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 Dr Greg Koban of "Delta Marble Mining" in Turkey (or ANYWHERE else) offering you a job as a "representative", "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. But you can try emailing "Dr Greg Koban" back and asking:
Try cutting and pasting those questions and emailing them back to the person offering the "job", "Dr Greg Koban" in this case and see how he responds. We'll bet it will be with hostility, like:
"Why are you asking me these questions? We are offering you a legitimate job, but you are treating us like we are scammers! If you are not interested we can find someone else; it is YOUR loss!"
Which, of course, is how a scammer caught with questions that expose his scam, will reply!
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!
Date: Sun, 16 Mar 2008 04:59:46 -0800
Subject: AGENT NEEDED
Delta Marble Mining Import and Export CO LTD.
Afyon Organize San, Bul 1.Cad. 11. Sok No: 5 Afyon, Turkey
E-mail: infodeltamarblemining@yahoo.com.hk
REQUEST FOR COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE?
Dear Sir/Madam, Delta Marble Mining Import and Export Co., LTD based in Turkey with affiliates in Finland, Cyprus and United Kingdom,is need of representatives in Europe and North America and south America Canada to represent its interests with some companies that export products from Turkey to this continents, This message is send in english for universal understanding. We are able to get your email address with the help of marketing research based on our location,You can be compensated with 12% and for your service. If you are interested and for more information, please send an email with your
Name:
Address:
Phone Number:
Dr Greg Kobani .(marketing),
for Delta Marble Mining
There are a variety of sleazy scams that look, at first glance, like legitimate job offers. Before you write back to them, pause a moment and read about the scams below!
Some of the more common job scams are