Interesting -- I wonder what the scam is?

[jducoeur]

Just got a fascinating email -- a come-on for a job, which isn't that unusual, but clearly bogus. They claim to have gotten my resume from "the job site"; they are only willing to communicate via email; the email address is gmail; they never actually quite say what the company *does* in any detail ("the selling and purchasing of certificates of metal", which *could* be commodity trading but is a bit ambiguous); etc.

But it's moderately well-executed, with fewer English blunders than usual and without the usual obvious hard-sell. It doesn't even quite trip the "too good to be true" meters -- the salary they offer is just about right for me, which I suspect is pure coincidence, but they're not offering a million bucks. It's still clearly a scam, but not nearly as clumsy as most of them.

I do find myself curious what they're up to. Maybe they need your bank information to set up the direct deposit? Or some kind of criminal scam, and they're looking for some poor schmuck to be left holding the bag? Ah -- here we go: a thread about various permutations of this, under various names, including a couple of messages from some poor guy who did sign up. Sounds like they are using people for money laundering of fraudulent money transfers...

Comments

[ilaine-dcmrn.livejournal.com]

Yes. Believe it or not, the various online frauds are so successful, the scammers need an entire organization to get the money out of the country. It is pretty tough to trace too - all the cops find is a mule who has wired the money to Elbonia, keeping a commission for themselves.

[cellio]

I was going to guess either "small registration fee" or unfortunate payload in some attachment that they would undoubtedly send you. But money-laundering makes sense too.

[lecil.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I started getting these while unemployeed to. I wonder if everyone gets them, or if they do infact troll the resume sites for people who might be desperate enough to fall for it...

[jducoeur]

Well, they're clearly not just using resume sites -- I don't list on them. (In general, the sorts of companies I am interested in mostly avoid them, especially for the sorts of positions I look for. Nearly all of my jobs come from networking, occasionally with some help from head-hunters...)