Info: Corporate Flight Attendant Job Scams

Matt Keegan writes to inform me of a job scam he's seen, somewhat like the cruise ship job scams I've documented here previously, only this time offering jobs as corporate jet flight attendants. This is a case of advance fee fraud: the "employer" wants to offer you the job, but you first have to send them money so they can purchase an airline ticket for you to go to a job interview. If you pay up, you'll find there is no ticket waiting for you in the arranged place. Your money is gone, and that's the end of that. At the moment, this scam seems to be limited to one particular scumbag operating in the USA, but he's been at it for a year or more.

Be warned that job scams like this aren't limited to distribution via spam. Sometimes, as in this case, the scammers will use legitimate job marketplace facilities to post their job offer. If you want to avoid being ripped off, treat any "job offer" that requires any sort of money up front with extreme suspicion. Seek solid proof that such a job offer is genuine and legitimate before sending anything -- not just an absence of "red flags", but positive assurance that the company exists, is legitimate, and is represented by the person with whom you have made contact. Be doubly paranoid if the outgoing payment is to be made via Western Union, as such payments can be impossible to trace.