Protect Yourself and Report the Latest Frauds, Scams, Spams, Fakes, Identify Theft Hacks and Hoaxes
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Have you received an email from Jonas Varnas of "DT-System, Inc." in Lithuania (or ANYWHERE else) offering you a job as a "package receiver - reshipper", "Payment Officer", "local agent" or "local representative" in which you "receive payments", deduct your "Processing fee", deposit the checks and then wire most of the money to an overseas "company"?
It is an AFF / Money transfer Scam. They'll send you counterfeit checks which you are supposed to deposit, take out some percentage (typically, 10%) for your work, and then MoneyGram or Western Union wire the remaining 90%. Notice that although you receive checks, they won't let you forward a check to them, only Western Union or Money Gram. There's a reason for this: Western Union and MoneyGrams are cashed immediately and are untraceable and irretrievable. Bank checks can take 1 or 2 weeks to clear!
Of course, since the check is fake, it will bounce a week or so later after you deposit it. But you have already moneygram'ed the scammers the 90% of the amount, and that is transacted almost instantly. So you now owe the bank for the full amount. You may also face criminal charges for passing counterfeit checks. See this page for a step-by-step explanation of how the scam unfolds.
In the email below, there are some many red flags, we can't imagine any way it could be legitimate. And even if they were real, this would be an obvious attempt to circumvent laws that restrict the export of technologies that can be used for military purposes!
Do you have a resume posted online? We'd like to hear from you about your experiences recruiting emails that turned out to be scams or misleading - click here to write us.
Notice the passages we have highlighted in the actual scam email below. They illustrate some of the additional clues that it is a scam, such as the email comes from a free email account (such as Yahoo.com, Hotmail.com, Aim.com, Gmail, cox.net, etc.). Wouldn't you expect a company to have its own website and email address (after all, it only costs about $200/year; every reputable company has its own website these days!) And don't be surprised if the scammers do put the names of real companies, real websites and events in their scams; it doesn't mean anything at all!
From: Domingo Skinner <support@comodogroup.com>
Date: Wednesday, March 5, 2008 12:29 pm
Subject: We've got only 5 more positions, hurry up!Hello,
Thank you for your interest in our offer! Keep in mind that this offer is for US and Canadian citizens only!
Our company name is DT-System, Inc.
We are Lithuanian company, we are located in Lithuania. It's next to Europe. We take up software and design development. At the present moment we have the vacancy of courier in our company.
The matter is that some our agents sometimes are in their business trips in the USA and make orders in e-shops but unfortunately they can't ship out these packages to their native countries as they are not US citizens. That's why we need your services.
You'll have to receive the packages to your