Job scams have been around for a while, but they've now reached a level of maturity where I feel I can describe them as a whole, rather than comment on each scam individually. I'll provide that general description here, so if you get a job offer that seems suspicious, you can compare it against my checklist.
The absolute common element of all job scams is the job offer. The job offer may arrive by spam, or it may be posted on a "legitimate" employment website (to the extent that such a website can be called "legitimate" when it fails to check the legitimacy of job ads posted there). Someone wants to offer you a job: typically the job requires no special experience, simple work, and good pay. Job scams are bait on a hook, so expect the job offer to look attractive.
There are, by and large, three possible job scam scenarios: pyramid schemes, advance fee fraud, and mules. I'll now describe the details of each of these scenarios.
Pyramid Schemes
The pyramid scheme job scam has been around on the Internet for quite a while, and they're no longer as common as they once were. These are also known as MMF (for "Make Money Fast") schemes. They're very easy to identify: the email or website pushing the scheme invariably raves on and on about how this may seem impossible but it really works, I didn't believe it but I tried it anyway and now I'm raking in tens of thousands of dollars per month, testimonial, testimonial, rave, rave, hype, hype, and so on.
If you read the thing long enough (there is invariably a LOT of hype to wade through before you hit the actual details), you find that the process involves buying a kit of some sort from this seller (a "marketing kit" is a popular term, or "how to sell on the Internet", or similar). This kit is fundamentally worthless junk, but you make money by on-selling it to others. It's basically a chain letter with a worthless product thrown in the mix to make it look more like a sale.
Key identifying features of a pyramid or MMF scam:
- Lots of hype about how it really works. Lots of CAPITAL LETTERS and exclamation marks!!!!! IT REALLY WORKS!!!!!
- Lots of testimonials from people who went from debt-ridden poverty to affluence by using this scheme. Is any of it true? Who can tell?
- Absolutely insane text sizes, colours, decorations, highlights, fonts, and layout. Every word on the page must SCREAM at you. They're trying to convince you to buy a MONEY TREE here!
- There is an up-front cost involved. Note well what this up-front cost is, because that's the nature of the business. Anyone who joins will make it their business to obtain this up-front payment from others.
FYI, a contemporary MMF spam can be found at my "Suckers Wanted" blog.
Advance Fee Fraud
Advance fee fraud usually comes in the form of a Nigerian 419 scam or lottery scam, but sometimes employment scams are used. In the advance fee fraud employment scam, you are offered a wonderful well-paid job with little or no experience required. If you apply, you are then short-listed for the job, and they ask you to send personal identification (such as a photocopy of your passport) and fees to pay for certain expenses involved in processing your application. If you willingly pay those fees, then there will be some excuse or another why you have to pay more fees, or pay the same fee again using a different method. Always more and more fees to pay, and no job, ever! The job is just a big lie: it's bait on the hook of advance fee payment.
Key identifying features of an advance fee fraud job scam:
- Your would-be employers are overseas. This kind of fraud is best carried out across national boundaries, so that police action becomes difficult to arrange.
- You qualify for the job, but in order to proceed, you need to send us MONEY.
- Your would-be employers probably want personal details as well. This not only makes them look official, but helps them engage in identity fraud, perhaps obtaining a loan in your name.
For a striking example of this kind of fraud, see the case of Starline Cruise, and also reports relating to fake corporate flight attendant job offers.
Mule Recruitment
And now, to the major issue: mule recruitment. This is possibly the most insidious form of job scam, because it really does look like paid work. There are two major variations on the scam: money mules, usually employed by phishing gangs, and goods mules (also known as reshippers), usually employed by Nigerian scammers. In both of these cases the catch is that the money or goods are stolen, unbeknownst to the mule. Thus the mule is unwittingly dealing in illegal activity.
In the case of a money mule job, the job offer will typically involve "payment processing", "escrow", or a "financial manager" role. The employee is to accept direct deposits into his bank account, and make out payments via a wire service such as Western Union. The inbound payments may also involve some other means, such as payment by cheque, if the recipient lives in a country (such as the USA) in which it's relatively easy to fool someone into accepting a fake cheque. (The cheque appears to "clear", but the bank later reports that the cheque is a fake, and takes the money back out of your account.) outbound payments, on the other hand, are almost invariably made by Western Union or Money Gram wire transfer services. These are hard to trace, and can't be reversed (unlike direct deposits or cheque payments).
Key identifying features of a money mule job scam:
- The job offer comes from an overseas company that wants your assistance to do business in your country.
- The job involves "payment processing" or "escrow": accepting money in one form, then sending it (minus a cut) to your employers via Western Union or Money Gram. This is the key risk, since the incoming payments may be fraudulent or stolen, and are liable to be reversed. Money sent via Western Union, on the other hand, is Gone For Good.
The last variation, that of the goods mule, is less common but just as dangerous. (Thanks go to Snopes for documenting it.) In this case, the employee is a "shipping manager" or similar, and the job involves being a middle-man for purchased goods. The employer arranges for goods to be delivered to the employee, and the employee is responsible for sending these goods back to the employer by bulk freight, usually to Africa, and usually on the pretext that this process saves money over having all the goods shipped individually. It sounds plausible, but the problem is that the goods are usually being obtained fraudulently, such as by credit card fraud. Handling fraudulently obtained goods in large quantities isn't a great career move.
Key identifying features of a goods mule job scam:
- The job involves receiving goods, and forwarding them somewhere outside your local legal jurisdiction, usually Africa. This is a bad idea, because you're assisting in the transfer of stolen or fraudulently obtained goods.
- Unlike the other job scams which involve no payment at all, or deduct payment from money handled, this kind of job will be paid in a somewhat traditional manner.
General Tips
General tips for avoiding job scams:
- Assume that any job offer which arrives by unsolicited email is a direct attempt to defraud you (and thousands of others, no doubt).
- Beware of jobs that promise great rewards for no special skills: they're bait on a hook.
- Beware of temptation: promises of money raining down on you, or fast easy bucks, or luxurious work conditions. These are also bait on a hook.
- Beware of overseas employers. If they're not within reach of your local police force, there's not going to be much you can do if and when they rip you off.
- Beware of jobs which involve being a middle-man, especially a middle-man between people inside and outside your national boundaries. You'll probably be acting as a buffer zone between the criminals who hired you, and the police who are tracking down their illegal activity.
- Beware of jobs which involve sending money overseas via Western Union. The modern scam artist prefers to receive money this way, because it's hard to trace and recover. If you're the sucker who made the payment via Western Union, it's likely to be your money that the crook obtains. Payments made to you, on the other hand, will have a distressing habit of being reversed at a later date.
