1st Bait Attempt Started - Impressive Scam Website

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 22 Sep 2008 Posts: 3

First time poster here.

After much reading and study of the baiting tips and University 101 items, I've started to tackle some of the emails that I have been getting offering me a job as a Payments Processing Agent. While many of the emails are poorly written and full of non-standard language expressions, one of the better written message's has been from a representative (Greg Mottola) of the Moon Group Inc.

Contained in the email are links to the Moon Group's corporate website @
http://www.moon-group-li.cn/e/index.php?page=r_1

My question is: Is this degree of work putting together this official corporate looking website well above the normal scam standard?

Their last email to me was as follows"

Quote:

From: Greg Mottola <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, Oct 2, 2008 at 12:31 AM
Subject: Re[2]: Wonderful job
To: <[email protected]>

Hello,

We appreciate your interest in Financial Agent position with

IMPORTANT: IN FUTURE PLEASE CONTACT ME AT THE FOLLOWING EMAIL ADDRESS: [email protected]

It's recommended to login into your email account and add [email protected] to verified sender's list. This is necessary to prevent delivering our messages into spam/bulk folder.

Firstly let me say a few words about our company.

The main strategic objective of Moon Group Inc. is to dominate in the
corporate market of internet trading by means of providing internet users with universal and versatile financial instrument of payment for goods and services available for sale in the web. The tactical goal of our Company is to ensure the most reliable security level and at the same time simplicity of use and availability. Complete information about our company can be found here:

About Moon Group Inc. : http://www.moon-group-li.cn/e/index.php?page=r_1

President's word: http://www.moon-group-li.cn/e/index.php?page=r_3

Management Team: http://www.moon-group-li.cn/e/index.php?page=r_4

FINANCIAL AGENT JOB DESCRIPTION.

The job qualification does not require any special knowledge, great deal of time or effort.

You will find detailed description of your future job following the link:

http://www.moon-group-li.cn/e/index.php?page=r_98

FAQ (we strongly recommend to read) :

http://moon-group-li.cn/e/index.php?page=r_19

Each Independent Agent is provided with employment benefits after successful probationary period (30 days). The employment benefits include:
- stock options;
- child care subvention;
- flex-time;
- business casual attire;
- professional development programs

Also you will be able to enjoy the following advantages:

-long term credit (up to 8 year period);
-free training in improvement of professional skills in international educational centers
-participation in incentive bonus programs
-unlimited opportunities for career promotion

Some important facts:

1. You don't need to invest your own money to get started.
2. Our Company undertakes to reimburse part of expenses which are incurred in connection with money transfer (WIRE or by Western Union/Money gram system) should money transfer charges exceed
3. At that, your net profit will amount to 5-8 of the total sum of payment processing operations
3. Each remittance will be accompanied by the invoice ensuring legal validity of transaction
4. The Company offers incentive bonus program based on results of work and including several factors, i.e. total sum of money transferred, payment processing time, etc.

If you are interested in the offered vacancy or have any questions contact me at [email protected]

Please read our FAQ before asking any questions. Most answers could be found there.

We sincerely hope to see you in Moon Group Inc. team as soon as possible.

NOTE: we are going to recruit only 3 people, don't loose your chance! Make a first step to your successful future today!

Sincerely,

Greg Mottola

Moon Group Inc.

Department of Employment

[email protected]

I was asked to post the email header information on the Fake Website forum. I have done so.

Baiting Guru Joined: 07 Jul 2006 Posts: 5727

Errors in grammar put aside, that's a pretty good website. I'm sure they copied it off of somewhere.

I like how every position but one is not yet available.

Some lads will set up websites to make their company look more legitimate. I'm sure that someone here will be nice enough to report the site to the hosting company and have it shut down. So get your email to them quickly!

The sad thing is that the lad(s) probably paid for this site with a stolen credit card, but they will still be out the time it took them to set the site up.

Nice find!

Not quite a Newb Joined: 18 Sep 2008 Posts: 38

Welcome from a n00b. Very Happy

Could you post the entire text of the e-mail complete with headers? In Gmail click the little down arrow next to reply then click "show original". It'll pop up the whole thing in a new window. Copy and paste it back here.

http://www.moon-group-li.cn/e/
http://air-group-inc.cn/e/
http://www.sky-group-official.cn/e/

are all the same as the (now defunct) www.idea-group-eu.cn

You can post it up on the fake sites forum or I can. I just did my first 3 yesterday and it's kind of fun.

Chuck Norris Joined: 11 Jun 2007 Posts: 1369

It's a typical Ivan mule/laundering website. This is a Russian site and not your typical lads. Could spot one a mile away with all of its flash. Laughing

Anyway, the meat n potatoes of the scam:

Quote:

Financial Manager
Location: USA, statewide
Is it available at the present moment: Yes
Employment type: Part-Time employment
The number of employees needed: 3 vacant places left

CANDIDATE REQUIREMENTS.

* not less than 18 years old
* internet access to reply emails promptly
* availability by phone (1-2 hours a day)
* a bank account to process payments
* good credit history with your Bank (new bank account is a possible option)
* absolute absence of criminal offenses or convictions.
* experience in the financial issues is welcome.

DUTIES.

We are searching for people to process payments coming from our clients. Moon Group Inc. shall provide an agent with detailed instructions relevant to payment processing operations, including full name of the sender and sum total in every particular case.

That's money laundering.

Now, to your question:

Quote:

Is this degree of work putting together this official corporate looking website well above the normal scam standard?

The Eastern European scammers normally do this sort of thing, the site even looks typical, and is not "above and beyond" most scammers of this type. In fact, the scope of their fraud websites and their scams is actually quite large. Sad

I just checked the Whois of the site. Unfortunately, it's got a Russian host, with the scammers having their own name servers set up, and the registrar is Chinese.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 18 Sep 2008 Posts: 38

So as opposed to "mark gets check -- mark WU's money -- check bounces" it's "mark gets check/cash -- mark WU's money -- repeat as necessary"?

And since:

Quote:

I just checked the Whois of the site. Unfortunately, it's got a Russian host, with the scammers having their own name servers set up, and the registrar is Chinese.

Does that mean it's harder to kill? Aside, of course, from the language barrier? Is it a matter of basically crooked web hosts knowing where their money comes from and liking it?

Is there a good place to read up on non-Nigerian scams such as this?

Chuck Norris Joined: 11 Jun 2007 Posts: 1369

This will actually be likely be money laundering as opposed to check scams.

Quote:

Does that mean it's harder to kill? Aside, of course, from the language barrier? Is it a matter of basically crooked web hosts knowing where their money comes from and liking it?

There are any number of hosts out there that are crooked, yes, or for whatever reason just don't take the steps to shut down fraud that they are hosting. In this case it might be harder to kill, yes. Someone from next door (Simon) has sent a letter to the Russian host. I believe he might have a contact there, so it might get killed for awhile, but there's no guarantee that it won't pop back up somewhere else, either.

Quote:

Is there a good place to read up on non-Nigerian scams such as this?

If it is straight up scam sites you are looking to learn more about, head on over to www.aa419.org which covers all sorts, not just the West African type of Advance-Fee Fraud. Money laundering (which this one would be), reshipping mule, courier, escrow--all sorts are covered over there. For this type of scam, here is a Google results for money laundering. For the escrow scams (usually Romanian scammers and this is what I mostly deal with) go to http://www.escrow-fraud.com

Posted: Thu Oct 02, 2008 10:02 pm

Compared to the rest, I've had a much harder time getting things shut down when the host or registrar is in China. Sometimes it takes sending the information a few extra times.

@Betty, is this what you are looking for?

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