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Job Offer Scams - Quoting Totaljobs.com
Ron_Burgandy
Posts: 1 Newbie
There are many job scams out there at the moment, some of them are painfully obvious, however others are preying on our good faith and using the names of reputable agents to gain our trust and are not as clear. I have received at least three 'too good to be true', 'send us some money' or 'send us your details' type scams, and frankly I've had enough. If you read this and think you've received something similar, make sure you look at the linked site at the end of the thread.
Firstly I'll show you the e-mail, then I'll make a few points about why it's a scam and the things you should look for with these types of e-mail.
Received from 'Mr J. Hill' or 'it.multimedia.job@gmail.com' (which is the actual e-mail address shown if you place the mouse pointer over the senders name)
Subject: Employment in new company - Mr ### ### - January 21, 2013 1:57:50 PM
Good day Mr ###### #######,
Congratulations! Based on your CV on totaljobs.com, we are pleased to offer you the following job.
The position being offered is FSO agent. The Compensation is 1,500 pounds per month during trial period. Your working timetable will be Monday through Friday for 2-3 hours a day.
Probationary period - 30 working days from the day you apply.
Employee Benefits Include:
- Dental Care
- Health care
- Vacation - 4 weeks per annum
- And others
All benefits will take effect only after probationary period.
We would be happy to start working with you as soon as possible. Please report to Mr J. Hill as soon as you receive this offer, for documentation and orientation.
Please fill out and send us the form below with your Contact information to verify your identity and interest in this position.
F O R M _________F O R M
Full Name: ____________________
Address: ____________________
Phone: ________________________
Preferred call time: _______________
F O R M _________F O R M
Regards,
Mr J. Hill
HR Manager
The whole point of this e-mail is to engage your attention, there is a large number of jobseekers in the employment market at the moment so an e-mail like this offering attractive remuneration for low hours will seem appealing to many (who wouldn't be drawn to a job offering good pay for minimal effort?). The first step to this scam is the request for information, with these job offer scams the intention could be; to lure you to paying for something you will never receive (software, work abroad visa, training etc), to steal your personal information in order to commit identity fraud (to run up debts in your name), to simply employ your services however you never receive pay, or finally to launder money through your accounts (clean dirty money gained through criminal activities by trafficking funds through your account to theirs).
In terms of this e-mail, it could be the first step towards stealing more sensitive information such as; bank account details, national insurance number, driving license or passport document numbers etc. Or there may be a follow up e-mail on reply suggesting that I transfer a sum of money in order to receive software essential for the job. If you suspect the e-mail is a scam, it's not worth responding and finding out as this is just a waste of your time so report the e-mail and delete it.
So, the things that I noticed about this e-mail:
1. The sender. If you merely go by the name then there's not a lot to suggest that this couldn't belong to a reputable HR Manager, however looking closer at the e-mail address poses a few issues. Firstly a business e-mail address is usually in a uniform format which contains the name in some respect '@company.co.uk' or '.com'. In this case it does not appear to follow a professional e-mail address convention used normally by companies. Secondly, the e-mail is sent from gmail, which is typically a commercial mail server available to the public. Businesses usually operate their own mail servers on their organisations network, the likes of microsoft outlook or lotus.
2. The subject. Employment in new company?? A bit vague isn't it, any genuine prospective employers are sure to include their organisations name somewhere in the e-mail (and even if this is provided, a thorough internet search on the name is wise).
3. The subject part II. My name followed by the date and time have been manually typed which shows me the date and time conventions for the originators location. A little research into date formatting tells me that this date is written in middle-endian style which is the known convention for; The United States, Belize, The Philippines, Saudi Arabia, and Canada. Being based in the UK (which does not use this dating convention), it might be safe to say this position may require a hefty commute, which draws to another point regarding data on my CV. The time is in 12 hour format, which following a bit of google research represents formal written conventions used across the world, but not the UK.
4. The greeting. A professional business salutation should read 'Dear Title, Surname,'.
5. Totaljobs.com. Totaljobs is a popular jobseekers website, but if you have never used it then this could be an indicator that something is not quite right. Even if you have used the named website, did you opt to make your CV searchable to other employers? Something to consider.
6. The position. The role provided here is FSO Agent, which is vague however sounds like it could be legitimate. Most of these scams will catch a few people who doubt their instincts and resort to the possibility of legitimacy (most people looking for a job would rather believe that they are being offered a real job than the harsh reality). Also, the role and responsibilities have not been listed, so what is it exactly that they're expecting you to do?
7. Payment. This is often the clincher in these e-mails, although it's something that people may choose to ignore. The offer of pay is too good to be true, a high rate of pay for more often than not an unrealistic level of required labour. In this e-mail, 1500 pounds offered for 2-3 working hours per day which is just plain silly. I'd like to think that I'm more intelligent than your average plank of wood, but to think that someone has sought me out to offer an ideal job opportunity with a good rate of pay is just highly unlikely. Be realistic...
8. Payment continued. The pay offered is a specific figure offered for a flexible number of hours which is ridiculous. So, the labour required is 2-3 hours per week. If you work for only 2 hours a week, you will work a 40 hour month. If you work a 3 hour week, you will work a 60 hour month. A difference of 20 hours, which would account for a third of your earnings if worked. So this is an impossible measure of pay.
9. Probation. You will work a 30 day probationary period from the day you apply? So not from the day you are offered the job? Ah but this e-mail is just giving you the job as long as you send your details (hence later in the e-mail being advised to report to 'Mr J Hill'). Usually if you are are contacted by a legitimate employer, they invite you to interview for the position. Perhaps the most blindingly obvious factor this leads you to is the pretence that you already have the job after doing nothing!
10. Employee Benefits. All too good to be true based on the number of hours you are expected to commit to. The perfect package for an easy job, which is the hook. Or perhaps it's the bait, and the fraud is the hook! Also, in the UK, paid annual leave is referred to as holiday not vacation, further leading me to the conclusion that this e-mail did not originate in the UK.
11. Verify your identity. No employer will request personal details over e-mail, the standard procedure would be to take documentation along to a formal interview or recruitment process. Also, they have previously stated that they have my CV, if this is the case then they have already overlooked the fact that all of these details are clearly written on the header of both pages.
12. The form. Now come on, you're offering me a job, and you're sending me a form like that?? I'm no 'HR Manager' but if I did happen to ever request someone's details, I'd perhaps send a real form as an attached document and not some badly formatted collection of underscores and hyphens with the work 'form' written in capital letters on it.
13. Appearances. This is a small factor that can give you a big clue, the e-mail did not contain any corporate logo or a written disclaimer that follows every e-mail sent externally as a footer, instead the email is in a plain text form. This may be due to the fact that these e-mails have been sent en masse and their computer(s) may not be able to handle sending the amount of data that would be included if images were also on each e-mail.
14. Language. I'm no William Shakespeare, as you may have gathered by now, but the written language can be another indicator. A professional organisation would (hopefully) display a better use of grammar and syntax in their communications.
These scams in simple terms are just plain wrong, not merely in their intended harmful purpose in conning people out of money, but also in the raised hopes that people may have when receiving these e-mails. The first time I received one of these e-mails I was looking for a job, and my initial feeling was of excitement, it definitely got my hopes up and led me to believe that I was about to receive the perfect job offer that would fit around my studies. Luckily I had enough doubt that I did a web search on the offer, and right enough it came up as a scam. All I was left with however was bitter disappointment, as I was still jobless. These scam artists (well it's not even an art is it really), I'll rephrase.....these evil, lowlife scumbags will constantly change the way they try to deceive you, often appearing as legitimate as possible. So if in doubt, and even if not in doubt....do some research; internet searches can provide all the info you need. Just make sure you don't send any information in reply if you think you've been sent a scam!
If you think you've been sent one of these e-mails go to this site and report it: actionfraud.police.uk/report_fraud
I'd also recommend that you post a copy of the e-mail in a post like this on a blog somewhere relevant so others get a heads up, because it's likely that others out there have received the same e-mail as you.
Firstly I'll show you the e-mail, then I'll make a few points about why it's a scam and the things you should look for with these types of e-mail.
Received from 'Mr J. Hill' or 'it.multimedia.job@gmail.com' (which is the actual e-mail address shown if you place the mouse pointer over the senders name)
Subject: Employment in new company - Mr ### ### - January 21, 2013 1:57:50 PM
Good day Mr ###### #######,
Congratulations! Based on your CV on totaljobs.com, we are pleased to offer you the following job.
The position being offered is FSO agent. The Compensation is 1,500 pounds per month during trial period. Your working timetable will be Monday through Friday for 2-3 hours a day.
Probationary period - 30 working days from the day you apply.
Employee Benefits Include:
- Dental Care
- Health care
- Vacation - 4 weeks per annum
- And others
All benefits will take effect only after probationary period.
We would be happy to start working with you as soon as possible. Please report to Mr J. Hill as soon as you receive this offer, for documentation and orientation.
Please fill out and send us the form below with your Contact information to verify your identity and interest in this position.
F O R M _________F O R M
Full Name: ____________________
Address: ____________________
Phone: ________________________
Preferred call time: _______________
F O R M _________F O R M
Regards,
Mr J. Hill
HR Manager
The whole point of this e-mail is to engage your attention, there is a large number of jobseekers in the employment market at the moment so an e-mail like this offering attractive remuneration for low hours will seem appealing to many (who wouldn't be drawn to a job offering good pay for minimal effort?). The first step to this scam is the request for information, with these job offer scams the intention could be; to lure you to paying for something you will never receive (software, work abroad visa, training etc), to steal your personal information in order to commit identity fraud (to run up debts in your name), to simply employ your services however you never receive pay, or finally to launder money through your accounts (clean dirty money gained through criminal activities by trafficking funds through your account to theirs).
In terms of this e-mail, it could be the first step towards stealing more sensitive information such as; bank account details, national insurance number, driving license or passport document numbers etc. Or there may be a follow up e-mail on reply suggesting that I transfer a sum of money in order to receive software essential for the job. If you suspect the e-mail is a scam, it's not worth responding and finding out as this is just a waste of your time so report the e-mail and delete it.
So, the things that I noticed about this e-mail:
1. The sender. If you merely go by the name then there's not a lot to suggest that this couldn't belong to a reputable HR Manager, however looking closer at the e-mail address poses a few issues. Firstly a business e-mail address is usually in a uniform format which contains the name in some respect '@company.co.uk' or '.com'. In this case it does not appear to follow a professional e-mail address convention used normally by companies. Secondly, the e-mail is sent from gmail, which is typically a commercial mail server available to the public. Businesses usually operate their own mail servers on their organisations network, the likes of microsoft outlook or lotus.
2. The subject. Employment in new company?? A bit vague isn't it, any genuine prospective employers are sure to include their organisations name somewhere in the e-mail (and even if this is provided, a thorough internet search on the name is wise).
3. The subject part II. My name followed by the date and time have been manually typed which shows me the date and time conventions for the originators location. A little research into date formatting tells me that this date is written in middle-endian style which is the known convention for; The United States, Belize, The Philippines, Saudi Arabia, and Canada. Being based in the UK (which does not use this dating convention), it might be safe to say this position may require a hefty commute, which draws to another point regarding data on my CV. The time is in 12 hour format, which following a bit of google research represents formal written conventions used across the world, but not the UK.
4. The greeting. A professional business salutation should read 'Dear Title, Surname,'.
5. Totaljobs.com. Totaljobs is a popular jobseekers website, but if you have never used it then this could be an indicator that something is not quite right. Even if you have used the named website, did you opt to make your CV searchable to other employers? Something to consider.
6. The position. The role provided here is FSO Agent, which is vague however sounds like it could be legitimate. Most of these scams will catch a few people who doubt their instincts and resort to the possibility of legitimacy (most people looking for a job would rather believe that they are being offered a real job than the harsh reality). Also, the role and responsibilities have not been listed, so what is it exactly that they're expecting you to do?
7. Payment. This is often the clincher in these e-mails, although it's something that people may choose to ignore. The offer of pay is too good to be true, a high rate of pay for more often than not an unrealistic level of required labour. In this e-mail, 1500 pounds offered for 2-3 working hours per day which is just plain silly. I'd like to think that I'm more intelligent than your average plank of wood, but to think that someone has sought me out to offer an ideal job opportunity with a good rate of pay is just highly unlikely. Be realistic...
8. Payment continued. The pay offered is a specific figure offered for a flexible number of hours which is ridiculous. So, the labour required is 2-3 hours per week. If you work for only 2 hours a week, you will work a 40 hour month. If you work a 3 hour week, you will work a 60 hour month. A difference of 20 hours, which would account for a third of your earnings if worked. So this is an impossible measure of pay.
9. Probation. You will work a 30 day probationary period from the day you apply? So not from the day you are offered the job? Ah but this e-mail is just giving you the job as long as you send your details (hence later in the e-mail being advised to report to 'Mr J Hill'). Usually if you are are contacted by a legitimate employer, they invite you to interview for the position. Perhaps the most blindingly obvious factor this leads you to is the pretence that you already have the job after doing nothing!
10. Employee Benefits. All too good to be true based on the number of hours you are expected to commit to. The perfect package for an easy job, which is the hook. Or perhaps it's the bait, and the fraud is the hook! Also, in the UK, paid annual leave is referred to as holiday not vacation, further leading me to the conclusion that this e-mail did not originate in the UK.
11. Verify your identity. No employer will request personal details over e-mail, the standard procedure would be to take documentation along to a formal interview or recruitment process. Also, they have previously stated that they have my CV, if this is the case then they have already overlooked the fact that all of these details are clearly written on the header of both pages.
12. The form. Now come on, you're offering me a job, and you're sending me a form like that?? I'm no 'HR Manager' but if I did happen to ever request someone's details, I'd perhaps send a real form as an attached document and not some badly formatted collection of underscores and hyphens with the work 'form' written in capital letters on it.
13. Appearances. This is a small factor that can give you a big clue, the e-mail did not contain any corporate logo or a written disclaimer that follows every e-mail sent externally as a footer, instead the email is in a plain text form. This may be due to the fact that these e-mails have been sent en masse and their computer(s) may not be able to handle sending the amount of data that would be included if images were also on each e-mail.
14. Language. I'm no William Shakespeare, as you may have gathered by now, but the written language can be another indicator. A professional organisation would (hopefully) display a better use of grammar and syntax in their communications.
These scams in simple terms are just plain wrong, not merely in their intended harmful purpose in conning people out of money, but also in the raised hopes that people may have when receiving these e-mails. The first time I received one of these e-mails I was looking for a job, and my initial feeling was of excitement, it definitely got my hopes up and led me to believe that I was about to receive the perfect job offer that would fit around my studies. Luckily I had enough doubt that I did a web search on the offer, and right enough it came up as a scam. All I was left with however was bitter disappointment, as I was still jobless. These scam artists (well it's not even an art is it really), I'll rephrase.....these evil, lowlife scumbags will constantly change the way they try to deceive you, often appearing as legitimate as possible. So if in doubt, and even if not in doubt....do some research; internet searches can provide all the info you need. Just make sure you don't send any information in reply if you think you've been sent a scam!
If you think you've been sent one of these e-mails go to this site and report it: actionfraud.police.uk/report_fraud
I'd also recommend that you post a copy of the e-mail in a post like this on a blog somewhere relevant so others get a heads up, because it's likely that others out there have received the same e-mail as you.
0
Comments
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Unfortunately totaljobs.com has become a target for scammers because it once had a good reputation for jobs. Now its being sunk by recruitment agencies advertising as direct employers etc etc and it's going down the pan. It was only a matter of time before it sunk into scammers territory.0
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If you take your CV off 'visible' then the scams stop instantly. Plus, do you really think HR people spend hours scouring Total Jobs for their perfect candidate, when they get 100's of CV's for every job advertised anyway?0
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Tip: NO ONE offers you a a job by never talking to you or meeting you.We’ve had to remove your signature. Please check the Forum Rules if you’re unsure why it’s been removed and, if still unsure, email forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com0
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