Page last updated 12/02/2007
All external links last last verified 12/02/2007
Please be sure to read my Work-at-Home Scams Home Page
NOTE: All external links on this page open a new window.
Things I Did, Below
I, personally, receive email in HTML format. The following was received (and looked) like I received it. At the time, I was more interested in the message than the headers and do not have the original. This is a copy I forwarded to myself as I sent it to my father.
- I removed my email addresses. These came to various accounts and some no longer exist. There are places on this site you can get hold of me if you wish or need to. They are protected from spambots using JavaScript, but all you have to do is click on them.
- All scammer and related email addresses, and any actual website links have been changed, at least putting spaces into them. They appear as underlined blue links, though they aren't.
- Any notes I added in the actual letter are in square brackets ("[" "]"), are bold, red in color, and highlighted. If what I found "behind the links" (email or website) are different than what was displayed, I will include them in this type of note.
- All spelling, spacing, line-wrapping, and punctuation errors are the ones that appeared in the original received email. (I may or may not analyze some or all of these.)
Scam Example
Received 11/29/2007
This was spam email, as while I have a resume at CareerBuilder at this time, it was sent to an email address which I do NOT use for job search. (I just double-checked.)
NOTE: To allow search engines to find them, I've left the links in this email. Be careful if you check them out for yourself.
From: Helen Mcfarland
[Link behind the name:
To: <my email address>
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2007 9:02 PM
Subject: High-paid job for you. CareerBuilder.
Hello,
I am Cindy Roberts an employee manager of XL Incorporated. You have received this message because we are willing to offer you a position in our company, according to your resume published at CareerBuilder.
XL Inc is one of the best in the field of e-currency. We specialize in purchasing, selling and exchanging electronic currencies for our clients all over the world. The company was found in 2001 in Europe and proved the quality of our service by being ISO certified. For years our main goal has been 100% customer satisfaction. At the present time the company expands overseas and thats why we are looking for honest, confident and reliable employees.
We provide the best working conditions for our employees. The company provides iPhone or Blackberry (upon employees choice) for easy communication with our managers and a laptop for exchange operations. Our employees get medical insurance and $165,000 annual salary. For those who have MBA degree it is $225,000. The salary is paid every last week of the month.
If you are not familiar with e-currencies or have any questions regarding the exchange process we provide you the necessary training and support. It is a distant training program which will be held over the phone and email. The training is free and it will take the first month of your employment, so you will be paid during the training period.
You can find more information and details about this opportunity in a copy of a contract, which is attached to this email. [see below] Please read it carefully and if you are agree with the terms of the contract, please send it back to us via email which is stated below or by fax (866) 294-8102. Please keep in mind that our contract is rather flexible so if you wish to alter something please do not hesitate to contact us, we are always open for a discussion.
Also please notice that this job can be a very good additional employment for you. The company offers very flexible work hours so you may keep your primary employment and still work with us.
Please do not confuse us with companies which operate with fake checks, bank accounts etc. That is a fraud. We NEVER operate with any checks and do not make you apply for bank accounts and give out your bank account information.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask
them via email:
We are looking forward to hearing from you.
Cindy Roberts, XL Inc.
Email:
Phone: (718) 395-7882 (9 AM - 7 PM EST, Monday - Friday)
Fax: (866) 294-8102
[NOTE: I left names, email addresses, and phone numbers in here for the search engines to find. DO NOT TRY TO CONTACT THEM! I'm SURE you will be ripped off! -LE]
Contract Attachment
The following was attached to the email in RTF format. I do NOT advocate opening attachments in Spam emails, but did so so you could see what it says. (I have a good AV program, and was even luckier that this apparently did not contain any viruses/malware.)
NOTE: This was simply cut-and-pasted from WORD, so the HTML is extremely ugly. While designed to look like a contract, the formatting (and, yes... I will admit some formatting problems may be caused by word wrapping... ) leaves MUCH to be desired, huh?
EMPLOYMENT AGREEMENT FOR AN EMPLOYEE OF EXCHANGE OPERATIONS
Personnel Department
(Please fill in this contract not in hand-drawn lettering, but type in by PC, because very often we can not read the handwriting of our employees.)
____ (date)__________ 2007.
XL Enterprise,
hereinafter referred to as «Enterprise», represented by
Cindy
Roberts, acting on the basis of the license №1076 of the
one part, and ________________(your
name)_________________________________,
hereinafter referred to as «Employee» of the other part,
have concluded the present Agreement as the following:
1.Subject of the Agreement.
1.1. Employee is being hired by the Enterprise as an
employee of exchange operations department to perform
duties related to the Enterprise exchange operations
coordination, ensuring control of funds transferred from
Client to the Enterprise, and taking active part in
improving the efficiency of the Enterprise activity.
2. Term of the Agreement.
2.1. The agreement is entered between the Enterprise and
the Employee for the period of one year. The agreement
can be extended if mutually agreed by the Employee and
the Enterprise.
3. General Provisions of the Agreement.
3.1. By entering this Agreement the Employee
acknowledges that the Enterprise is working in the field
of purchase, selling and exchange of electronic
currency.
3.2. Performance of his immediate duties by the Employee
shall be governed by the provisions of this Agreement.
3.3. The
Employee is subordinate directly to the Coordinator of
Financial Operations hereinafter referred to as
«Coordinator».
3.4. When performing his immediate duties the Employee
has the right to:
a) agree time
and amount of a transaction with the Coordinator 24
hours prior the transaction start;
b) get help from the Coordinator when difficulties arise
during transaction performance;
c) demand revision of overstated or obsolete rates of
financial, material, labor expenditures, etc.;
d) demand from the Coordinator during transaction
performance complete reports with all the documents
proving the legitimacy of the transactions performed
(the check of electronic currency purchase by a Client
from the Enterprise).
3.5. Upon completion of a transaction the Employee and Coordinator fill in the final report which is necessary and obligatory condition of currency exchange completion between Client and the Enterprise.
3.6. The Employee is a full-fledged member of the Enterprise.
3.7. The
Employee has the right to express his personal opinion
in regard of any issue of the Enterprise activity.
3.8. The Employee has the right, if necessary, to get
acquainted with the rules of the Enterprise internal
labor order, collective agreement, and labor
legislation.
4.Obligations of the Parties.
4.1. The Employee agrees to:
a) perform all currency operations timely and within
periods discussed with the Coordinator in advance;
b) inform the Coordinator on short notice when any problems or emergencies arise to solve them as quickly as possible;
b) when problems arise during performance of currency operations that prevent transaction completion, provide all necessary documents on the Coordinator's demand to prove the legitimacy of his actions.
c) maintain
weekly communication with the Coordinator via telephone,
e-mail, im-client or other commutation means during time
previously discussed with the Coordinator;
d) perform his duties fairly, timely, qualitatively and
accurately and observe the Enterprise internal code of
conduct;
f) accurately and timely execute orders of the
Enterprise Director and the Coordinator;
g) consult clients by e-mail about the concrete transfer questions.
4.2.The
Enterprise agrees to:
аovide the Employee with work according to the
provisions of this Agreement;
b) keep
personal information of the Employee confidential,
reserving the right to forward all the necessary
information on demand of the state authorities if this
influences the Enterprise’s prestige and/or makes the
Enterprise judicially responsible before Client;
c) ensure work conditions necessary for the Employee to
carry out his obligations under this Agreement,
including provision of the Employee with necessary
technical and material resources (for example paying
Western Union commission fee);
d) observe
labor law and labor protection rules;
e) meet the provisions of labor remuneration and working
and rest time standards according to the present
Agreement and effective legislation;
f) in case the Employee dies or becomes disable when
performing his duties continue to pay his family or him
the amount equal to the average earnings received when
working under this Agreement till the expiration date.
5.Labor
Remuneration.
5.1.1. The Employee is guaranteed a salary of $10,000
a month during the 1st quarter of a year, $12,500
during the 2nd quarter, $15,000 during the 3rd
quarter and $17,500 during the 4th quarter of
work if he/she honestly discharges his/her duty in a
month's time. Thus, the annual salary amounts to
$165,000.
5.1.2. For
those holding MBA degree special conditions are
provided. They are guaranteed a salary of $15,000
a month during the 1st quarter of a year, $17,500
during the 2nd quarter, $20,000 during the 3rd
quarter and $22,500 during the 4th quarter of
work. Thus, the annual salary amounts to $225,000.
5.2. The following award is set for the Employee based
on the results of his quarter work depending on the
values:
1) up to $100,000 per quarter - $10,000;
2) up to $200,000 per quarter - $20,000;
3) up to $300,000 per quarter - $30,000.
5.3. In the case the work is not done in 1 day by a worker, will be imposed a fine at the rate - 3% of transfer. Every next day of delay by the worker will make imposing a fine at the rate of 2% for each day.
5.4. Please, underline the most comfortable way of salary enrolling for you: PayPal, WIRE transfer on the bank account, E-Gold, Western Union, MoneyGram, Credit Card, other (specify):_________________________.
5.5. Salary is
paid in case if the Employee has no unfinished
transactions. This is explained by a high-financial risk
of the Enterprise. This is the reason why salary may be
paid earlier or several days later.
6. Work and Rest Time
6.1. The Employee has normal working hours, but due to
remote character of work, the working day is considered
to be a day of performing particular actions connected
with transactions.
6.2. Usual working hours may not exceed 8 hours per day
(European standard). But on average they will take about
2-3 hours. Also, the job is positioned as a good
additional employment. Lunch break is not included in
working hours.
6.3. The time
of working-day start and end as well as of rest and
lunch break is determined from the occupancy of the
Employee during working day.
6.4. The Employee is entitled to have two week-end
day-offs.
7. Social Services.
7.1. Social services are provided to the Employee by the
Enterprise management in accordance with the decision of
general meeting of staff out of the funds designated for
this purpose.
7.2. The Employee, upon his immediate wish, may be
provided by the Enterprise with funds to pay
telephone calls and other commutation means, as well
as transportation costs, used for work and
causing personal expenditures.
7.3. A medical treatment is provided for those Employees who successfully fulfill his duties in one year's time.
8. Employee’s Liability at Performance of His Duties.
8.1. The Employee can be imposed with duties related to material responsibility before the Enterprise Clients, or judicial responsibility before the Enterprise itself, if money transferred from Client to the Enterprise are lost due to neglectful attitude of the Employee. The following actions can be considered neglectful:
a) The funds to be transferred from Client to the Enterprise where forwarded to a third party;
b) Funds to be transferred from Client to the Enterprise were detained without a valid reason for the period of more than 48 hours.
9. Agreement
Change, Extension, and Termination.
9.1. Change, extension and termination of the Agreement
are possible at any time if agreed by both parties.
9.2. The Agreement is terminated after its expiration.
This is not applicable to cases when employment
relations continue and neither of the parties demands to
terminate them. In this case the Agreement is extended
for the same period with the same provisions.
9.3. The
agreement can be terminated before the appointed time on
the Employee’s initiative in the following cases:
аllness or disability of the Employee that prevent him
from performing his work under this Agreement;
b) Violation of labor legislation or this Agreement by
the Enterprise management;
c) Other valid reasons.
9.4. The agreement can be terminated before the
appointed time on the Enterprise initiative on the
following grounds:
аhanges in work management (dissolution of the
Enterprise, reduction of personnel, changes in working
conditions, etc.);
b) Revealing of the Employee’s unfitness for work
performed without his wrongful acts;
c) Wrongful acts of the Employee (systematic or
prolonged no fulfillment of his duties without valid
reasons, disclosure of commercial secrets).
10. Compensations at Agreement termination.
10.1. When the Agreement is terminated (on the basis of
valid reasons) the Employee receives payment stipulated
by valid legislation and one-time compensation in the
amount of $35,000.
11. Special Provisions.
11.1.
a) The Enterprise may be both primary and additional employment for the Employee.
b) Along with
this an Employee must not work for other companies which
have closely-related interests with the Enterprise and
whose working methods are similar to Enterprise methods,
as it can bring grave consequences for the Enterprise
and its clients.
11.2. Working functions not stipulated by this Agreement
can be performed by the Employee in the Enterprise only
with the consent of the Enterprise Director.
11.3. All the
materials created with the participation of the Employee
and under the assignment of the Enterprise are the
ownership of the Enterprise.
11.4. The Parties assume the obligation not to disclose
the provisions of this Agreement without mutual consent.
11.5. The provisions of this Agreement can be changed
only if agreed by the parties.
11.6. The Parties are responsible for fulfillment of the
obligations under this Agreement to the extent permitted
by applicable law.
11.7. Disputes that may arise between the Parties are
solved according to the applicable law.
11.8. In all
other issues not stipulated by this Agreement the
Parties shall be governed by the law.
12. Other Provisions.
12.1. You will be hired as a contract employee on a 1099 basis. The company withholds no taxes from you and issues a 1099 form at the end of the year. For registration and making Employee`s tax payments by Enterprise, an additional information is needed:
______________________________________________
(date of birth -- DOB: mm/dd/yyyy)
12.2. This
contract is made in two copies: one for each of the
Parties and is valid only with the signatures of both
the Employee and the Enterprise and sealed by the
latter.
12.3. Information and addresses of the Parties:
12.3.1. Enterprise
Address: Burakowska 2, Warsaw, Poland.
Phone: (718) 395-7882.
Fax: (866)294-8102.
12.3.2. Employee
________________________________________________________________________
(complete full home physical address: street, home#,
city, state, zip)
_______________________________
(home phone)
_______________________________
(cell phone)
_______________________________
(work phone)
_______________________________
(e-mail)
Employee: ___ (your surname and initials)_______________________
Enterprise: Cindy Roberts.
(Please fill in this contract not in hand-drawn lettering, but type in by PC, because very often we can not read the handwriting of our employees.)
Observances (in the contract)
- There are plenty of spacing, spelling and grammar problems, as in almost all spam and "bad" offers.
- Section 7.3 - You have to work for a YEAR before they supply medical? And I think that 90 days is too long... GEEZE!
- Section 5 already lists fines, but Section 8 appears to impose even more (without any amounts or percentages). What's going on, here?
- Section 11 says "applicable law"... Is that local, federal (US), or the law of the country with which we are dealing?
- Section 12.1 - From my understanding, there are no deductions on a 1099 - the form is used to report income earned, which leaves taxes up to the employee to report and pay. I am unsure why they would need you birth date... Your SS#, maybe, but birth date?
- The company address is "Burakowska 2, Warsaw, Poland", yet the phone number (AC 718) is New York City (partially overlayed [read "covered"] by area codes 347 and 917). This includes the Bronx, Queens, Staten Island and Brooklyn.
- Signature: They only need your last name and initials? I thought all contracts had to include your legal signature...
Email Headers
Received 11/24/2007
Return-path: <
Received: from mta0.manage.insightcom.com
([172.31.249.150])
by msb2.manage.insightcom.com
(Sun Java System Messaging Server 6.2-6.01 (built Apr 3
2006))
with ESMTP id <
Received: from mxsf01.insightbb.com ([172.31.249.124])
by mta0.manage.insightcom.com
(Sun Java System Messaging Server 6.2-6.01 (built Apr 3
2006))
with ESMTP id <
29 Nov 2007 20:45:19 -0500 (EST)
Received: from unknown (HELO mxip02.insightbb.com)
([172.31.249.124])
by mxsf01.insightbb.com with ESMTP; Thu, 29 Nov 2007
20:45:18 -0500
Received: from dsl88-244-54365.ttnet.net.tr
([88.224.212.93])
by mxip02.insightbb.com with ESMTP; Thu, 29 Nov 2007
20:45:14 -0500
Received: from [88.224.212.93] by mail3.boats.com; Fri,
30 Nov 2007 04:02:49 +0200
Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2007 04:02:49 +0200
From: Helen Mcfarland <
Subject: High-paid job for you. CareerBuilder.
To:
Message-id: <
MIME-version: 1.0
X-MIMEOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2919.6600
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2919.6600
Content-type: multipart/mixed;
boundary="Boundary_(ID_vlX2EX95jsNeQHMRaaB/fg)"
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-priority: Normal
X-IronPort-AV: E=Sophos;i="4.23,231,1194238800";
d="rtf'212?scan'212,208,212";a="126898133"
Original-recipient: rfc822;
[NOTE: I left names, email addresses, and phone numbers in here for the search engines to find. DO NOT TRY TO CONTACT THEM! I'm SURE you will be ripped off! -LE]
Ok... Time to check the WhoIs. Oops... I couldn't find them, anywhere!
Couldn't find a website for the company.
Red Flags, for Me
Ok... The email looks legit... The site looks legit... What raises the red flags for me?
- From the email itself:
- I could not find a website for "XL Incorporated", "XL Inc", or "XL Enterprises" that dealt in "e-currency".
- Googled for the address, "Burakowska 2, Warsaw, Poland", found Got a possible scam email - Anti-Fraud International, ONLY.
- Googled for the phone number, "(718) 395-7882", found forum.419eater.com :: View topic - New scam coming our way? XL Inc.
- I have received NUMEROUS job offers, in the last few weeks for the same type of job(s), many purporting to be responding to my resume on CareerBuilder. While I am looking for a job, and have a resume there, the email address I use there is NOT the one to which this email was sent, meaning it was Spam.
- The position they are offering me has NOTHING to do with the qualifications on my resume. So how is does my resume matter?
- Spacing, grammar, and spelling errors are rare from a legitimate site offering a job. Numerous people have read those ads (and contracts), from HR to Legal to the person who wrote it. SOMEONE would catch the errors.
- The email address FROM which this email was sent was NOT the same as the company offering the job. While I realize that consultant and contracting companies could be sending these emails out, there is absolutely NO indication that this is from anyone but the company, itself.
- The email TO WHICH I am to reply,
croberts.xlinc.support@gmail.com , is a FREE EMAIL ACCOUNT (gmail.com). If this company is legit and worth working for, why isn't the email address xlinc or something like that?
- From the email headers:
- The email address FROM which it was sent was
mpcrh@boatsbank.com . Why wasn't it sent from an xlinc account, why didn't Ms "Roberts" send it, and why can't I simply reply to the email to get information? - According to GeoBytes Spam Locator (just cut-and-paste email headers), this email was sent from 88.224.212.93, which is in Istanbul, Turkey. Why doesn't this match the email address of the sender (Helen McFarland)? ... the address of the person I am to contact (Cindy Roberts) ... the supposed NAME of the person sending it (Neither Helen McFarland nor Cindy Roberts sounds like a Middle-Eastern name to me!)
- And why did Helen McFarland send the email for Cindy Roberts?
- The email address FROM which it was sent was
- From the WhoIs of the (apparent) site:
- Again, I could NOT find a site named "XL Incorporated", "XL Inc", or "XL Enterprises" that dealt in "e-currency".
- Why am I receiving an email for a job in the US, from TURKEY(!), sent by an (apparent) American, about working for a company that doesn't match ANYTHING on my resume? GEEZE!
End Notes
Is it possible there are legitimate companies offering this service? Sure... Probably. HOWEVER, the process lends itself to scammers, which, I'm sure, is what I have, above.
Why do they offer so much per month? Because they are trying to entice people into the scam. They know it will only be a matter of time (just a few cycles of work) before either YOU realize they are a scam, the police or the bank are notified about bad checks or start paying attention to the large amounts going through your account. (NOTE: Guess what? You could be accused, arrested and jailed for MONEY LAUNDERING!) In any case, they want to get you to do their bidding as long as they can, until you either stop on your own, or are FORCED to stop by the cops or the bank.
They ARE offering MUCH more than many companies, who will offer LESS than $10K per month. And here's why they normally don't offer huge amounts, from the IRS:
General Instructions
Who Must File. Each financial institution (other than a casino, which instead must file FinCEN Form 103, and the U.S. Postal Service for which there are separate rules) must file FinCEN Form 104 (CTR) for each deposit, withdrawal, exchange of currency, or other payment or transfer, by, through, or to the financial institution which involves a transaction in currency of more than $10,000.
Multiple transactions must be treated as a single transaction if the financial institution has knowledge that (1) they are by or on behalf of the same person, and (2) they result in either currency received (Cash In) or currency disbursed (Cash Out) by the financial institution totaling more than $10,000 during any one business day. For a bank, a business day is the day on which transactions are routinely posted to customers’ accounts, as normally communicated to depository customers. For all other financial institutions, a business day is a calendar day.
[Source: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/ffc104.pdf, p3. My highlights -wds]
What that means is they circumvent the US Government reporting requirements by keeping checks below the limit that REQUIRES reporting. They are offering you, as a "contractor" a chance to get your money, and report to the IRS whatever you wish.
Either way, I doubt you will get a 1099, or ANY money from these people. Money will probably go through your account, but YOU won't see any of it.
Again, BE VERY CAREFUL when applying to Work-At-Home jobs.
Send comments/questions about this page to Bill Sanders at:
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were designed, developed and published by Bill Sanders of Orange Frog Productions.
It and it's CSS was validated and complies with both the:
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NOTE: All CSS validates except the "New Window Buttons"
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Copyright © 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 by Bill Sanders / Full site last modified: October 21, 2006
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