Job Posting & Other SCAMS
If you've received a fax (like THIS ONE, claiming to be from Flora Smith, Director of Information) or email (from Laura Stevens IRS .Public Relations) claiming to be from the IRS (or anyone for that matter) and requiring you to complete a W-8BEN, or other such form, it is most likely a scam. If the form asks for your bank information and your password like the above example that we received, then it is definitely a scam. If any form, person, or email ever asks you for your bank password or PIN, it is guaranteed to be a scam. Also remember to guard your bank account # carefully as well. If a scammer gets your bank account # and nothing else, he still has enough information to empty out your bank account.
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If you have seen a job posting claiming to be from VALIS International Trade & Invest, or VALIS Group Inc. or VALIS International Invest&Trade or Finance&Trade, offering to give you a commission for handling their clients payments, you should know that it is a scam. These guys have been defaming our good name like this for years now. They are scammers and they will steal your identity and your money. Do not tell them anything about yourself. Their emails claim to be from us, but their email addresses are all free emails (like valisinvest@aol.com), which are often shut down fairly quickly.
Some of the job postings look like this (posted on Jobster by Jeffrey J Winschel):
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We are an European company looking to extend in the USA.We are recruiting collaborators to help us test the USA market.Our company is specialized in large consumer goods sales.Minimum degree required: High School diploma. There is no fixed age.We are offering a chance to promote and accumulate an auxiliary income of US$4000-US$ 10,000.00 per month.We are offering a great home employment plan, if you already have a job and think that you still have time to carry our commissions please feel free to reply at this email for more details.It will take about half hour/day of your free time! There is no age or racial restriction. |
If you respond to the ad you get an email like this (someone emailed this to us for verification):
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From: Carlos Valiente <mailto:valiente_online@yahoo.com> Dear Job Applicant We are glad you manifest an interest in our job offer! You will have the opportunity of working from home and earn money...NO...you will not click on banners ...you will NOT stuff envelopes...you will receive money in the form of money orders and bank wires from some of our clients/sellers/resellers in your area and direct them where we instruct you to! You will have a commission of every sale/resale that shall pass through you! You will act as our local agent and you will receive full instructions so there is no chance that you will "mess up". You will NOT have to advertise online OR offline! All those things are already been taken care of by other people! That is a totally differnt department. All you will have to do is receive wire transfers/money orders and redistribute them to other companyies or people that we will indicate to you! Main Requirements: dynamic person = must be able to move around locally(must be able to go to a bank to withdraw money/deposit money), must be able to check his/her e-mail address daily - every 3 hours would be welcomed! WHO WE ARE: We are an Italian company that recently registered in USA under the name of VALIS GROUP, INC and we are looking for people to help us with our new distribution chain in U.S. We sell/buy electronic and consumer products (resellers) !Our main trading partners are www.ingrammicro.com and www.techdata.com HOW MUCH YOU EARN? 10% on each sale/resale we make! For instance: you receive a $1000 U.S. wire transfer to your bank account!You will withdraw the money and keep $100 (10% of $1000) for yourself !So it's an instant $100 earning! IS THIS JOB LEGITIMATE: ABSOLUTELY YES! For the first few assignments you will be considered as a part time employee based on a contract to hire.After fullfilling a few successfull assignments your percentage of earnings will increase and you will sign a new contract. If you have read the above job explanation and you are willing to apply please note we have a few questions for you and if you answer them with answers that suit our needs then you may consider yourself hired! 1. How many days are you spending per month out of your town? 2. Are you checking your e-mail on a daily basis?If not how often?If YES how many times a day? 3. Do you have a personal bank account?If the answer is NO can you open one with a bank in your area? NOTICE: You are welcomed to provide to us a newly created bank account, with 0 (zero) balance. 4. Are you able to go out of your home to a bank/post office nearby your area? 5. Upon notification from us that awire transfer/money order will reach you in 24 hrs or so will you be able to wait for it or go to the bank to cash it or withdraw the money?(Please note: we shall never ask you to stay at home 24hrs/day but you should be aware that our clients can not wait for us days in order to receive/cash checks/wire transfers/money orders/parcels). Also please note that we need people that have some spare time during normal business hours , so they may be able to go in time to the post office or bank or any other institution.This is a very important issue for us. 6. Are you able to move around your area fast enough ? 7. Will you be able to supply to us a valid scanned copy of your I.D. (driver's licence OR passport OR library I.D.) and a landline phone number in order to verify your identity? Best Regards |
What they'll do is send you a few small checks, which you deposit in your account and then wire or western union the funds to them in Russia, or wherever they happen to have accounts (sometimes they have people all over the world passing around the money before it actually gets to them, so it is hard to trace). Once you are comfortable with the situation they will send you a large check, which you will deposit then wire the funds to them, then the bank will find out that the check was forged and bounce the check, except that you've already sent the money somewhere else so you are left holding the bag, and owing the bank thousands of dollars.
If you come across a job posting where people want you to handle their money for them, you are guaranteed it is a scam. No legitimate company has ever, in the history of the world, had to do this to get their money. Transferring funds for third parties is a highly regulated industry in the USA (Money Services Business MSBs) and you are required to get a license to do it, and you have to keep records and report suspicious activity (file SARs) to the government, so you would be breaking the law and could go to jail for doing it anyway.
Remember, if it looks to good to be true, it probably is.
Finally, if you have already given out your SSN and bank details to these scammers, close the accounts you gave them the details about and contact the various credit reporting agencies to let them know that you have been the victim of Identity Theft. They will make a note of it on your account and will be more suspicious of any loan requests or account openings trying to be made in your name.
Be careful out there!
This is our real information: Trust no one else!
VALIS Group Inc Corporate Site
Members of VALIS Group Inc.: VALIS International, VALIS Domain Management, Eden's Roses
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It seems these people never give up, they only change their names. This is the latest Job Scam posting we've received. We've received many of these scam emails and they all seem to have a different gmail address, a few of them are: pointfocushiring@gmail.com, 4pointfocus@gmail.com, focusformat@gmail.com, pointfocusjobs@gmail.com, yourfocus1@gmail.com, infopointfocus@gmail.com. The FROM part always contains 'no reply'', at least so far...
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