Job search tips : SCAM Alert!! Job Seekers Beware!

To all Job Seekers - Be awfully aware of employment scams. I was reading in the Los Angeles Times about Monster.com and Careerbuilder.com scams where people in the Ukraine hacked into these sites and are using various information about you.

Here is an email one of my friends sent to me and asked if it was legitimate.

Worldwide Express; building successful business, since 20th century..

My name is Janet Valencia and I'm the Chief Manager of Department of employment in Worldwide Express Inc.
We are a well-known international company, with more then 12 years of experience in mail and package forwarding, throughout the world. Also Worldwide Express Inc. is engaged in correspondence managing, distributing different goods worldwide, buying and reselling these goods. Because of our large shipping volume, we receive discounts from a variety of carriers and this makes our business run.
For now, we are expanding our courier network and for that, I have an offer to you, a vacant position for Correspondence Assistant/Manager.

This is a part-time job with a flexible schedule. You work only 1-2 hours per day.

This is work at home job. All communication will be online.

Job requirements: Internet access and e-mail.

Manager Duties: Receive and cash out PayPal transfers from our clients.

There's no entrance or any other fees. The company covers all the fees related
to this employment.

To the successful applicants we offer a position on a training period. This is the period when you will be training, receiving online support while working and being paid. First salary 3500 US dollars, plus bonus you will receive by the 28th day after signing the Employment Agreement.

If you are interested in this part-time job and would like to learn more about this position, please visit our web-site: http://www.w-express.us/vacancies.htm
Fell free to ask any questions you may have.

Thank You,

Janet Valencia
Human Resource Department
Worldwide Express

This is a scam! Look at the areas I highlighted in red. Look also at the spelling errors. What happens is that these people tell other unsuspecting job applicants to send X amount of money to your account. You must open an account and inform your 'employer' of this account number. You then keep a percentage of that amount and transfer the remainder to Europe. But what you are not told is that you will be responsible for paying for the insufficient funds when these people discover it is a fraud.

Monster and Careerbuilder claims they warn us in the Terms of Use that they do not scrutinize who uses their website. Employers pay a fee for X amount of resumes they wish to see. Safeguards are being developed to make sure employers are legitimate in the future BUT you should be aware of it now.

If you get emails such as these, DELETE tem immediately. Do not open any attachments and forward them to Monster or wherever job site you use.

Yeah I get these all the time and I found it funny that I keep getting them now saying that they found my resume on a job board when my account was put as private and no one can find it unless I initiate contact. Sad to think that people would fall for these though but I know they do - if I have time I actually love to send them a reply back saying OH WOW !! Really ? I can make that much money for 3 hours work a wek - wow please tell me more. lol They usually then send me a long email back which I just delete

My email is chock full of "that little blue pill can do you wonders" ads, "has your length grown since we sent you the sample" ad, "we can lower your credit card payments" ads and just last night yet another "MONSTER has a job for you" ad.

It is hilarious because 1. I am female so why do I need to take a little blue pill, 2. noone sent me a sample and I won't even comment on the first part of that ad, 3. All the credit cards are in hubby's name so I don't have any payments in mine and 4. MONSTER has laots of job leads, but they don't hire. DUUUHHH!

Anyway, I tried to forward the "MONSTER" message to Monster because it actually included the names and email addresses of two people I supposed to "reply to immediately" and I figured Monster would want to know them so that they could investigate further and received a Daemon Reply that they could send my email because their is a "virus attached that prohibits forwarding the message". So, I did my favorite copy and paste, but Daemon Reply still kicked it back to me because the virus is within the body of the email.

I ended up calling Monster to give them the details and the emails I was supposed to reply to but the dude I talked to didn't seem to understand why I was calling. I was reporting the email as fraudulent and he kept telling me that (use your best Apu voice) "yes, it is a bad mail. Please do not open, thank you"

I hung up the phone afterwards, looked at my hubby and son and said, "DOH".

Career Tips

SCAM Alert!! Job Seekers Beware!