An unknown company who contacted me via careerbuilder.com - Page 5 - 419-Legal Fraud and Scam Forum

Mercenary · #41 (**permalink**) 10-20-2007, 09:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kylieann

I received an offer similar ...................... So, you are out the money plus any fees you must pay to the bank.

Dear friend this is not the biggest problem. A few years in jail is the worst problem if you are involved in such fraud case

kylieann · #42 (**permalink**) 10-22-2007, 08:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mercenary

Dear friend this is not the biggest problem. A few years in jail is the worst problem if you are involved in such fraud case

Good point Mercenary!!! Everyone here seems to be concerned about losing money, which is a good concern. But my first thought when I had received this job ad, which I neglected to mention, was that it sounded like some sort of money laundering sceme, which is illegal. Perfect for someone to send you money, you deposit it, and send money back.

aquirata · #43 (**permalink**) 01-23-2008, 02:14 AM

I received a prospecting letter yesterday and job offer today that were nearly identical to what was posted by Bob Loblaw (post 14044) except that the company now is "FT West Invest", and the "Human Resources Director" is "Michael McHugh". The prospecting letter was sent by the Monster Job Search Agent, and the reply went directly to hr@ftwestinvest.com. They use identical coordinates (physical address and phone number), only the US fax number is different.

Here are the letters. First the prospecting from Monster:

Quote:

We Have A Business Partnership For You!

Dear Candidate,

Whether you are looking for a job in your town or across the country, Monster is always working to help you land the perfect position.

Here is a Business Partnership you might be interested in:

COMPANY: FT West Investments Inc.

LOCATION: USA, CANADA

JOB TITLE: Executive Financial Manager (Business Partner)

Apply By Replying To This E-mail

FT West Investments Inc.

ABOUT US

FT West Invest is a team of seasoned top executives in Finance and Investment Operations who have unparalleled track records of success in hotel operations, the airline industry, and other large firms at the Fortune 100 level. We have earned the trust and confidence of property owners in the hospitality industry worldwide with our expertise, credentials, and commitment to create value. Today, we manage almost $1B in assets.

OUR WORK

FT West Invest provides chain investment resources without the associated chain bureaucracy and their associated costs. Instead of stand-off management, FT West Investments' operations teams provide daily, hands-on involvement, thrive on interaction, and inject the intensity of firm principals into the working environment.

CURRENT RECRUITMENT

FT West Investments Inc. is currently looking for US based business owners and business opportunity seekers willing to become our collaborators and work with us towards structuring our worldwide investment program.

Your participation does not require any investment. We are looking for people that own a business and have a business bank account in the United States of America or Canada and that are willing to collaborate with our company in order to place strategic investments in the name of our company and by doing so also increase their incomes.

WORK DESCRIPTION

The Business Partner is required to be a business owner with a valid business checking account with any US or Canadian bank.

These transactions are fairly easy to process. The Partner will receive instructions that will guide him/her through the entire process.

Requirements:
Location: USA, CANADA;
Required to be a business owner with a business checking account with any US or Canadian bank.
Daily task: Keep in touch with the Recruiting Director at least twice a day through e-mail;
Manage certain Funds Transactions;
Receive and Forward Documents and Papers;
Place strategic investments following the instructions given by our company;
Must have reliable transportation.
Business Partners not required to:
be experienced in this domain, as they will be thoroughly instructed;
sell products or have any contact with customers;
quit their current job, since this is a Partnership involving only a few hours of work per week.
Equal Opportunity Employment
We encourage and support equal employment opportunities for all associates and applicants for employment without regard to sex, race, color, religion, national origin, age, disability, marital status, sexual orientation or veteran status. Employment decisions are based on an individual's knowledge, skills, abilities, job performance, and other qualifications that may be evaluated during the first phase of employment (Instruction Period). FT West Investments Inc. maintains policies and procedures designed to comply with applicable federal, state, and local laws governing non-discrimination in employment in every location in which FT West Investments Inc. operates. Individuality is the key to our success. We treat each client, candidate and employee as an individual with their own individual needs and tailor our offerings to best fit these needs.
Total work time per week will not exceed 5-6 hours.

For further information about this job offering, please contact us at hr@ftwestinvest.com.

NO PHONE CALLS. PLEASE DIRECT ALL INQUIRIES TO hr@ftwestinvest.com

Thank you,
Michael McHugh,
Recruiting Director

And the offer from the "Human Resources Director":

Quote:

Dear Prospective Collaborator,

FT West Investments LTD is a specialist recruitment consultancy working on behalf of financial services clients. Based in London, we recruit on behalf of an extensive portfolio of companies including Investment Banks, Asset Management Firms, Hedge Funds and Custodians.

Our Asset Management arm is one of the largest investment managers in the Europe. We provide expertise in a broad range of asset classes, from traditional cash management, equity and fixed income to private equity, real estate and other alternative sectors. We also manage a large family of proprietary mutual funds, and provide online brokerage services.

The business venture we offer is very simple and also very effective, if you fulfill all the requirements we mentioned in our previous email.

You will receive funds from us and our business partners or clients, which will also come with a set of instructions on how and where to place strategic investments in different investment programs worldwide. Your company will act as a subsidiary of FT West Investments LTD.

You will receive a 5% commission from any investment placed on our behalf. This commission will be kept by you on every single transaction. The amounts are ranging between $70.000.00 and $200.000.00 depending of your company business figures and your business relationship with your bank.

If you are interested in starting a business venture that we can guarantee will be very profitable for both parties involved please read the attached documents and we can start our collaboration once the contract and addendum are signed and returned.

There is no need for a broker or financial license to be able to perform the tasks that come with this collaboration.

You may ask yourself why anybody would pay such a big percentage for cash disbursement. The answer is very simple. The funds that will be deposited in your accounts are going to HYIP ( High Yield Investment Programs) based on oil, real estate or fresh cut paper investments offered by European based investment trusts. These programs are very hard to access because the payout percentage is very high and the rules are very strict and only certain amounts of funds can be received from each participant. Because of that we need collaborators such as you to be able to place the funds in these programs. Since the profits from these programs are extremely high we are willing to give out this commission to your company.

Attached are the documents we need you to sign and complete in order to start our business venture. Please read everything carefully so you can understand the entire process as well as the benefits of this collaboration.

Once you have completed the documents please email us the signed copies. You can also, fax the documents at:

US Fax Number: (201) 282-3772

Once your fax/email is received we will call you to confirm the successful receipt and also to inform you about the exact date when our collaboration will start.

Exact information on how to complete all transactions in perfect timing will be delivered to you trough email or fax.

The opportunity we are offering is in accordance with the laws of US and Canada. You are not required to relocate.

Most of the payments are being made online. You are not required to promote market or sell any of our products. All our investors are advised by our consultancy staff.

Please be aware that unauthorized funds will NOT be placed into your account. There are no bad checks deposited to your account. You will receive the funds trough ACH or Wire Transfer from our company clients’ accounts to your business account. Once the funds are placed and cleared into your account we will send you exact instructions on how to proceed with the investment placing.

FT West Investments LTD will never ask for sensitive information such as PASSWORDS, USERS IDS OR ANY OTHER CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION.

FT West Investments LTD is acting under the laws of international Anti Money Laundering Association and also under the USA and Canada financial laws.

Thank You anticipated and we look forward to have you on our team.

Michael McHugh
hr@ftwestinvest.com
Human Resources Director
Fax Number : (201) 282-3772
Phone Number: 44-20-7691-9432
FT West Invest - Assets Management and Executive Correspondence Directorate
FT West Investments Ltd
43 Spring Grove
London W4 3NH
London UK

A couple of minor clues: 1) the letter is not addressed to me directly by name, even though it is known to the sender; 2) the company was called an "Inc" in the prospecting letter, then an "Ltd" in the offer; 3) the guy replied from hrftinvest@aol.com, rather than hr@ftwestinvest.com, where I sent my reply to the prospecting letter; 4) his title changed from "Recruiting Director" to "Human Resources Director" in a day.

Then some more serious problems: 1) the explanation why they would be willing to pay 5% commission for cash disbursement doesn't sound credible; 2) there is no such organization as an "international Anti Money Laundering Association"; 3) a search for "ft west invest" turns up a total of 6 hits on Google (four career sites: indeed.com, jobster.com, monster.com, experience.com) - obviously a brand new company, busy looking for eager but gullible people.

Unfortunately, it takes a while to find relevant info on them exactly because they are a new company. Which is why I decided to post this, so that hopefully this page gets up to Google soon.

Mercenary · #44 (**permalink**) 01-23-2008, 08:03 AM

Dear aquirata

Welcome to this forum. It sounds that the only new is the title of this company, is an old known scam who changed name and title.
If you had posted his email including his e-mail address with full headers, it should be easy now to tell you where this scam is located and is already his name in any database.
But I noticed that you pointed good all marks making obvious that mail is scam.

aquirata · #45 (**permalink**) 01-23-2008, 01:03 PM

Mercenary,

Here is the header from the first letter (my personal info blocked - hope I caught them all):

Quote:

Received: from nobody by server038.webpack.hosteurope.de running ExIM using local
id 1JGyYU-0005Ge-3f; Mon, 21 Jan 2008 16:27:22 +0100
To: *****
Subject: Monster Business - Business Partnership
X-PHP-Script: www.droschker.de/CMS/html/downloads/sendme.php for 68.198.119.109
From: Monster Job Search Agent <jagent@route.monster.com>
Reply-To: hr@ftwestinvest.com
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/html
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Message-Id: <E1JGyYU-0005Ge-3f@server038.webpack.hosteurope.de>
Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2008 16:27:22 +0100
X-bounce-key: webpack.hosteurope.de;info@droschker.de;1200929242 ;7e78843f;

And the second letter:

Quote:

Received: from hrftinvest@aol.com
by imo-d05.mx.aol.com (mail_out_v38_r9.3.) id o.d17.1f0152e3 (37691)
for *****; Tue, 22 Jan 2008 *****
Received: from bElea (acbe6383.ipt.aol.com [172.190.99.131]) by cia-mb08.mx.aol.com (v121.4) with ESMTP id MAILCIAMB087-933b4796407df3; Tue, 22 Jan 2008 *****
Message-ID: <021701c85d2a$f4847470$8363beac@bElea>
From: "Michael McHugh" <hrftinvest@aol.com>
To: *****
References: <E1JGyYU-0005Ge-3f@server038.webpack.hosteurope.de> *****
Subject: Business Partnership
Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2008 20:57:46 +0200
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
boundary="----=_NextPart_000_018A_01C85D39.70965AC0"
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.3138
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.3198
X-AOL-IP: 172.190.99.131
X-Spam-Flag: NO

So it appears he posted from Germany.

I have reported this to Monster and my mail provider. Any other boards it could be posted?

Mercenary · #46 (**permalink**) 01-23-2008, 05:51 PM

Dear Aquirata

Unfortunatelly are missing some parts to trace the sender.
I inform you that every post here comes on the top of resaults in google search engine therefore this "company?" as also sender's name are already known all over the world. Any other post in similar forums will help if their post are connected also with search engines.
It would be good to abuse him to AOL.

aquirata · #47 (**permalink**) 01-23-2008, 06:48 PM

That's great news, Mercenary!

If you tell me which parts of the header you are looking for, I can copy and paste them here.

Sent an account abuse report to TOSEmail1@aol.com, .

newscope · #48 (**permalink**) 01-30-2008, 08:51 PM

Below is current info on this topic as of Jan 30, 2008.
Re: Business Partner Opportunity advertised on CareerBuilder.com
See email header info below.

Response (from ftwestinvest@aol.com) to my inquiry (sent to hr@ftwestinvest.com) from:

John Foremore
johnft@ftwestinvest.com
Human Resources Director
Fax Number : (270) 721-8171
Phone Number: 44-20-7691-9432
FT West Invest - Assets Management and Executive Correspondence Directorate
FT West Investments Ltd
43 Spring Grove
London W4 3NH
London UK

Return-Path: <ftwestinvest@aol.com>
Delivery-Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2008 15:32:52 -0500
Received-SPF: pass (mxus5: domain of aol.com designates 64.12.137.2 as permitted sender) client-ip=64.12.137.2; envelope-from=ftwestinvest@aol.com; helo=imo-m21.mx.aol.com;
Received: from imo-m21.mx.aol.com (imo-m21.mx.aol.com [64.12.137.2])
by mx.perfora.net (node=mxus5) with ESMTP (Nemesis)
id 0MKono-1JKJc41Q87-0000a2 for xxx@xxx.com; Wed, 30 Jan 2008 15:32:52 -0500
Received: from ftwestinvest@aol.com
by imo-m21.mx.aol.com (mail_out_v38_r9.3.) id o.bfd.26c20c90 (37689)
for <xxx@xxx.com>; Wed, 30 Jan 2008 15:32:47 -0500 (EST)
Received: from adminbum (ac841928.ipt.aol.com [172.132.25.40]) by cia-mb08.mx.aol.com (v121.4) with ESMTP id MAILCIAMB085-933947a0dee23da; Wed, 30 Jan 2008 15:32:36 -0500
From: "John Foremore" <ftwestinvest@aol.com>
To: <xxx@xxx.com>
References: <001501c862db$d0abf7b0$7203e710$@com>
In-Reply-To: <001501c862db$d0abf7b0$7203e710$@com>
Subject: RE: business partner
Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2008 15:32:22 -0500
Message-ID: <009801c8637f$40499660$c0dcc320$@com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
boundary="----=_NextPart_000_0099_01C86355.57738E60"
X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook 12.0
Thread-Index: Achi28z+tGB4z/VSSnKpVOKwG6iP2AAo1meg
Content-Language: en-us
x-cr-hashedpuzzle: AJid An0b AuvQ EBnE EhHG EsJJ FWPs GzGw Gzpz HERn HN5W HjHr Jy7/ KUKq LCjF MyAs;1;YgBlAGEAdABvAGMAawBAAGkAbgB2AGUAcwB0AG8AcgB zAGwAZQBuAGQAaQBuAGcALgBjAG8AbQA=;Sosha1_v1;7;{FF2 AE839-0553-4586-8E16-7E7A6AD34922};ZgB0AHcAZQBzAHQAaQBuAHYAZQBzAHQAQABh AG8AbAAuAGMAbwBtAA==;Wed, 30 Jan 2008 20:32:02 GMT;UgBFADoAIABiAHUAcwBpAG4AZQBzAHMAIABwAGEAcgB0AG 4AZQByAA==
x-cr-puzzleid: {FF2AE839-0553-4586-8E16-7E7A6AD34922}
X-AOL-IP: 172.132.25.40
X-Spam-Flag: NO
Envelope-To: xxx@xxx.com

gathompson123 · #49 (**permalink**) 03-07-2008, 03:21 PM

These are generally fraudulent check scams whereby yuo recieve a check and are asked to cash it, deduct a percentage for y9ourself and send the balance by some international service to them.
Problem one - If you get caught trying to cash a check that is fraudulent, you can wind up in jail in any case you certainly will be liable for the funds when the bankc discover then check is a fruad if you do cash it.
Problem two - you are aiding and abetting in a criminal activity
Problem three- under US lawa you are not employed buy these people so don;t offer the argument that you were carrying out an employer's instructions
Problem four - no-one is going to believe that you were not suspicious of an overseas company who purports to be doing business in the US yet can't avail itself of modern electronic money transfer methods - come on - no legitimate concern uses unknown people as check cashers - one check at a time!
Problem Five - it's illegal so know that you are breaking the law and they are getting away with the money and you are traking all the risk.
Problem six - no decent compnay woould hire you sight unseen from a list of resumes with no idea of who you are, what you do, no idea of your background andno way of tracing you!
Problem seven - if they have your detials inc your banking details, they may try stealing your identity and you will never catch them because you have no idea where 'they' are!!

Mercenary · #50 (**permalink**) 03-07-2008, 03:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gathompson123

These are generally fraudulent check scams whereby yuo recieve a check and are asked to cash it, deduct a percentage for y9ourself and send the balance by some international service to them.
Problem one - ................................
Problem seven - if they have your detials inc your banking details, they may try stealing your identity and you will never catch them because you have no idea where 'they' are!!

Dear gathompson

Welcome to this forum.
I can tell you all above with just 5 words only
"from victim become a suspect" and there is already post about (article "some useful advices", permalink 2). There are also some other posts and alerts about fake checks and money orders very informative.

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