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Have you received an email from Jim Connay of "ARINI (Agricultural Research Institute of Northern Ireland)" in Northern Ireland (or ANYWHERE else) offering you a job as a "payment 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 "Jim Connay" back and asking:
Try cutting and pasting those questions and emailing them back to the person offering the "job", "Jim Connay" 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.
Any highlighted passages in the actual scam email below are to draw your attention to clues (the highlighting itself was not present in the original email).
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!
Dear Sir/Madam,
My name is Jim Connay .I just came about your email address and your brief profile 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 alot.I just resigned my job as a research scientist for ARINI(Agricultural Research Institute of Northern Ireland) 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.
WHAT YOU NEED TO DO FOR US?Presently, I have just been granted a funding to head 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 were by my American counterparts which sent 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 these money orders out to you, you could then cash them easily, withdraw 10% of the total
amount on these money orders as your commission and then send the rest back to me through Western Union wire transfer.
JOB DESCRIPTION?
1. Receive payment from Clients
2. Cash Payments at your Bank
3. Deduct 10% which will be your percentage/pay on Payment processed.
4. Forward balance after deduction of percentage/pay to any of the offices you will be contacted to send payment to(Payment is to forwarded either by Money Gram or Western Union Money Transfer).
HOW MUCH WILL YOU EARN?
10% from each operation! For instance: you receive 7000 USD via checks or money orders on our behalf. You will cash the money and keep $700 (10% from $7000) for yourself! At the beginning your commission will
equal 10%, though later it will increase up to 12%!
ADVANTAGES
You do not have to go out as you will work as an independent contractor right from your home office. Your job is absolutely legal. You can earn up to $3000-4000 monthly depending on time you will spend for this job.
You do not need any capital to start. The employees who make efforts and work hard have a strong possibility to become managers. Anyway our employees never leave us.
MAIN REQUIREMENTS
18 years or older
legally capable
responsible
ready to work 3-4 hours per week.
with PC knowledge
e-mail and internet experience (minimal)
And please know that Everything is absolutely legal, that's why You have to fill a contract!
If you are interested in our offer, please to reply.Mail directly to my personal email address: info@jimconnay.com
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 the payment in form of US MONEY ORDERS out to you,you could then cash them easily at your bank, deduct 10% out of the total amount on these money orders as your commission and then send the rest back.
i will be sending you a form to serve as an agreement that is going to back this up,as soon as you fill this form,i will have it as a receipt to your response.
But to make a commencing posibilility,Your Information will be needed so that i can forward the money orders to you for cashing and you can start earning from this,just reply me back with your
FIRST NAME................ MIDDLE
NAME..........................
SURNAME...................
ADDRESS/INCLUDE ZIP, CITY, COUNTRY
HOME PHONE.
MOBILE..........................
GENDER........................
MARITAL STATUS.....................
EDUCATION LEVEL................................
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF WORK EXPERIENCE..
skills......................., computer skills, clerical skills
AGE................ NATIONALITY ..
EMPLOYMENT DESIRED: FULL TIME/PART TIME....................
The payment will be send out to you on your information provided and its will be send out to you via a safe courier service like fedex or ups,i will let you know when you will be having it delivered.Thanks for your anticipated action.And we hope to hear back from you.
Jim Connay
Agricultural Research Institute of Northern Ireland
Hillsborough, Ireland BT26 6DR
Phone:+447024066019
Fax:+447040117781
"As relationship grows income increases"
Copyright © 2008 Jim Connay Inc.
The intended victim did a quick Whois search and found this that is was registered in Singapore with fake U.S> information:
Registered in Singapore...Phony US info...PH email...IP located in CZ
This section from Network Solutions
Registration Service Provided By: WHOIS.COM PTE LTD
Contact: +00.0000000 < ??
Whois.com Pte Ltd. Address: 9A Jasmine Road, ,. City: Singapore
Domain Name: JIMCONNAY.COM
Registrant:
gogon
light (ore.love@yahoo.com.ph)
102 old kent road sant island New York,10101 US Tel. +001.6523123698
Address - phony + 652 in NOT a US area code
Creation Date: 07-Apr-2008
Current Registrar:
DIRECT INFORMATION PVT LTD D/B/A PUBLICDOMAINREGISTRY.COM
IP Address:
193.86.238.12 (ARIN & RIPE IP search)
IP Location:
CZ(CZECH REPUBLIC)-MORAVSKOSLEZSKY KRAJ-OSTRAVA
my personal email address: info@jimconnay.com
base
record
name
ip
inetnum/network/as
reverse
jimconnay.com
A
193.86.238.0-193.86.238.255 PIPNI2-CZ Pipni.CZ
193.86.0.0/16 CZNET A
2819 GTSCZ GTS NOVERA (GTS CZ) e mail: ip noc@gts czReturn-Path: <nobody@web.lahdah.com>
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for victims address; Mon, 21 Apr 2008 06:50:40 +0300
To: victims address
Subject: *** WORK FROM HOME ***
From: Jim Connay <info@jimconnay.com>
Message-Id: <1307461003.510@jimconnay.com>
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Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2008 06:50:40 +0300
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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