Staff scam or no?

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Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 10:34 am

I got this email this morning and wondering if it's some kind of romance scam. A bit of background: I own a caf� that has several entries on various "Where To Eat" websites, which makes me half-convinced it's genuine (the contact email address is easily found) and half-convinced it's just another way of harvesting addresses and hooking victims.

=============================================
From - Tue Mar 20 10:13:27 2007
X-Account-Key: account2
X-UIDL: 190470
X-Mozilla-Status: 0001
X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000
Return-Path: <[email protected]>
Received: from scandium.switchmedia.co.uk (89.207.168.25) by mail-7.uk.tiscali.com (7.3.110.8 ) id 45FF1752003B64E7 for [email protected]; Tue, 20 Mar 2007 11:05:41 +0100
Received: from otrok.post.sk ([85.248.69.172]) by scandium.switchmedia.co.uk with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1HTbDZ-0007Ru-NJ for [email protected]; Tue, 20 Mar 2007 10:05:37 +0000
Received: by otrok.post.sk (Postfix, from userid 0) id 144A3BBBD5; Tue, 20 Mar 2007 11:12:06 +0100 (CET)
Message-ID: <45FFB28D.000001.16154@kamasutra>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: Text/Plain; Charset = "ISO-8859-2"
From: Tanicka MXXXXXX <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Subject: summer job
X-Priority: 3
Date: 20 Mar 2007 11:08:13 +0100 (CET)
X-Mailer: StringData
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
X-Spam-Score: 0.0

Hi, we are 2 students from Slovakia who are looking for a summer job.Last 2 summers we worked for premiere resort Sun Valley, Idaho,USA around hotels and restaurants so we would be interested in any jobs this kind. If needed, we can send you our CV`s and photos. We would be grateful for any information. Tatiana MXXXXXXXX+Milos BXXXX
=============================================

Should I reply with my proper email address or with my baiting account?

Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 11:33 am

try baiting account first, but so far it seems quite normal. Act normal, and as soon as WU comes up, strike.

Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 2:51 pm

foriegn students do work in resorts here.
I'm not sure they do blind job seeking, though.
the big resorts have established channels or agencies they use.
would you hire temporary help?

I'd respond with a baiting or disposable email account to see what they're up to.
could be interesting.
is it possible to get a work visa in time for summer?

could be an interesting scam.
maybe they'll hit you up for money, or are just looking for a means to get to the uk?
you should be able to verify the sun valley reference.

Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 6:44 pm

Thanks for the two replies.

I went for a standard "Please forward me your details and I will put them on file" response and a few hours later received the following:

================================================
From - Tue Mar 20 17:53:22 2007
X-Account-Key: account2
X-UIDL: 190519
X-Mozilla-Status: 0011
X-Mozilla-Status2: 10000000
Return-Path: <[email protected]>
Received: from scandium.switchmedia.co.uk (89.207.168.25) by mail-9.uk.tiscali.com (7.3.110. Cool

id 45FF1BF600557D10 for [email protected]; Tue, 20 Mar 2007 18:51:54 +0100
Received: from otrok.post.sk ([85.248.69.172]) by scandium.switchmedia.co.uk with esmtp (Exim 4.50) Id 1HTiS5-0004dN-6g for [email protected]; Tue, 20 Mar 2007 17:49:44 +0000
Received: by otrok.post.sk (Postfix, from userid 0) id 845CEBBF2E; Tue, 20 Mar 2007 18:55:34 +0100 (CET)
Message-ID: <46001F2A.000001.26291@kamasutra>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Type: Multipart/Mixed; Boundary = "------------Boundary-01=_2YQ76BPIJ1R88D67ZT6N"
From: Tanicka MXXXXXXX <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Re: summer job
X-Priority: 3
Date: 20 Mar 2007 18:51:38 +0100 (CET)
X-Mailer: StringData

--------------Boundary-01=_2YQ76BPIJ1R88D67ZT6N
Content-Type: Text/Plain;
Charset = "ISO-8859-2"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: Quoted-Printable

Dear XXXXXXX,

we are really happy from your interest, so we are sending you our CV`s and photos. We would be able to come from the middle of the June till the middle of the September, the exact dates we`ll know later according to the flight tickets and our university. If you need any other information, we will send them as soon as possible. We are looking forward to hearing from you.

Tania&Milos
================================================

Attached were four pictures (probably not stolen from a modelling website, I would say, although I haven't checked the camera, etc, info in them yet) and two MSWord documents that were created on a copy of Word that had been installed as licensed to "Tanicka".

Until further proof comes in, I'm going with genuine. Thanks all!

419Eater is my life Joined: 12 Dec 2003 Posts: 482

Your ESMPT IP does point to Bratislava, Slovakia. Still, that may or may not mean they are spam/scammers. Could be, maybe not. There are no reports on the web or in Groups-NANAS on that IP operating as a relay or anonymous proxy. I'd say you would need more information like their full names, phone numbers, or place of employment to verify.

Googling on each of the first 2 sentences of their intro note gets no hits, I'd say not a scam.