randel” you won’t find anyone. A serious recruiter will have left all sorts of traces on the internet.
7) And as always: If the offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true.

The offending email goes as follows:

Good morning,

I am the head of the staff department in the Globotec. Our company has found
your CV at web-site eurojobs.com.
We decided that you’re the proper person for the vacancy we’ve offered.

Vacancy:  “regional logistics manager”

We offer you:
* Promotion track
* Possibility of choosing option of either fulltime or part time
* Paid workshops
* Salary – 2000-3000 euro per month + option money

Applicant Requirements:
* Older than 21
* Written English
* Residence in Netherlands
* PC user
* Communicability. Readiness to negotiate over the phone and face to face
* Ability to form and pay provider orders

We respect responsibility, industriousness, initiative, aspirations for
education and self-delepoment. If you are interested in our job offer  contact
us.

Sincerely yours,
The head of the personnel department Globotec,
Daria Randel
Globotec Co.

We posted another scam example some time ago.

European Labour Department number

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Scams, scams, scams! They’re everywhere.

We were asked whether jobs-service-express.com was a legitimate business or not.

Had a look into it and it appears to be the classical scam. Their site is under construction. Bit of a give away that! They seem to be preying on unaware people. By the looks of things, they’re trying to convince people to cough up money for non-existing permits, most notably the European Labour Department Number.

Hmmm, I’ve never heard of that department, let alone a number you need. Work permits are handled by the government of the country you want to work in. And none of them use this non-existing number. The process of obtaining a work permit is notoriously difficult and slow, but you won’t need an agent to get it for you. For more details see the previous post on work permits we posted today.

There seem to be a number of mentions of this scam on various complaints websites:

ReviewsTalk
Complaints Board

They seem to be very good in posting misleading comments on various websites and blogs. Raymond and Brenda seem to have attended the same English classes……. :-)

Eurojobsnet.com, Europjobs.nl Spam

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We’re getting reports again that people, especially in the Netherlands and Belgium, are being inundated with spam, allegedly coming from us.  However, the spammer uses ‘eurojobsnet.com‘ or ‘europjobs.nl‘ or other email addresses that are similar to our email addresses. These spam messages have nothing to do with Eurojobs.com.

Eurojobs.com only sends out a confirmation message after someone has registered on the site and that’s all the email you would generally get from us.

However, there seems to be a Russian spammer who abuses our domain name and sends out messages that claim to come from us.
You can check who the real sender is by opening the extended header of the email message and then use that IP address to perform an IP address check. This will generally reveal the ISP the spammer uses. The ISP should address the problem caused by the spammer through banning him from sending email through the ISP. Please complain with the ISP as this is the only way to permanently remove this nuisance.

In order to stop these messages you could also:

1. Ask your email provider to implement SPF (Sender Policy Framework) in order to distinguish between fake and real email messages. Once this is in place a mail server can see if messages actually come from the sender or whether it is spam.
This will stop the flow of spam messages immediately. Eurojobs.com is SPF compliant.

2. Create a filter in your email program for the email address they used, or use free programs such as Mailwasher to filter spam.

3. If you use Thunderbird or Outlook, download the Thunderbird SPF extention or a filter such as SpamFighter to verify if the sender of the email are who they claim they are.

4. If you are using BT/Yahoo or Ymail do the following:

Send an an email to abuse@bt.com and copy the long (extended) header of your email into this message. This contains information as to where the email originated. You will probably get a nondescript, automated reply from BT stating that you should ban the domain. Don’t ban the domain as this means you will be banning another victim of this type of scam and you will still be blasted by spam.

(BT will only realise what they are advising when a BT.com address gets spoofed in a spam message and they tell you to ban BT.com. Pretty stupid advice!)

What BT/Yahoo really should do is implement the Sender Policy Framework (SPF) properly, so the amount of spam reaching your inbox reduces dramatically. SPF checks if the email comes from the authenticated IP address linked to the domain. If not, the email is spam and should be binned automatically.

If BT fobs you off, send them another email demanding they implement SPF automatically rather than leaving it up to you to activate it.

BT/Yahoo SpamGuard (For what it’s worth)

Keep SpamGuard turned on. To check if it’s on:

  1. Click Options in the upper-right corner of your Mail page.
  2. Click Spam from the list on the left.
  3. In the “SpamGuard’ section, next to ‘Control SpamGuard,’ do you see a check in the box beside ‘Automatically send suspected spam to my Spam folder?’ If so, great! SpamGuard is ON. If not, turn it on by placing a check in that box.
  4. In the area above your spam options, click Save Changes.

Also in the ‘SpamGuard’ section, you can specify how often you’d like Yahoo to empty your Spam folder (They do it automatically once a month, but you have options to empty it faster), and you can indicate your preference for showing or blocking images. Image blocking is another effective way to fend off spam!

How can you report spam on Yahoo?

Easy! Don’t open a spam message. Just click inside the check-box next to it, then click Spam to let Yahoo know it’s something you’d rather not ever see again. Yahoo pays a lot of attention to spam you report to them. It gives them tools to disrupt the latest tricks and techniques that spammer individuals and spammer companies are using to try to evade the Yahoo filters.

Reports of spam originating from a Yahoo! Mail account (i.e.,user@domain.com) receive their special attention. Since spamming is expressly prohibited in Yahoo!’s Terms of Use, any account caught spamming will be canceled.

If you change your mind or think you made a mistake, just look for the next message from that sender in your Bulk folder and click Not Spam to reverse your vote.

Report spam on other sites:

You can report spammers on iPillion.com

How A Credit Report Will Shield You From Identity Theft

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Identity theft transpires on a daily basis to people all over the globe. As individuals learn about innovative ways to obtain and use your own info, the criminal activity becomes extremely realistic for hundreds of individuals every month.

You might think that identity theft might never happen to you, and that you’d probably discover almost immediately if it did. The reality is that anyone can be scammed with identity theft. It’s not necessary to lose your driver’s license or social security card, and you also do not have to give important data to an corrupt vendor on line. You don’t even need to have a visa or mastercard.

The first step in shielding yourself from identity theft would be to recognize how it happens. If a person has an ample amount of your personally identifying details to fill out a credit card application (stop and think about just how minimal information that sometimes will require), they’ve enough to perform significant damage.

But why wouldn’t you realize? Usually, a person who takes steps toward identity theft will commence by informing to would-be creditors that he or she has got a brand new address and phone number. This means you will not get mastercard applications, approvals or bills. The one who does the identity theft will take out charge cards in your name and begin utilizing them. And that individual might even make the minimum monthly payments for several several months, extending the amount of time it takes for the crime to come to the attention of the businesses that provided credit and also the person who has been cheated.

As they say the very best offense is a great defense. Check your credit report often to learn if there’s trouble the moment it starts off. And here is information on how:

As soon as you get a credit report, you’re going to get data from one, two or three important credit reporting corporations – Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. There might be somewhat different facts on information produced by each provider. So how will requesting a duplicate of one’s credit report help you capture identity theft before it’s got time to get out of hand?

It’s actually easy enough. When you apply for a credit card, that application will show up as part of your credit report. How frequently you apply for can be used by some potential credit card companies in the decision-making process. So when you notice credit applications which aren’t yours, you’ll be able to without delay report this and start the procedure toward defending yourself.

You’ll be able to receive a free credit report once each and every year from each one of the 3 important agencies. Some people say they rotate the credit reports so that they are receiving one from TransUnion this month, one from Equifax next month, and so on. Regardless of how you go about it, watching your credit report can be a necessary step in shielding your self from monetary harm because of identity theft.

It’s projected that around 40% of Americans examine their credit score. Examining it often can help stop cyber identity theft later on in life.

For info on the best way to stop credit fraud and identity theft visit cyberidentitytheft.info

Eurjobs.org scam

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Eurjobs.org scam

There is a scam doing the rounds that uses our email address as the return address. To confuse matters even more they call themselves eurjobs.org.

Please note that this email is NOT sent by Eurojobs.com, but by a scammer in Slovenia, see http://www.ip-adress.com/whois/89-212-84-253.static.t-2.net

Eurojobs.com have nothing to do with eurjobs.org!

We have filed a complaint about 89.212.84.253 with the ISP  t-2.net.

Do not respond to this email. Bin it!

The scam email reads:

>  Hello
>
>
> I am a representative of the HR department of a large international company
> Our enterprise is connected with a great number of various activities, like:
> – property
> – bank account operations
> – transportation and logistics
> – private enterprise service
> – etc.
>
> Currently, we are looking for managers in Europe:
> – wages 2300dollars+bonus
> – part-time employment
> – free timetable
>
>
> If you would like to work with us, please provide us the following
> information on email:
> h r @ e u r j o b s . o r g [please delete spaces before sending]
> Full name:
> Country:
> City:
> E-mail:
> Mobile phone-number:
>
>
>
> *Attention! We are looking for the people who have a right to work in
> Europe!*
>
> Please, write your name and Telephone Number so that our manager could
> contact you and conduct an interview.
>