A mass email Question

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Master Baiter Joined: 03 Jul 2007 Posts: 158

Ok, I have got this 4 times now. Its starting to bug me really - so i just want input, because I am thinking its a "we send fake cheque, you cash, send money to us and you get stuck with the bill" type "job. But I cant be sure because it really doesnt make it obvious.

Opinions?

This one came from a different name at a verizon address. I honestly dont know. Never seen one like it before - anywhere. (I usually only get the 'stock market alerts' - whatever that spam is about). Needless to say - a 'big company' with no website and a non related email address is immediately suspicious.

Quote:

Career opportunities with Capital Securities.

Dear friends,

Capital Securities. Company is proud to announce additional recruitment for Financial Representative positions.

Capital Securities Ltd has been servicing the financial markets for 3 years. We have achieved a notable level of success by hiring only the most ethical, the hardest working, experienced professionals. We are one of a select number of firms with an unblemished regulatory record. Protecting our clients' best interests is one of our highest priorities. And our financial success, and the reward for our team members, has been equally significant. If you are looking to work with successful team, please contact us by sending an email, with your resume attached, to [email protected]. Any submitted information or other communications will be kept in the strictest of confidence. We are currently looking for financial manager. If you are male or female, 21 years old and older, living in Australia, have any basic education... If you have 2-3 free hours per day (Monday - Friday)... If you are responsible and you want to earn good money... Let's work together! Your salary will make 8 % from each transaction during the trial period and 600 AUD per week + 8 % from each transaction if you will be employed. You will work in your city, no trips, no relocation. To get more details, send your CV and info according this email: [email protected].

Are you ready to turn your life around and make it a success?

Send us your Resume at [email protected] and grab your chance to become a part of Capital Securities. Team!

Should you have any questions regarding career and business opportunities with Capital Securities. please feel free to contact us and we will do our best to answer all of them.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Mike Graham, Coordinator of Capital Securities Ltd.
E-mail: [email protected]

Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2007 12:01 pm

Sounds like your common-or-garden money mule scam.

They send you a fake cheque.
You bank it and send them all but 8%
You lose what you've sent them when the cheque bounces.

Baiting Guru Joined: 08 Jul 2004 Posts: 11857 Location: UK

Yes, it's the good old representative scam, where you receive fake cheques, cash them, keep your 8% commission and send the rest back to the lads, we all know what happens then, you can read more about this type of scam on this page:

http://www.banksafeonline.org.uk/moneymule_explained.html

Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2007 12:03 pm

Smells like a cheque mule scam. You could send 'em a quick "I'm interested, what are the responsibilities" email from a baiting addy and see what happens.

Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2007 12:04 pm

A couple things throw up flags for me:

1. Dear friends
2. [email protected]
3. We are currently looking for financial manager (nice grammar)
4. If you are male or female (I think the odds are great!)
5. Capital Securities. Team! (for some reason, every single use of 'Capital Securities' has a period after it, as if they simply copied and pasted it throughout the email)

Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2007 12:29 pm

I specialise in baiting these scams. To do it successfully, you need a drop box. See the thread where I baited 100-200 at a time by using Bcc's and a nice fresh and large list. What I did there is to not reply individually to the e-mails, but each successive "response" I made moved the process forward.

Mass Check Bait

Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2007 1:10 pm

Herb is right. To bait these clowns you'll need a drop box. You can get access to some that are set up by members if you sign up for premium membership. It is the best $20 I spent. Nothing like seeing them rant when they think you have their money in pocket and can't/won't send it to them!

Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2007 1:40 pm

Hi XPS,

Essentially that formality about the cheque clearance time that the banks like to use gives an account holder a very false sense of security. If the cheque is dodgy then it may pass the cheque clearance time frame and yet still bounce later on, leaving the account holder spitting chips and holding the can.

Scammers know this and rort the system for all it's worth. I've extracted a little over USD$400,000.00 (fakey fakey) in about two months from these puss-buckets and will retire from the trophy securing modality side of it when I reach the one mil mark, but if you're thinking of getting some fakey cheque trophy's then I can PM you some intro emails from the more P.O. box (to AU) friendly lads amongst them. But most of them demand a residential addy.

Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2007 1:42 pm

There is no doubt it is a cheque scam. In a lighter tone I received this email tonight

Quote:

from Costa Coffee <[email protected]> hide details 9:57 pm (1� hours ago)
to Penelope Xxxxxxxxx <[email protected]>
cc [email protected]
date Jul 6, 2007 9:57 PM
subject IMPORTANT
signed-by yahoo.co.uk

Hello Penelope

I want to thank you for your sincerity, honesty and trust worthy in working with us. We are in receipt of your email and thanks for your prompt communication. One of our customers has made payment to you, which you might receive on Wednesday next week but I will get back to you with payment details.

I want you to make payment to our agent today. The agent has been paid before but he needs balance to supply us materials. Kindly make $450.00 to our agent today and you will deduct the money from the money you will be receiving from our customer next week. The $450.00 is very urgent to enable our agent supply the material before his departure.

Below is the information you need to send the $450.00 via western union and get back to us today with the confirmation of western union transfer to the below information.

Name: Richard Willson
Address: 262 packington st,islington
London N1 9HR UK
Amount: $450.00
Western Union Control No��

Please don�t forget to send us your name and address that you use in making the transfer as requested below.

Sender�s Name��..
Address��.

We are still waiting for any of your references to contact us and please do get back to us today with the $450 transfer confirmation to our agent for immediate supply.

Thanking you for your understanding and co-operation
Have a nice day

Is this guy an amateur or what?

Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2007 4:36 pm

I got one recently where they said they sent a check already and they wanted me to pay 2 people. I asked them what my address was, I haven't heard back yet. A lot of these I think are coming out of Canada, also.

Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2007 8:56 pm

^^ I've seen that a few times, too. They often get muddled, addressing you by the name of another victim. Sadly, that's an obvious sign that they get quite a few responses. At least in your case, they probably mailed a victim who'd already supplied his details, asking him for his mailing address etc again.

Sometimes, in a variant of this scam, the victim acts as an unwitting mule for packages, containing electronic goods, or other items, bought with stolen credit card details.

Master Baiter Joined: 03 Jul 2007 Posts: 158

Ok, thats what I thought. While it will be great to get all those evil rubber cheques off the streets, I am afraid a PO box is something i cant part with the cash for yet. ($70 odd here). If they dont put a return address, then I can get them all very lost in Aus somewhere (Back of Bourke in an empty stretch of road is good) - but other than that, best I can do is say its up fr grabs for anyone with a drop box.

As for the reply - as I said, my bank wont give funs unless they got funds, and they charge for rubber cheques, so I could abuse the smeg out of them for costing me X amount of $35 for all the fake cheques!

Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2007 8:51 am

Herb is right - a lot of cheque mule scams are run in Canada. The LEO's here bust them every week, and they have no idea how many are in operation at any one time. These operations are mobile, well-masked and sometimes very organized.

The victims are always investigated, but rarely charged due to lack of any criminal knowledge and intent. Banks, on the other hand, are not so forgiving to the victims.

It's also been found that the real profit for these (and probably 419) scammers is that they harvest enough personal information for the identity theft rings.

Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2007 12:20 am

I think we are now at the stage where we have sufficient soldiers, and enough followers to mass mail the bejabbers out of any of the obnoxious groups. My concern with the cheque scammers. are they likely to go after drop boxes if it starts to hurt.
Mass mailing must certainly disrupt some of these groups.

Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2007 9:29 am

If you're in North America and need a mail drop then PM me and we can make those arrangements. Wink