« Email Continues to Break | Main | The IRS Refund Phish »

March 07, 2006

I suppose that if you've been out of work for some time and are getting desperate, you might respond to the following spam. But this thing smells so badly, I can't imagine anything good coming from it:

Dear Mr(Mrs)! We are looking for an efficient and well-organised to assist our company in running bussines. This offer is part of a job-share working-some hours per day.You will have excellent word processing self-motivation, initiative and the ability to work independently are also essential, as is tact and discretion. Annual Salary 25-60K GBP. Bonus every mounth. Weekly salary about 1000-1500 EUR

Excellent Benefits Include:

-Paid Holiday of 20 days for the first complete year worked and then increasing by 1 day a year to a maximum of 30 days
-Paid over-time
-Defined contribution pension scheme (invitation to join after 3 months))

For further details please contact, Gretta Lourenz, director World Trans Inc
e-mail: [removed]@aol.com

My guess is that this is one of two scams. The first possibility is that you will be asked to fork over some up-front dough for supplies or other stuff that you'll never get—a variation of the advance-fee (419) ploy. The second possibility is that you will be asked to launder funds for some kind of international racket. I've read of cases like this in the past, where the laundering intermediary (you, if you take on the "job") wound up in the slammer here in the States. Both scenarios require "tact and discretion" on your part to avoid alerting the authorities who will either try to talk you out of sending 419 money or arrest you for money laundering.

Oh, and I don't think I'd be in a hurry to work for an international company whose "director" uses an AOL email address.