Scam Jobs Update Cekicy Pty Ltd

eats1

There was another scam job posting today for Cekicy Group Pty Ltd and thus many people have arrived here searching for that company name.

This job is a work from home scam. You can read more about this kind of scam via SCAMwatch and more specifically fake cheque – check or bank draft – scams via my own post – Snoskred made 5 million dollars online this year!.

I listed some of the reasons why this job is a scam on yesterdays post which you can read here – Three more job scams – Cekicy Group PTY LTD, Healthfirst, Real Online Jobs. Also I have these posts re Manheimy PTY LTD and More About Manheimy Pty LTD..

I also have postings regarding the Car Wrap Scam which is very popular at the moment. Companies names like Rockstar and Pepsico are being used in an effort to legitimize these scams.

There was also this connectedsky scam. I did a more thorough breakdown of the connectedsky scam here.

Jobseeker Update

The team at Jobseeker have been in contact re yesterdays post and have advised they will be making this issue a high priority. For anyone at other websites who might be reading this, it is important to know the following fact –

Once you put some hurdles in their way, scammers will stop using your site as a place to advertise their scams. Other sites have been there and done this. However if you do not act quickly and decisively, these scammers will spread the word to their scammer friends and you will be inundated with scammer postings.

Reach Out –

You can contact me via email – or comment on this post. I strongly suggest you to do this if you have any questions. You do not have to use your real name but I do ask that you use a real email address so that I can reply to your question personally via email.

If you arrived here searching for companies or text in these scam job postings, it is important to know – you are not the only one who arrived here this way and you are not alone.

fake checks, Internet Safety, job scams, scam victims are not stupid, scams

Three More Scam Jobs

moon

Here are three more job scams – please note my reason for posting them is purely so that anyone searching for the company names can get this page in the search results and know right away the job is a scam. On average, over 100 people arrive at my website daily, having searched for names, text, email addresses, or phone numbers which are listed here..

Often times, this is the only site which contains these names *and* the fact that their job is a scam. Update – A lot of people are arriving here searching for Cekicy – cekicy pty ltd – Cekicy Group Pty Ltd which has posted yet another scam listing today.

I hope my regular readers do not mind these posts when they are posted – if they do, please remember that these posts are stopping people from being scammed by criminals. :)

First Scam Job –

Entry-Level Office Administrator Wanted – Earning $1000.00-$2500.00 per week.
Cekicy Group Pty Ltd
About the Role:

We have several openings available in this area earning $1000.00-$2500.00 per week.

We are seeking a candidate to fill join our team as an Office Administrator. You will be looking after inbound and outbound telephone calls, data entry and organising files both electronically and manually. You must be well spoken a you will be taking and looking after bookings. If you’re highly organised, we want you!

Minimum Qualifications:
High School diploma or GED.
1 year of clerical/data entry experience in a fast-paced environment.
Demonstrate attention to detail with excellent data entry, communication (interpersonal, telephone) and organization skills.
Ability to prioritize projects within a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment using tact and discretion.
Basic database usage.
Team player with good communication, data entry, organization and follow-through skills.
Ability to write and type grammatically correct database entries in English.
Intermediate Microsoft Word and Excel skills.
Experience using a corporate email system.
Basic Microsoft PowerPoint.
Candidate will be paid $50-$70 Per hour commensurate with experience and education.

So what points to this being a scam?

A quick rundown –

1. Entry level anything does not earn $1000 a week in Australia and certainly would never earn $2500.

2. You must be well spoken a you <-- a you? 3. High School diploma or GED <-- neither of these things are what you get in Australia. GED is from the US.

4. Candidate will be paid $50-$70 Per hour <-- the only time I have earned $50 an hour was triple time on a Sunday or public holiday pay. There simply is no job in Australia which is entry level that pays this kind of money.

Second scam job –

Data Entry Clerks Positions Available
Healthfirst
Preparing all sorts of source documents, identification and interpretation of data to be entered. Compiling, sorting and verifying data accuracy
. Minimum Qualifications:
High School diploma or GED.
1 year of clerical/data entry experience in a fast-paced environment.
Demonstrate attention to detail with excellent data entry, communication (interpersonal, telephone) and organization skills.
Ability to prioritize projects within a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment using tact and discretion.
Basic database usage.
Team player with good communication, data entry, organization and follow-through skills.
Ability to write and type grammatically correct database entries in English.
Intermediate Microsoft Word and Excel skills.
Experience using a corporate email system.
Basic Microsoft PowerPoint.
Candidate will be paid $50-$70 Per hour commensurate with experience and education.

This job ad minimum qualifications section is almost identical to the first one, just with a different job role, and a different company name.

And the third and final scam job –

Full Time Data Entry – Earn $50/Per Hour +
Real Online Jobs
We have several openings available in this area earning $1000.00-$2500.00 per week. We are seeking only honest, self-motivated people with a desire to work in the typing and data entry field.

This job requires you to have the ability to operate a keyboard or other data entry device to enter data into computer. Inputs alphabetic and numeric information from credit card applications onto an automated credit processing system, other clerical duties as required.

We are seeking only honest, self-motivated people with a desire to work in the typing and data entry field. Preferred applicants should be at least 18 years old with Internet access. Little experience is needed.

The ideal applicant will be well presented, highly organised and friendly, with excellent communication skills.

Daily duties will include but not be limited to: § Account management § Data entry § General admin duties Applicants must also have: § Accurate data entry skills § Proficiency in MS Office programs

This position is high paying and you will be paid WEEKLY via direct deposit, cheque, paypal or company provided debit card.

Jobseeker The Website –

Jobseeker has a serious problem here, and I just want to give them a heads up and some hopefully useful feedback – job sites need to be a very proactive in order to stamp out these scammers. :(

I’ve been reporting these fake jobs when I see them. It takes quite some time to get a reply – usually more than 4 days. In general these job postings remain open for too long. In order to frustrate the scammers, scam job postings need to be removed within 12 hours. In order to stop the scammers, these job postings should not be posted at all.

I’m not confident that Jobseeker understand that people WILL get scammed out of money thanks to their site posting these scam jobs. I would love to be reassured on this point.

Seek.com.au has been here and done this before, and they have an excellent warning on their site which you can read here – SEEK safely. It costs significant $$ to post an ad on Seek. And it *should* cost money to post a job ad anywhere. Legit employers will pay the $$. Fake employers will vanish.

Even when Jobseeker kill off a scam job posting so that nobody can apply for it, all the text still appears and they DO NOT put up a scam warning up for people. Here is an example.

I would strongly recommend to Jobseeker that they leave the company name and job title and replace the rest of the text with a scam warning. If they are not sure how to word this, they can ask me for help and I will draft something up for them.

By the time these scam job listings are removed, people will have applied – and I hope Jobseeker contacts those people who have applied with an email scam warning as well! This is hugely important and needs to be done.

I am also concerned that Jobseeker do not appear to have a scam warning anywhere on their website. I certainly cannot find one. If one is there, enlighten me as to where it is. It should be easy for everyone to see.

Please fix these things, and then I will sing your praises, Jobseeker.

Update – The team at Jobseeker have been in contact and have advised they will be making this issue a high priority. For anyone at other sites who might be reading this, it is important to know the following fact –

Once you put some hurdles in their way, scammers will stop using your site as a place to advertise their scams. Other sites have been there and done this. However if you do not act quickly and decisively, these scammers will spread the word to their scammer friends and you’ll be inundated.

Further Reading –

Scam Advice – Scam Warning Signs
Quick Scam Notice Re Manheimy PTY LTD
More About Manheimy PTY LTD
Snoskred made 5 MILLION DOLLARS online this year!
Snoskred on Fake Check Scams and Scambaiting

Scam Resources –

Is this email a scam? Ask the Scam-O-Matic
Scamwarners
Scam Victims United
Fraud Aid
SCAMwatch – Work from home scams

Reach Out –

You can contact me via email – or comment on this post. I especially encourage you to do this if you have any questions.

If you arrived here searching for companies or text in these scam job postings, it is important to know – you are not the only one who arrived here this way and you are not alone.

Annoyed Snoskred, fake checks, job scams, scam victims are not stupid, scams

Some Days..

birds

Every morning, the first email account I check is the one associated with my Contact page. And this morning, among the regular multitude of I am being scammed what do I do now emails, I was presented with a doozy of an email.. It went like this –

I was lured into this Rockstar money scam, they sent me two checks for $2,300 each and I cashed the checks, I did not deposit them, they then asked to send 1,900 through money gram and I did and now I don’t know what to do! I’m scared! My parents will kill me when they find out! I’m only 16!

I replied right away asking the person to contact Moneygram and see if the money has been collected yet – if it has not, they can cancel the transfer and then they could potentially get the money back.

However, anyone who has watched some Judge Judy in their lifetime knows that a minor cannot enter into a contract. So in order to be able to advise this person I really need more info, eg how did they cash the checks, and how did they send the money via moneygram?

In any case, this young person is going to have to tell their parents. As difficult as that might seem, the parents are actually the people best placed to assist – they will likely have knowledge of the local laws and will know who to speak to in order to try and sort all this out.

Their child has been scammed, and they will be likely to react as a lion does, roaring and on the attack – not towards the child but towards the people who have scammed their child, and also the people who have assisted the scammers in this instance – the check cashing place, and the Moneygram office which allowed a minor to send money.

I do not know how a check cashing place cashes a check when being shown the ID of a person under 18. When they cashed the check their details would have been noted and/or their ID was photocopied. The check cashing place will be the first to find out the check is fraudulent and will probably involve the police, which is something both the young person and the parents will want to avoid.

So my best advice to this young person is to talk to their parents ASAP. Then let the parents take over – the parents may wish to seek legal advice regarding the best way to handle this situation. If the parents make good the money to the check cashing place or come to some kind of settlement with them, it may be possible to avoid the police being involved.

The Rockstar scam is an example of the Car Wrap scam – where the scammers want people to wrap their vehicles in advertising. I’m presently involved in scam baiting one of these scammers who had the hide to post their scam on a local community group that I am a member of. I’m going to post the initial email here in case anyone else is being scammed by these people –

Hello,

Wrap advertising is the marketing practice of completely or partially covering (wrapping) a vehicle in an advertisement or livery, thus turning it into a mobile billboard. This can be achieved by simply painting the vehicle surface, but it is becoming more common today to use large vinyl sheets as decals. These can be removed with relative ease, making it much less expensive to change from one advertisement to another. Vehicles with large, flat surfaces, such as buses and light-rail carriages, are fairly easy to work with, though smaller cars with curved surfaces can also be wrapped in this manner. Wrap advertising is available to anybody irrespective of the vehicle you drive.

We are currently seeking to employ individuals in the United States of America. How would you like to make money by simply driving your car or banner wrapped for PepsiCo. Drink®

How it works?
Here’s the basic premise of the “paid to drive” concept: PepsiCo. Drink® seek residents in the United States who are professional drivers to go about their normal routine as they usually do, only with a big advert for “PepsiCo. Drink®” plastered on your car. The ads are typically vinyl decals, also known as “auto wraps,”that almost seem to be painted on the vehicle, and which will cover any portion of your car’s exterior surface.

Don’t Have a Car?
If you don’t have a car, you can also participate if you have a bike.

What does the company get out of this type of ad strategy?
Lots of exposure and awareness. The auto wraps tend to be colorful, eye-catching and attract lots of attention. Plus, it’s a form of advertising with a captive audience,meaning people who are stuck in traffic can’t avoid seeing the wrapped car alongside them. This program will last for 3 months and the minimum you can participate is a month.

What is the Contract Duration?
Once the wrap has been installed, minimum term is 4 weeks and maximum is 12 weeks.

Would the wrap/decal damage the paint of my car?
The decal doesn’t damage the paint of car and will be removed by our representative once the contract expire. We will be responsible for installation and removal of the wrap.

You will be compensated with $300.00 per week which is essentially a “rental”payment for letting our company use the space and no fee is required from you. PepsiCo. Drink® shall provide experts that would handle the advert placing on your car. You will receive an upfront payment of $300.00 in form of a check via courier service for accepting to carry this advert on your car.

It is very easy and simple no application fees required. Get back with the following details if you are interested in this offer.

Applicant information:
Name :
Full Street Address(not PO BOX) :
APT #:
City,State,Zip Code:
Cell Phone Number:
Home Phone Number:
Age:

We shall be contacting you as soon as we receive this information.

Best Regards,
Roger Smith
Hiring Manager,
PepsiCo®
pepsi6973@gmail.com

A quick note of apology to my regular readers – my apologies for the recent postings in regards to scams. I know these may be somewhat boring to read.

These particular scams are huge at the moment and each and every day, hundreds of people find my website by searching for text contained in these emails or by searching for email addresses, names and contact numbers used by these scammers. For example, if you search on Google for one of the companies I posted about recently, this is what you get –

manheimy

This is super awesome because it means anyone searching for that company will know it is a scam once they click through and read my post about it.

Many people view just that one page which gave them the search result, and then vanish without commenting or contacting me. So if you got here searching for Pepsico, please do not leave without contacting me or commenting below. You are not alone in being scammed, so let the others arriving here know they are not alone, too.

Internet Safety, job scams, scam victims are not stupid, scams, Worried Snoskred

More About Manheimy PTY LTD

scam1

Thank you so much to the person who sent me more details. Since I posted about this the other day, a large amount of people have arrived here after searching for Manheimy PTY LTD reviews or company details or has anyone worked for Manheimy and even is Manheimy a scam..

As mentioned the other day, this Manheimy PTY LTD job is a scam.

There is a real and legitimate company named Manheim – the scammers sometimes will use a real company name just slightly changed.

They are using the email address – realonlinejobs@gmail.com

Here is the email they send to people.

——————————————————————-
Hi,
An online Home Based Worker position requires that you have a reliable computer with constant Internet access and capabilities, a valid E-mail account, basic Internet knowledge, and minimal typing skills.

You must also be able to conduct yourself in a professional manner. This includes having excellent grammar and spelling when communicating with clients via E-mail.

In addition to the above requirements, you MUST be able to follow /instructions closely and completely! You will do all contact via E-mail, so you will not be required to call anyone at anytime. This allows you to work whichever hours are most convenient for you (days, night, or weekends). You will be processing applications, as well as
filling out forms in specific company databases (this tends to be tedious at times, so please be sure that you have the patience to do so before proceeding.

This is why you will need to have basic Internet knowledge, though the training provided will give you step-by-step instructions on how to perform these tasks properly.

There are no “down-times” with this position, so you will have a constant flow of work to complete. THIS IS NOT A GET RICH QUICK SCHEME, so if that is what you are looking for please do not pursue this opportunity. You will be paid $50 for each application completed.

The amount of money you make each week is entirely up to you, and how much time and effort you are willing to put in with this position. The average person makes $2500-$12000 each week.

When you have been accepted as a Home Based employee, you are considered an Independent Contractor.

This means that your taxes will not be taken out; therefore, you will not be provided with any tax forms. THIS IS ENTIRELY YOUR RESPONSIBILITY. The training provided will go more in depth about what to do with your taxes.

You will receive your pay through PayPal or whichever online payment portal you choose. When an application is completed, $50 will be credited to your PayPal account, which can be withdrawn into your bank account at your leisure. You can read about the security policies https://paypal.com.

There is a one-time 60-days money back guarantee.fee for the training package in case you do not like the job. This also includes all the administration processing fees and training costs. We offer professional online support for as long as you may need us.

This is a one-time fee, and there will be no other charges to you. However, the fee must be received before you can gain access to the “Training Materials.

We must accept this fee to cover training costs, processing fees, as well as to ensure that only serious applicants apply. This is a /non-refundable fee, so be sure that you understand what you are doing before sending in your payment for the training Guides.

This fee will not be waived for anyone, and cannot be deducted from /your first pay. This is because if you do not process applications, you will not have a first pay, and we will have already taken the time to set you up, and train you. Once your payment is received, you will be given immediate access to your training Guides.

You will need a word processing program in order to perform this position successfully (MS Word, Works, Notepad, etc.) Once you have received the training materials, you can START working from home TODAY.

Most applicants typically complete the training within 24 hours or /less. However, you can do this at your leisure.

Keep in mind that the sooner you go through the training materials, the sooner you will START earning money. I will be able to be /contacted via E-mail at anytime after you have received your training materials to help you, or answer any questions you may have.

If you are serious about this position, meet all the requirements, and are responsible enough to work from home, then please contact me via E-mail and I will inform you of the cost of the training packet, and how to set up a PayPal account to send the fee (if you do not already have an account).

You seem like an excellent candidate for this position, and I hope that I hear from you again so I can get you STARTED right away!

Sincerely,

Ms Adrienne D. Evans

Human Resources
——————————————————————-

So, 2500 a week divided by 50 – you would have to process 50 applications. 12000 a week divided by 50 – you would have to process 240 applications. Seems legit, NOT!

Plus, in this very email – the fee you pay has a money back guarantee – and then it is not refundable. Hmm.

What Is The Scam?

In this case it seems like they are looking for people to pay them a fee in order to be “trained” – This is an excellent way to get a small amount of money from a large amount of people, and once a victim financially invests in a scam like this, they are much less likely to walk away from it.

My one hope with this scam is, not too many people will pay this upfront fee.

Paypal Scams –

They could also be looking to get your credit card details by sending you to a fake Paypal website. NEVER click on a Paypal link sent to you via email. Always type paypal.com into your location bar in your browser. In fact never click on a link sent to you in your email. Always type in the website yourself. :)

It is also possible that they may send fake checks to people in order to cover this “fee”. They might say that a client owes them money and could the job applicant process the check through their bank account.

Checks are also known as cheques or bank drafts, depending where you live, but we will call them checks for ease of calling them just one thing.

The check will at first clear. That is because the info on the check is legit, likely stolen from a company who put their details online. Later, and it could be up to a year later, the details will be found to be stolen and the company will ask the bank to reverse that check, and the scam victim will suddenly be without that money.

If you want to see some fake checks, visit this post – Snoskred made 5 MILLION DOLLARS online this year! – for more info on internet scams, see this post – Internet Safety & Scams – What You Need To Know.

Keep in mind the golden rule –

NO MONEY IS COMING TO YOU AS A SURPRISE VIA YOUR EMAIL INBOX.

I may update this post with further emails when I receive them. :)

What Should People Do Now?

If you are in contact with this company, stop emailing them. If they will not stop emailing you, try sending them this – just copy and paste it from here –

—————————
I am now aware that this is not a legitimate job and that you are trying to scam me.
Do not email me anymore – I have reported your emails to the local police and I will send any further emails directly to them. Do not mail me anything – I will not accept any deliveries that you send to me.

Leave me alone!
—————————

Be aware they may pass your email address onto other scammers, so you may see other scams coming to you via your inbox. There are so many different and varied scams, there is no way I can warn you about all the possibilities.

Just remember that golden rule above, and hit delete. If you think something might be legit, you can forward it on to me at snoskred {at} gmail {dot} com and I will check into it for you. If you receive too many scams, it might be worth changing your email account.

What If I Receive A Fake Check?

DO NOT BANK IT.

Please contact me in the event that this occurs, and I will advise you further. If possible I will ask you to send me a photo of the check so I can try and warn the company or people named on it, and I will contact the bank involved as well.

Please Leave A Comment!

Did you arrive here searching for Manheimy PTY LTD? Can you tell us how you found this company, or how they found you? Do you have any other emails from them?

Angry Snoskred, fake checks, Internet Safety, scam victims are not stupid, scams

Quick Scam Notice

I receive an email every day from Jobseeker, which is an Australian job search website. Todays email contained this position for Manheimy PTY LTD –

scamjob

On clicking through this is what I saw – however the job has already been removed from Jobseeker. Yes, this job is a scam! FYI nobody pays $50 an hour for admin work. It would be lovely if they did, but nobody does.

manheimy

This would more than likely be another fake cheque scam job, as seen here – Snoskred made 5 million dollars online this year! – the only reason I am posting about it is because people will be searching for this company and not finding anything that tells them it is a scam.

So let me be the first one to tell you –

This job is a scam!

If anyone arrives here via searching for Manheimy PTY LTD and you happen to have a contact email for these scammers, please use my contact form and give me the email address so I can bait them, kthx. :)

Someone did contact me and I wrote another post – More About Manheimy PTY LTD

Also, I have updated my post – Snoskred made 5 million dollars online this year! – so if you want to know how NOT to make money online, you should have a read of that post. :)

fake checks, Internet Safety, scam victims are not stupid, scams, wrong world

And Already..

cs1

people have arrived here searching for – is connected sky business assistant job a scam?

cs2

Many people will not be scammed thanks to that post.. :)

Thank you to the brave person who emailed me about this – it takes great bravery to speak up about these things, because so many people make assumptions about scam victims. They are being scammed by criminals. That is the only assumption we need to make about them.

That person emailed me yesterday asking

Why do you do all this?

That is a really good question. Here is my answer.

Because I deeply believe that nobody should be scammed.

I can’t always stop people from being scammed, but the least I can do is put the word out there and hope that people find my site before they bank the check.

I also believe the banks should take their share of responsibility with these fake check scams.

Banks have everything they need to figure out the check is fraudulent, yet they choose not to figure it out, and they often tell customers “the check has cleared” – and take zero responsibility when it “unclears”.

Customers trust their bank and rely on the advice they are given – that the check is real, and that is has cleared.

People assume if the check “clears” it must be fine, because they believe that banks have done some homework as a part of this clearing process and the bank has checked to see if the account exists and if the funds are there.

What people do not know is –

banks can bounce a check up to a YEAR after they have “cleared” it.

If the banks were the ones to lose the money, you betcha they’d stop allowing checks at all – or they would do their homework and make sure the check was real. Banks have hidden clauses in the terms and conditions that you as a customer agreed to which mean if a check is found to be stolen or fraudulent, then the funds go back to the bank and YOU the customer loses out on those funds.

However those terms and conditions and the fact that banks will not take any financial responsibility for clearing a check and then unclearing it means that banks are essentially partners in this crime and they are enabling the scammers to get away with this.

I have seen people get a letter in writing from the bank to state that the check has cleared and the funds are available, and even that does nothing for them once the check unclears.

fake checks, Internet Safety, scam victims are not stupid, scambaiting, scams

Scam Advice.

scam1

I received an email today from someone in the USA who had found my fake check article and wanted to know if they were being scammed. As soon as they told me what was going on, I knew the answer was yes. Luckily, they had not received the check yet, and they will not be depositing it when they do. This scammer will be hearing from me as a surprise, instead..

I asked the scam victim to forward on the emails to me, so that I could post them here – this way any other potential victims can find these details and know right away that it is a scam.

Scammer Email #1

From: DONALD CRAIG {diesel@mail.wowway.com} (1)
Date: Fri, Jan 23, 2015 at 2:50 PM
Subject: PART TIME JOB OFFER
To: (2)

If you are organized and honest, you can make three hundred dollars
($350) (3) a week, as a business assistant.Reply for more details .

Please all replies should be forwarded to donaldcraig18820@gmail.com

And please include your phone number.

Thanks
Donald Craig

Warning Signs #1

So, let us take a quick look at the clues here which point to this being a scam.

1. Donald Craig is emailing from one address (diesel@mail.wowway.com) and asking people to reply to a different address (donaldcraig18820@gmail.com) – Scammers do this because there is a very good chance the email address they are spamming people from will be closed down.

2. There is no name or email address in the To field. This gives the sign it is being blasted to multiple email accounts at the same time.

3. You can make three hundred dollars ($350) <-- one of these is not the same as the other. :) The person replied to the email with a brief note saying they were interested and they would like to know more. They received this reply -

Scammer Email #2

From: Donald Criag (1) <donaldcraig18820@gmail.com>

Hello {NAME},

Thank you for your reply.

Here is a brief overview of who we are and what we do. We are a Europe (2) based company, offering business consultancy services to numerous clients across the globe like auditing, accounting, investment counsels and particularly offshore incorporation services. You can read more about us below:

Snoskred deleted the link as these sites can sometimes contain malware and simply will say Connected Sky is the name of the website.

With an increase in our customers from different parts of the globe, the expansion of the company has made it essential in recent times to employ part-time representatives (reps) in different geographic locations where we render service. The current expansion is what has created job opportunities like this for people like you.

We currently have 12 agents i.e. certified accountants in the United States AND CANADA (3) working for the company. These agents periodically require materials like envelopes, files and stamps to carry out their daily job.
They shall email you whenever they need these materials and also state precisely which type of materials and the quantity they shall need.

Your job as a ‘rep’ is to contact the supplier through email to make orders for the materials requested for and also state the quantity that should be mailed to the agents address through post. (A standard supplier has been contracted to be making available these materials)

An agent can only order for materials once a week.

It has become quite untidy having 12 different agents, contacting different suppliers at different times for materials. It has not brought about accurate accountability for (ConnectedSky). We are employing you so all agents place their order with one person- You, and the supplier gets the orders placed, from that same person- You.
Having an employee like this in place would bring about precise accountability for the company, as we get to know what is been ordered and what is been supplied, and plus it saves us time. You shall be keeping a record of what an agent orders, and also a record of what you ask the supplier to provide. (Of course the logs have to match, as you are expected to ask from the supplier only what the agents’ demand).

Please note that all costs of supplies, shall be handled by the company, and at no time whatsoever shall you be asked by (ConnectedSky) to pay any charges or hidden fees- NO!.

Salary/wages payment: $350 weekly will be paid to you in form of cheque.

Just like we said, it is a flexible online/ ’work from home’ job compatible even with undergraduates as it does not require having a college degree, so long as you are computer literate, you have an email and you can keep records.

Agents will only contact you for materials during the weekdays.

We will always email you guidelines and instructions to follow in getting your job done perfectly when you start working.

If you still care to proceed with the job, get back to us with your information listed below then we can proceed from there.

1, NAME: (4)
2, CONTACT ADDRESS,
3,CITY,
4,STATE,
5,ZIPCODE:
6, MOBILE:
7, AGE:
8, SEX:
9, EMAIL ADDRESS

Please all replies should be forwarded to (5)

And please include your phone number and all replies should be forwarded to this email

And you can reach me on this number 7072603466

I will be waiting to hear from you soon.

Regards,

DONALD CRAIG

Warning Signs #2

So what clues have we been provided in this email?

1. Donald Criag – most people know how to spell their own name. If it is mis-spelled, chances are, this is not their real name.

2. Europe is not a country. Real companies would say they are based in COUNTRY not CONTINENT. EG We are based in Germany.

3. Capital letters as a surprise out of nowhere are a dead giveaway.

4. The part with 1, NAME: – if you ever receive an email that asks you to supply details in that kind of format, you can be certain that it is a scam. No legit employer would ever ask for your details in this manner.

5. Please all replies should be forwarded to blank? Forget to put something in there, did you, scammer?

If you go to the supplied website, it looks legit until you do some googling and then you discover that other sites out there have the exact same text.

Google A Line Of Text

Taking lines of text from this email and searching for them can be quite interesting. For example this line –

Please note that all costs of supplies, shall be handled by the company, and at no time whatsoever shall you be asked by (ConnectedSky) to pay any charges or hidden fees- NO!

comes back with these results – and you’ll quickly note the brackets contain many and varied company names within the exact same sentence –

Please note that all costs of supplies, shall be handled by the company, and at no time whatsoever shall you be asked by (sovereigngroup Ltd) to pay any charges or hidden fees- NO!

Please note that all costs of supplies, shall be handled by the company, and at no time whatsoever shall you be asked by (HI Audit Kyriacou & Partners) to pay any charges or hidden fees- NO!

Please note that all costs of supplies, shall be handled by the company, and at no time whatsoever shall you be asked by (Global Consultants) to pay any charges or hidden fees- NO!

Please note that all costs of supplies, shall be handled by the company, and at no time whatsoever shall you be asked by C&N to pay any charges or hidden fees- NO! – in this case there are no brackets, this scammer is likely the one who wrote the “script” to begin with.

What Script?

Scammers work on a script. When one of their gang finds the script to be successful, they will pass it on to other gang members who will use it – just changing their name, email address, phone numbers and the company name.

Scammer Email #3

Hello {name},

Thank you for the reply.

Your Details have been taken down and passed over to the admin. They have processed and reviewed your application so you can begin work immediately.

Please be informed that you will be working as the company’s representative in your location. Nothing hectic, as your recruit manager I’ll be giving you guidance every step of the way and attending to your every question until you get the complete hang of it.

Secondly, at this juncture I need to know through which channel, would you prefer receiving your salary- via check or via direct deposit?

We usually recommend paying via check, and I advise you select that also. As a straightforward and transparency principle, this way we can keep the working relationship as open and as simple as possible. (It is also via cheque (1) payments that the company shall fund you the money needed for ordering materials, which you shall pay to the supplier).

Note that your first salary shall be prepaid, (2) which means that your salary shall be included in the first check you receive and you will be paid as you start. Your salary after that shall be paid weekly, on Fridays.

Lastly, let me know if you can get started this week?

And please include your phone number and all replies should be forwarded to this email

And you can reach me on this number 7072603466 (3)

I will be waiting to hear from you soon.

Regards,

Donald Craig

Warning Signs #3

1. Note the two different spellings of check & cheque. It is spelled cheque in my own country but most of the scam victims I speak with are in the USA. I’ve often struggled to make sure I spell it as check myself and I am not trying to scam anyone. :)

2. They are going to give you money for doing nothing? Prepaid salary is not something legitimate jobs do.

3. Why is the phone number on the web site for Cyprus, and this one is for the USA? Both numbers divert to Nigeria, via a redirection service, by the way.

Scammer Email #4

Hello {name},

I got the response from the admin department earlier today and all your details with the company have been entered on there.

Please be notified that the company would be sending you a cheque to the residential address which you provided for you to purchase the necessary materials that our agents have been placing orders for.

The company shall also include in the cheque, your first salary of $350.

Note that your other salaries after this shall be paid at the end of the week- on Fridays.

The cheque shall be forwarded to you via courier and which begins this week Tuesday

Feel free to ask any questions and kindly stay close to your email, as I shall be mailing you at intervals.

Please all replies should be forwarded to (1)

And please include your phone number (2)

DONALD CRAIG

Warning Signs #4

1. Again no email address to forward replies to.

2. You have already provided your phone number, a couple of emails ago.

Scammer Email #5

Hello {name},

Check (1) for the supplier has been mailed out to your address you shall receive it this week Tuesday which is tomorrow.

The Cheque (1) is from one of our clients who is making part payment for auditing and account review services rendered by us. (2) You shall deduct your salary of $350 and pay the supplier the remaining funds.

As soon as you receive the Check, go straight to your bank and deposit the cheque at your bank. You’ll need to enquire from the bank when the funds would be available for withdrawal in 24 hours.

Here is the tracking number UPS.COM {number}

Use it to monitor exactly what time the package would arrive at your address.

Note that the funds would be available for withdrawal or 24/48 hours after you have deposited it into your bank account.

kindly send me me a reply or text me so i will be able to know when the funds would be available so i can get the name and location of the supplier and send them to you.

After you must have received the funds, keep your salary in your bank account (which is $350)

You can text me or call me on my this number (707) 676-3105 (4) to update me on the step after you have gotten back to me with reply from the bank

Would be waiting to hear from you soon.

Regards

DONALD CRAIG

Warning Signs #4

1. Again the check/cheque misspelling.

2. So now you are receiving a payment for the company and processing that via your bank account. Money laundering, anyone?

3. “kindly” is a word the Nigerians use a lot, along with “I will like to” “update me urgently” “compliments of the season” “modalities” and a few other catchphrases.

4. 7072603466 was the number previously given. Now we have a new number? And note it is written differently as well. (707) 676-3105

It was at this point that the scam victim became suspicious and did some googling – and they found my website as a result and sent me an email reaching out for assistance. Thank the deities, they will not be scammed. But for every one person who reaches out, there are thousands of people who do get scammed.

The scammers are constantly coming up with new scams – here is one which talks about wrapping your car in advertising to be paid a weekly amount via cheque and when you read through the comments there you will see hundreds of people who fell for it..

The Only Answer

Banks need to stop allowing checks / cheques / bank drafts. Full stop, end of story. There is no reason in these days of electronic funds transfer for this form of payment to be used. Allowing it simply allows the scammers to get away with these scams – especially when the bank is often a willing participant, telling people checks have cleared when they can bounce up to a year later!

Until then, you have to protect yourself, and here is the best advice I have seen on this subject – though I have added a rule #7 just to make things perfectly clear.

How To Avoid Fake Job Scams

Bitter Bastard said it best in their reply here

“Rules to follow” to avoid most fake jobs:
1) Job asks you to use your personal bank account and/or open a new one.
2) Job asks you to print/mail/cash a check or money order.
3) Job asks you to use Western Union or moneygram in any capacity.
4) Job asks you to accept packages and re-ship them on to anyone.
5) Job asks you to pay visas, travel fees via Western Union or moneygram.
6) Job asks you to sign up for a credit reporting or identity verification site.
7. Job asks you to deposit a check into your personal account.

Avoiding all jobs that mention any of the above listed ‘red flags’ and you will miss nearly all fake jobs. Only scammers ask you to do any of the above. No. Exceptions. Ever. For any reason.

Wait! I’m being scammed by Connected Sky

Did you find this post searching for something like “is connectedsky business assistant job a scam” – the answer to that question is yes – this is a scam. There is no job. You will be sent a fraudulent check, and they want you to send them money because your bank will clear the check at first.

If you have banked a check from them –

but you still have the money and have not sent it anywhere – PUT THAT MONEY BACK IN YOUR BANK RIGHT NOW. Do not send any money via Western Union or Moneygram.

If you have banked a check from them –

And you have sent the money via Western Union or Moneygram, then you may wish to seek legal advice. I strongly suggest that you do so as a matter of urgency, because..

In the USA, scam victims can be arrested for banking a fraudulent check.

Even the FTC in the US gives out incorrect information re check scams – they say “The bottom line is that until the bank confirms that the funds from the check have been deposited into your account, you are responsible for any funds you withdraw against that check.”

This is UNTRUE –

even if the bank confirms the funds have been deposited, the bank can undo the transaction at any time when they discover the check was stolen or fraudulent – even up to a year after they “cleared” it. But you did not know this, and nobody ever tells anyone this.

If you are not willing to seek legal advice, the only advice I can personally provide to you is to print out all the emails you received and the emails you sent, print out that page from the Federal Trade Commission and keep it somewhere safe for if/when the police eventually turn up on your doorstep.

but be aware –

and I want to make this very clear –

You will have to pay this money back to the bank eventually. The sooner you make arrangements to do this, the better.

Please Leave A Comment

If you have been in contact with these scammers, telling others about your experience, so that they can know they are not alone.

Every single day, several people are finding this post by searching for the text, email addresses, phone numbers, or company name contained within this post. If you are one of these people, please comment to let us know what you searched for and what led you here.

If you need further advice, please leave a comment on this post, or use the contact form to get in touch with me.

fake checks, Internet Safety, scam victims are not stupid, scambaiting, scams

Please Help! What You Can Do To Stop Internet Scammers NOW.

I’m going to ask everyone reading this to do something for me today at the bottom of this post. One of the first posts I read in my Google Reader today was from Christine’s blog. thirtysomething had a nasty scam experience.

Honestly, it makes me feel so useless. Here I sit, a friend of Christine’s, a scambaiter, someone who has tried here on my blog to educate people about scams, and just one degree of separation later here is a friend of Christine’s *almost* being scammed. I say almost because she did not lose any money that I know of – but worse still she quit a real job to take a fake one.

Educating people about scams online is one of the most difficult things I have ever done in my life, because every time I think the word is getting out proof comes back to me as a surprise that it is not.

I have the knowledge to stop people from being scammed but it still isn’t enough. I can’t make the word go far enough. I can’t seem to get other people to write about the scams and link back to information I have here on the site about them.

The elderly, the stay at home Mom’s, the disabled, the depressed, the lonely, the vulnerable – these are the people who get scammed the most.

Experiences like the one thirtysomething had are why I still bait scammers. This is why I volunteer at victim support websites. This is why Sephy and I have spent the last 5 days furiously working to get a new scam warning website online.

I hear about terrible things happening to scam victims every single day. It could have been a lot worse. Just recently I spoke with an elderly lady who lost her entire life savings when a fraudulent check bounced. Scam victims are often arrested for check fraud. That is why I try to get the word out there on the internet so that people are not scammed.

What You Can Do Now –

Let the readers of your blog know about the Scam-O-Matic – a web form which can look at an email and tell you if the email looks like a known scam. Is this email a scam? Ask the Scam-O-Matic

Report Your Scammer Emails Online

I heartily encourage anyone receiving scam emails to report them via the Scam-O-Matic. The scam-o-matic can be found here – The scam-o-matic – all scammer email addresses and emails put into the scam-o-matic are added to a blacklist which can save other people from being scammed. Many scammer email addresses reported via these means are baited by scambaiters.

Reporting Scam Emails is the number one way you can hurt scammers.

You can also report scams to the blacklist in other ways, take a look here for options.

Other ways YOU can help!

Steal This Post

Steal This
If you want a text copy of this blog post all ready to go in html format that you can simply copy and paste into your blog you can find it by clicking right here Steal This Post. I don’t normally encourage “content theft” but this is for a good cause. Please Steal This Post. Encourage your readers who may not know me from a bar of soap to do the same. Don’t make me beg. ;) Help stop internet scams today.

Further Reading And Viewing –

About the 419 Scam
Scam Victims United

scam victims are not stupid, scams

Snoskred made 5 MILLION DOLLARS online this year!

thecheck

This article is a must read, not because I’m going to tell you how you can make your OWN 5 million online but because I have some very important information for you.

What I want to talk to you about is how NOT to make money online.

I currently have 5 million dollars worth of fake checks in my possession.

In some countries these are called bank drafts, or cheques*. Truly, I do have them. I’ll give you a link to take a look at them a little further down the page and there’s some photos here in this article too. They came to me from scammers on the internet, who I scam baited – that means I pretended to be a real victim.

I don’t suggest you do the same thing but I do suggest you read this article and please help me to get the word out there on the internet about this scam and other scams. Below I talk about some of the ways you can help.

Something you may not know about checks –

When banks say a check has “cleared” they simply mean the funds are available to you.

The funds being made available is no guarantee of the check being good.

A check can bounce up to a *year* after you bank it.


Seriously! The funds are available to you because in many countries (e.g. the USA, Australia and others) the funds have to be made available by law, however if it turns out to be counterfeit or stolen or the issuer does not have sufficient funds in their account the bank will quickly make the funds UNavailable to you. If you have spent the funds, they will put you into the minus – and charge you for that as well, usually. If you did bank a fake or stolen check at first it would seem to clear, the funds would be there for you to withdraw and spend.

Don’t trust that teller –

You might even ask the teller – has this check cleared, and you would usually be told YES – absolutely it has. Just like most victims this happens to. They do not get training in this area. In fact most people who work in banks don’t know how checks really work. The scammers DO know how checks work and they make full use of this lack of education.

How you get the fake check –

– A scammer might email you with a work at home job offer like a payment officer, a company representative or book keeper.
– You may apply for a job you have seen advertised.
– You may be selling something online (possibly via Ebay or Craigslist or Etsy but these scammers will try anywhere you can sell things).
– You might be a breeder of dogs, cats, any animal – they will pretend to want to buy one of the animals.
– You might have a rental house or holiday home and they pretend they want to rent it from you.
– There’s thousands of other possible scenarios but essentially it boils down to someone you don’t know wanting to pay you.
– They don’t just use checks either – they may offer money orders or travellers checks.
– Often they will send a check for more than the item you are selling is worth, and they want you to send the balance back to them. They will use many excuses for doing this.
– They may send you a check and once it has cleared they will no longer want the item – someone in their family will be ill or die and they need the money back urgently
– They will usually want you to send the money by Western Union, Moneygram or deposited into a bank account they give you.

When you send the money –

So the check has cleared, and you figure everything is fine if the bank says the check has cleared. Some victims have even asked to have it in writing, because they were so sure the check would *not* clear. Victims have been given confirmation in writing only to find having something in writing from the bank won’t help when things go wrong.

Within days, weeks, months, up to a year later the bank will find it was counterfeit or stolen and they will take the money back and hold YOU responsible. In the US, you could actually be arrested for check fraud. Many scam victims have been – an example and a good article here.

About my checks –

The Nigerian 419 scammers have been very helpful to me because they have sent me an awful lot of fakes – fake checks – cheques – bank drafts – money orders – travellers checks. Some good, some terrible. When I started out trying to collect a few fake checks I thought it would be cool to hang them on a wall, sort of like a gallery of fraudulent instruments. And so I did..

ce3

I now have so many I would need to actually devote a room full of walls to it. These are in addition to the ones hung on my wall already. I laminate them so they’ll stay in good condition.

smalls

bigs

Here’s a bit of a closer look at the 16 new fraudulent instruments from scammers I just laminated today. Click on this picture for a much larger view.

alltogether

You’ll note there is a lot of pink painting done on these checks – that is because scammers only need a few vital details in order to counterfeit a check. These are generally your name and your bank account information. When that information is present on a real-looking check, the bank will always pay it! The scammers don’t need to steal checks, they just print them out.

NEVER give out your bank details online.

Many companies have their details available on the net in case you want to make a payment to them – and scammers take full advantage of that. They make checks with the details of those companies and often these checks take the longest to bounce – it isn’t until the accountant spots the transactions later that the bank will find out the checks were not written by the company. That is why most of these checks have company names on them. I always contact the companies whose names appear on the checks to let them know what is going on.

How Snoskred baits check scammers –

– I use a safe post office box which cannot be traced back to me – do not try this at home, readers, for your own safety. These guys are criminals. Giving them your home address to send fake checks to is NOT a good idea.
– I use a special tool to bait the scammers. This involves minimum effort on my part. The tool does all the baiting for me. All I have to do is click my mouse once, and then checks come to me as a surprise in the mail. The tool takes care of all communication with the scammer, writes the emails, sends them, and it is truly amazing.
– If you want to try baiting scammers, websites like 419eater and theScambaiter have mentor programs which can get you baiting safely. Please don’t try it without knowing how to stay safe. Nobody wants a scammer turning up on their doorstep.

Just one other note..

about assuming scam victims must be stupid.. ;) Don’t assume, it makes an ass out of you and me, as the old saying goes.

Thousands of new people visit the internet for the first time every day. Many of the new visitors are elderly or have just retired and figure now is a good time to find out about this newfangled internet. These people have their entire life savings just waiting to send to a scammer who gets in and hooks them before they know it is a scam. Many scam victims are stay at home moms who are looking for a bit of extra income. Many are new to computers. Just because YOU are aware of these scams does not automatically mean everyone else is.

People fall for these scams constantly and it has nothing to do with intelligence or greed or any other things like that. They simply have not been educated that these are scams. The scammers are always thinking up new scams, so never think YOU are safe from being scammed – they might try something on you that you haven’t heard of yet. This happens to experienced internet users daily. Nobody is 100% immune – don’t fool yourself into being fooled by a scammer.

You have to realize these scammers work full time on these scams – this is what they do for a living and they know how to get money out of people. There’s another problem in that people associate Nigeria with these scams – and the scammers know this, so they pretend they are elsewhere in the world. So some people who know about NIGERIAN scams think – this has nothing to do with Nigeria, this person is in the UK, US, Europe, Australia, it must be ok.

Many scammers use FREE services like this to get a UK telephone number which redirects to their Nigerian mobile phone. So a victim calls a UK number to speak to them – never knowing their call is redirected to Nigeria. These free services are available for most other countries too.

The scammers are criminals, and the victims are victims of a crime – and they are unlikely to report it because people will think they are stupid. This means our law enforcement people cannot get an accurate picture of how big a problem this is.

Make sure you tell your friends and family about these scams – if you assume they know, you might find out you are wrong. If it happens to someone you love, you’ll realize I am right, it’s not about intelligence. It’s about lack of education – and YOU have the power to educate them.

How YOU can help!

– Mention today’s blog post on YOUR blog so all the readers of your blog can be educated on this important topic. Feel free to link to this post.
– Link to this article in my internet safety series which speaks about these scams.
– Ask me via my contact page to guest post on your blog on the topic of scams to help educate your readers.
– If you know anyone who has any questions about these scams I am only an email away. However there are some great websites on the internet that try to help as well – Scamwarners Scam Victims UnitedFraud Aid
– Let the readers of your blog know about the Scam-O-Matic – a web form which can look at an email and tell you if the email looks like a known scam. Is this email a scam? Ask the Scam-O-Matic
– Stumble this blog post with Stumbleupon, if you are a member.
– Email a link to today’s blog post to your friends and family.
– Now you know about this scam – there are so many others out there. Always ask if you’re not sure. The Scamwarners forum “Is this a Scam” is a good place to post a question you might have.

Further Reading And Viewing –

Avoid Fake Check Scams: Five Things You Should Know
Fake Check Scams
More About Job Scams – A Guest Post By Snoskred
About the 419 Scam
Scam Victims United
60 Minutes Australia – The Big Sting – story transcript of a now missing video story, well worth reading.
60 Minutes Australia –
The Big Sting II – story transcript of another now missing video

For those in the USA –

Consumer group warns of growing check scam.

Please note this quote in the above article by the executive vice-president of the American Banking Association: “Federal law requires banks to make the funds you deposit available quickly, but it’s important for consumers to know that just because you can withdraw the money doesn’t mean the check is good,” said Edward Yingling, executive vice president for ABA.”

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

If you had never heard of these scams before, if you or someone you know has been scammed, or if you have any thoughts on this topic, I’d love to hear from you. Comments are closed but you can contact me via email – or comment on one of the more recent scam related posts on this blog, which you can find under the Scams category, click here for the most recent scam posts..

* I apologise for using the word check though here in Australia we call them cheques, I’m so used to emailing US scam victims on this topic and they don’t know what “cheques” are usually. ;)

Updated 27/02/2015 – to remove dead links and put in replacement links

fake checks, scam victims are not stupid, scambaiting, scams

The Assasination Scam

Sephy got a great example of the newest weapon used by the 419 scammers yesterday. His baiting character – a very famous sports person who I can’t name for the scammers can google too – is apparently being stalked by a spy team in preparation for the execution team to arrive and kill him.

How does this scam work? Basically they threaten people into giving them money. The scammers tell victims that they have been paid money to kill them, but if the victim pays money they will not kill them. Of course the scammer does not even know who they are, where they are, or anything like that – he’s just taking a chance that this email will freak them out and make them pay money. Can you imagine an elderly person getting a threatening mail like that? Of course they pay. ;(

You can see the threat email for yourself here – Sephy’s Platzish

scam victims are not stupid, scambaiting