20,000 Scams Reported MonthlyTo Internet Crime Complaint Center
- By Grey McKenzie
- Published Friday 18th 2008
Grey McKenzie
National Cyber Security Founder
Cyber security watchdog Grey McKenzie is one of the nation's leading Internet security experts.
Some of his clients include members of the Department of Homeland Security, State Department, Department of Defense & the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
His SpyCop security software products are in use by over 50,000 individuals & companies worldwide
To schedule an interview or consult with Grey call 850-708-7660
The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) is a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C), and the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA).
A tragic example of ordinary people falling victim to the predatory practices of unscrupulous scammers is the recent story of a Keller woman. She became involved in an Internet money laundering scheme and will have to repay over $38,000 out of her own pocket.
The only good thing in this story is she won't be going to jail..
You may say how could anyone be so stupid?
If you've ever been desperate to pay your bills, and have looked everywhere for a employment... without success, I believe most of us could fall for an advertisement offering good money to work at home on your computer.
The subtle twist with this scam was the scammers offered her a text editing position to begin with. This of course was to build here trust in them.
In this particular case it was a text editing position with a Russian dating company called "Dating Group".
What could be wrong with that?
Especially if you start getting paid for legitimate work.
Then she was asked if she wanted to make more money by becoming a local agent for the Russian company.
Why not, they had already established they were legitimate by paying her regularly.
The Star Telegram Online goes on to report...
"The Russian dating company, which she knew as Dating Group, sent her information on a job that would pay more: about $2,900 a month in salary, plus a 5 percent commission.
Third Party Receiver of Funds
A general trend has been noted by the Internet Crime Complaint Center regarding work-at-home schemes on websites.
In several instances, the subjects, usually foreign, post work-at-home job offers on popular Internet employment sites, soliciting for assistance from United States citizens.
The subjects allegedly are posting Internet auctions, but cannot receive the proceeds from these auctions directly because his/her location outside the United States makes receiving these funds difficult.
The seller asks the United States citizen to act as a third party receiver of funds from victims who have purchased products from the subject via the Internet.
The United States citizen, receiving the funds from the victims, then wires the money to the subject.
A tragic example of ordinary people falling victim to the predatory practices of unscrupulous scammers is the recent story of a Keller woman. She became involved in an Internet money laundering scheme and will have to repay over $38,000 out of her own pocket.
The only good thing in this story is she won't be going to jail..
You may say how could anyone be so stupid?
If you've ever been desperate to pay your bills, and have looked everywhere for a employment... without success, I believe most of us could fall for an advertisement offering good money to work at home on your computer.
The subtle twist with this scam was the scammers offered her a text editing position to begin with. This of course was to build here trust in them.
In this particular case it was a text editing position with a Russian dating company called "Dating Group".
What could be wrong with that?
Especially if you start getting paid for legitimate work.
Then she was asked if she wanted to make more money by becoming a local agent for the Russian company.
Why not, they had already established they were legitimate by paying her regularly.
The Star Telegram Online goes on to report...
"The Russian dating company, which she knew as Dating Group, sent her information on a job that would pay more: about $2,900 a month in salary, plus a 5 percent commission.
The job involved receiving money wire transfers from dating service customers in the United States and sending cash through Western Union to certain individuals in Ukraine.
"I wasn’t looking at this as clearly," Boothe said. "I had a touch of desperation."
She
was unwittingly using her bank accounts to launder stolen money.
The Ukraine scammers supplied stolen bank account numbers and routing numbers — which can be found at the bottom of any check — and she used them to transfer money from those accounts into the two accounts she had set up specifically for the business."
So what can you do if you find yourself in a situation like this?
Third Party Receiver of Funds
A general trend has been noted by the Internet Crime Complaint Center regarding work-at-home schemes on websites.
In several instances, the subjects, usually foreign, post work-at-home job offers on popular Internet employment sites, soliciting for assistance from United States citizens.
The subjects allegedly are posting Internet auctions, but cannot receive the proceeds from these auctions directly because his/her location outside the United States makes receiving these funds difficult.
The seller asks the United States citizen to act as a third party receiver of funds from victims who have purchased products from the subject via the Internet.
The United States citizen, receiving the funds from the victims, then wires the money to the subject.
Spread The Word
13 Responses to "20,000 Scams Reported MonthlyTo Internet Crime Complaint Center" 
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said this on 18 Jul 2008 2:16:28 PM CST
I picked this up and posted it on my blog earlier in the week. I'm currently searching about 700 spam messages a day for crap like this.
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said this on 21 Jul 2008 12:40:52 PM CST
So what if you only do the text editing and do NOT accept the position as a local agent doing the money wiring? Is the company legitimate as far as the text editing only goes?
Signed - dont want to be the next victim :)
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said this on 26 Aug 2008 8:42:45 PM CST
Be cautious! This Russian "Dating Group" sent an e-mail regarding the editing positions through my school system and it came via the Board of Education! I thought it was legitimate because our school system forwarded the mail to teachers. Fortunately I became suspicious and abandoned the edits after a couple of exchanges!
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said this on 04 Sep 2008 7:31:53 PM CST
no Kelly... that is a way to establish trust - get you thinking you are moving up in the company. I edited one text file and said to myself... hmmmm.. self... there's something wrong with this. A quick search on google and bingo! (see thread!)
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=28967348&postID=9192930998946643136&isPopup=true
stay away... stay FAR away!!
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said this on 10 Sep 2008 7:39:53 PM CST
I just received an e-mail today from Chris.Gallien@gmail.com advising me that a part time position editing text from home is available. I am to send my home address and contact information to shawna.dating@gmail.com to complete the application, and then begin receiving $7 for every 1KB of text I edit. I thought this was a great deal and was about to send off my happy response until I thought maybe this was too good to be true. Now here I've discovered this site, and sure enough the e-mail I received was actually signed "Dating Company." I can't believe I almost fell for this! Watch out for copycat scammers!
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said this on 18 Nov 2008 6:15:05 AM CST
Police Unit
Crime stoppers
Cameroon head office
National Capital,Yaounde,
Dear Sir/Madam,
We are contacting you to ask if you have ever been a victim to any scam or conn artist here in Cameroon. We have been specially assigned to trap and get all of them. We recently caught some of them now and they are presently in detention. If you have one been a victim, then get back to us with all their email addresses,names they used to receive money from you and any other helpful information. When they are caught,they will be judged and your money will be returned to you. Do not forget to specify the exact amount they took from you,
Thanks and we expect maximum collaboration,
Police Officer,
Interpol Unit Commander,
Yaounde Branch,
Cameroon.
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said this on 13 Feb 2009 12:09:51 AM CST
OMG........THIS HAS JUST HAPPENED TO ME....THEY SEND LETTERS FOR ME TO EDIT AND REWRITE....TASK #1 AND SO ON......IT CALLS ITSELF THE DATE GROUP AND PAYS $5 PER 1KB. THE MAN'S NAME IS MIKE LODGES AND THE EMAIL IS datng.grup.srvs; I AM SO GLAD I LOOKED INTO THIS OR I COULD HAVE BEEN THEIR VICTIM. THEY CLAIM TO BE FROM MOSCOW, RUSSIA. THEY EVEN GIVE AN ADDRESS AND SAY IT IS ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA!! THANK YOU FOR SAVING ME.
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said this on 18 May 2009 5:51:23 PM CST
In Soviet Russia words edit you!
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said this on 05 Jul 2009 1:08:00 AM CST
You know, one would think that since it IS a scam, that they would at least offer more then $7/kb. It was more work than it was wasn't worth. Let me get this straight, even if they do pay me the lousy $56.00, it will be someone else's money they stole and sent to me? Right? Let me know when somebody figures out a way to steal from them. My entrusting scam company is called Love & Wedding Agency: http-//www.wedding.ru. So look out for them too.
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said this on 05 Jul 2009 1:09:12 AM CST
You know, one would think that since it IS a scam, that they would at least offer more then $7/kb. It was more work than it was wasn't worth. Let me get this straight, even if they do pay me the lousy $56.00, it will be someone else's money they stole and sent to me? Right? Let me know when somebody figures out a way to steal from them. My entrusting scam company is called Love & Wedding Agency: http-//www.wedding.ru. So look out for them too.
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said this on 09 Jul 2009 4:28:46 PM CST
I have recently started editing at home for a guy that calls himself Tom Williams. He contacted me after I posted my resume on CareerBuilder.com. He did not give a specific city but does claim to be from Russia. The address he sends me the documents from and I return the corrected ones to is "acquaintance.hrmanager_williams@yahoo.com". This may be the same thing with different names. The company he claims to work with is a dating company with the web site www.acauaintance.com and the letters I edit are either signed with "Acquaintance" or "FairLove." I have only edited their stuff for 5 days and they are already asking me if I would like to also fill the "local agent" position. Most of the informaition I have from them is from the letters that they wanted me to edit, though. I have suspected that it was a scam from the start, but as an editing job as long as I was paid, I was ok with it. Besides if I didn't get paid for my editing work, I only lost about 30 minutes a day five days a week. Do you think that I should not even continue doing the editing? It sounds like others at least got paid for that part.
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said this on 22 Jul 2009 10:45:48 PM CST
they must be reported so that they will not continue what they are doing. also to those people who wants to date online, better be careful too...
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said this on 07 Sep 2009 1:44:39 AM CST
I also got same kind of mail. & I was almost into it.Thanks a lot saving me from this scam.
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