New Twist on a 419?

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Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 2:56 pm

Have I stumbled on a new twist (at least to me) in the standard 419 scam? I received an email offering employment that is obviously bogus (it seems to originate in China). Interestingly it wants me to use my PayPal account to handle transactions for them. There are several links in the email but the one that claims to be the application is the interesting part. Here is the link:

http://bestpaysolutions.info/vacancy.php.htm

Note the "Working Tasks?" section. Does that not sound like a 419ish set up?

I can post the entire email body if someone thinks they can go somewhere with this. Thanks.

Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 3:30 pm

Application sent for
This is a new twist for me too, I'm interested to hear what others have to say. I put on the prelim ap that I don't have a paypal mail yet.

Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 3:34 pm

Nice find wtriker!

This looks like a job check scam to me. You will probably be asked to cash checks, wire most of the money back, and keep a commission for yourself. Or it's an attempt to phish your paypal account. Or both.

Please post that link in the fake banks forum. It should be killed.

Read the stickies there before posting. Very Happy

If you kill it, you can claim a flag.

Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 3:36 pm

Looks like a variation of the check/job scam with a twist. Plus probably a phising tactic thrown in to boot.

(edit: Luckey beat me to it)

Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 3:47 pm

Nice find!

Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 3:48 pm

Nice find! The lad who spent all that time developing that site will cry when it gets zapped Wink

Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 4:26 pm

May not be normal type lad

Would suggest take possibly extreme caution with baiting interchange with this one.

One of documents is from Latvia.

Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 5:09 pm

vLads perhaps? I took a look... I'm not touching it with a ten-foot pole.

Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 6:07 pm

^^I'd wear protection before visiting that site, but shutting it down should be harmless enough. Baiting with the usual precautions should be fine too.

(I know that's probably what you meant. Wink

)

Not quite a Newb Joined: 17 Feb 2008 Posts: 25

This site is legitimate , if you read the FAQ on the web page you will see this

Quote:

Q. Can I be sure that money isn�t fake?
A. Yes. All operations are reviewed by our anti-fraud team.

If your still not convinced

Quote:

Q. Is your company legal?
A. Yes, it is. See it here.

Quote:

Q. Would all activities in which I would be involved be legal in the US and elsewhere?
A. Yes of course.

How much more proof do you skeptics want! Smile

Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 3:06 am

I've received a couple of those myself. Mother f*(&er$ don't know when to stop

Master Baiter Joined: 20 Oct 2006 Posts: 179

Is it possible to send a fake PayPal payment?

If it's not, the scam modalities are rather limited and strained...

...they require advance fees to sign up for the job?

...they require you to send your part of the transfer (to them) before supposedly receiving the payment?

...they use you for money laundering? Pay you via stolen credit card, receive clean payment from you. (Most likely situation.)

Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 7:46 am

^^ What luckey said. They send you fake or stolen cheques, allegedly payments from their clients. You send them most of the money drawn on the fake cheques via your paypal account, keeping a percentage as "commission". Some time later, the bank finds out the cheques are bad, and you get the criminal investigation and the debt. Paypal's been their preferred method of getting the money to them in more and more cases recently. Maybe they've been finding Western Union unreliable Wink

Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 8:02 am

Felix the Cat wrote:

Is it possible to send a fake PayPal payment?

Well, yes... but that probably isn't what is happening here

The vlads in question might shift to a fake cheque type deal somewhere along the line, but that might not be the goal here. Many of them have access to compromised paypal accounts, bank accounts, and credit cards; so money laundering is most likely how this scam will go down. A bit risky, depending on the source of the funds, but it could very well work for a short time- esp if the compromised accounts belong to a business rather than an individual.

Don't forget that this type of scam is "hard and fast", as the scammer is well aware that a clock starts ticking as soon as his victim cashes the first cheque/makes the first transfer. He knows that his vic will eventually either be arrested for fraud or have his/her bank account(s) frozen. His goal is to suck every last dollar he can out of his victim before the bank(s) and LEO combine to make the vic's life a living hell. Evil or Very Mad

Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 8:11 am

I applied for a couple of 'jobs' exactly like these last week. It's cheques. Incidentally, the WHOIS for the site suggests getting it closed down is a bit of a non-starter. Sad

Quote:

inetnum: 58.22.100.0 - 58.22.103.255
netname: CNCGROUP-FJ-FUZHOU-IDC
country: CN
descr: Fuzhou city, fujian provincial network of CNCGROUP
admin-c: FZ165-AP
tech-c: FZ165-AP
status: ALLOCATED NON-PORTABLE
changed: [email protected] 20071008
mnt-by: MAINT-CNCGROUP-FJ
mnt-lower: MAINT-CN-FZ28
source: APNIC

route: 58.22.0.0/15
descr: CNCGroup CHINA169 FuJian province network
country: CN
origin: AS4837
mnt-by: MAINT-CNCGROUP-RR
changed: [email protected] 20060330
source: APNIC

route: 58.22.0.0/15
descr: CNCGroup FuJian province network
country: CN
origin: AS9929
mnt-by: MAINT-CNCGROUP-RR
changed: [email protected] 20050504
changed: [email protected] 20050504
changed: [email protected] 20050504
source: APNIC

person: FU ZHOU
nic-hdl: FZ165-AP
e-mail: [email protected]
address: Fuzhou city, Fujian province, China
phone: +86-591-28363728
fax-no: +86-591-28363716
country: CN
changed: [email protected] 20060509
mnt-by: MAINT-CNCGROUP-FJ
source: APNIC

Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 1:43 pm

Felix the Cat wrote:

...they require advance fees to sign up for the job?

I've seen some of these that require up front payments to register, or whatever. Usually, it is quite low, and highly negotiable. They probably do that to filter out "jokers" and to lend a sense of legitamacy to the scam.

Advance fee revenue generally isn't the goal. They know that a lot of their victims are broke and need jobs. They count on that. That's what makes these scams so damaging. To get started, you don't need much cash, if any. In the first few weeks or months, you suddenly see some income and believe you have found an easy job. Then it all goes to hell and the next thing you know, you owe huge sums of money to the bank, and you're in a world of legal trouble. Evil or Very Mad

Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 2:56 pm

Why wouldn't PayPal and/or LEOs be willing to work with someone in a sting operation? Has anyone tried to contact PayPal on this since they are using PayPal to legitimize their activities? Are LEOs just not interested?

Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 3:21 pm

^^I reported it to PayPal. They will probably take an interest.

Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 3:23 pm

Since this involves PayPal, this is not a fake checks scam.

You will be sent payments funded by a stolen credit card, or a phished PayPal account. You'll withdraw the funds, WU the excess.

When the credit card victim finds out his card or Paypal Account was being used fraudulently, he/she will charge back to PayPal. PayPal will then come after you for the fraudulent charges.

At the least, your PayPal account is gone. They may even press charges against you for wire fraud. They're pretty nasty about people involved with fraud.

Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 6:40 pm

PsycheDelia_Smith wrote:

I applied for a couple of 'jobs' exactly like these last week. It's cheques.

Seriously. They wanted to send me cheques, and wire the money drawn on them via paypal. There's no one size fits all. These were vlads 'based in Hong Kong' too. What the heck, it's an employment scam, the same old thing.

There's often a tendency for us to state what the scammer's plan 'is' rather than what, in our opinion, it is likely to be, and this leaves the original poster more confused than he was with his own assessment of it. We can only post our own take on it, based on personal observations of similar things in the past.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 15 Mar 2008 Posts: 60

I'm game. I have an address in another town that I can use, and the name of my late father in law to use...

You all want to find out? I'll apply for the job...

Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 6:57 pm

Most people here would agree that using an address that's connected to you in any way is a big no-no. An address that'll ever be occupied by anyone else would be bad too.

Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 6:59 pm

The full email is posted in the Surplus 419 forum.

http://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=134252

Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 7:06 pm

@ guruofwireless: Be careful about addresses in other towns etc. Whoever is at that address now, or used to be at that address, or is at that address next, could be at risk.

The safest way to receive checks is to a drop box. The easiest way to get access to a drop box is to become a premium member. Several members here run them with all of the necessary precautions.

Edit: What PsycheDelia_Smith said, only not as quickly.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 15 Mar 2008 Posts: 60

Yeah... My father in law had a very common name. Almost as good as "Jim Smith".

And yes, the mailing address IS a box Smile

And no information will be given out about the box except to law enforcement... I know that for certain. So, it's my intention to find out what the hey they do, and also anything I get to help Law Enforcement will be done, of course.