Scam emails: Martin Williams - Agricultural Research Institute of Northern Ireland

Scam Money Transfers
Example - Martin Williams - Agricultural Research Institute of Northern Ireland

Another scam for either identity theft and/or money laundering; take your pick.  In this case, the scammer (the fictitious Martin Williams)  is hoping you'll respond and give him detailed personal and financial information and then pay him "advance fees" , set-up fees, transfer fees, taxes, and whatever else he can think of.  Think about it; a company doesn't need a US representative to "receive payments".  A bank account of their own can do that from anywhere in the world already. Getting an account can be done in minutes... But even if you did need a foreign rep, would you just choose a strange at random from an email list?  Of course not!!!

Some of the other obvious signs that this is a scam are highlighted below, such as poor spelling (and he's a Doctor???), use of free Yahoo/Hotmail/etc email accounts:

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MARTIN WILLIAMS" < martinwilliams_consults@yahoo.com >

Hello,

My name is Martin Williams. I just came about your email address through an email listing affiliated with the US Chamber of Commerce and I would be very interested in offering you a part-time paying job in which you could earn a lot without quitting your present Job or having problem with your employers.

I am a man with 4 kids all boys and the love of my life, my wife. I am a some what multitalented man and I do quite a lot of traveling and get to meet quite a lot of people. I just resigned my job as a research scientist for ARINI (Agricultural research Institute of Northern Ireland (www.arini.ac.uk)) but I still work as a freelance consultant for the institute which gives me very much time to do my own work which is basically being a freelance researcher who could be employed by research institutes to do research projects anywhere in the world.

I reside in London, UK even though I have lived most of my life in Dublin, Ireland. Presently, I have just been granted a funding to head a research project in the tropical regions of West Africa regarding rare and vulnerable plant species and this would be commencing very soon.

However my funding was by my American counterparts who send me the bunch of payments mostly in US based money orders. Getting an accountant in the states or opening an account would have been my best choice but I have a deadline to meet and taking any of those choices would cost me time and a whole lot of other requirements. I am not ready to deal with, as I would be traveling a lot in the meantime. So presently, assuming you would be able to deal with cash, I would be willing to employ you on contract basis to be my payment representative back in the states, this way I could issue and make payments in form of Money Orders, Cashier's Check, etc out to you, you could then cash them easily, withdraw 10% of the total amount on these payment instruments as your commission and then send the rest back to me through wire transfer. Please, bear it in mind that we would be dealing with quite a handful of cash and you could be making up to $3000 just working with me in a short period of time within 2-4 weeks. I would be glad if you accept my proposal and I intend to commence on starting as soon as you are ready. If you are interested, please email me back so we could make concluding arrangements.

Thank You

Martin Williams

Agricultural Research Institute of Northern Ireland www.arini.ac.uk Hillsborough, Ireland BT26 6DR

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If you are interested, Kindly provide me with the following:

Name: ...............

Full Residential/Contact Address(no P.O. Box): ...............

Contact phone numbers: ...............

Email Address: ...............

Bank name(only)................

Age: ...............

Occupation: ...............

 

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