Lately, I’ve been receiving an email which is offering a job for the position of Financial Assistant. As per the email, the job is easy. You will be involved in accepting payments from their Australian, UK, and US clients to be deposited to your personal bank account and then resend the money to their partners. There is a commission of 4% of the total amount of money posted on your account so you can earn an estimated amount of $2,000 every month. (Weeh?!)

Sounds very profitable isn’t it? But BEWARE IT’S A SCAM! (Toinks!)

Here is a screenshot of the email I received on March 18, 2009:

I know a lot of you guys are still new in online money making things so I want to warn you guys of this kind of craps. For a beginner, emails like this is like an offer of a lifetime. But like what I am always saying “If it’s too good to be true, there is a possibility that its a scam”.

Why it is a scam?

1. Offers like it is a basic “money mule” scam. It works by sending stolen money to “employees” to launder internationally via bank transfers or Western Union. These kind of activities are considered criminal in nature so be wise not get involved in it.

2. No legitimate company would ever think of hiring people to receive check payments for them. They can actually do it on their own through financial services companies less than they’re offering to pay you. The email scam said “to facilitate establishing of our all-round-the-globe business connections and assist saving considerably by tax disbursing reduction“. Oh come on!

3. Check the sender’s email address. When I received the email, it has “From: no reply“. No legitimate company would use such name as the sender for something critical as financial related stuffs. Right click on the sender’s name and choose “Properties”. You will see that the sender’s email address is different from the actual name of the company. As for the one I received above, the email address is “keqg@brandysgiftshop.com“. Hah?! The company is Point Focus LLC. How come the senders email address is from brandysgiftshop.com?

4. Why do you have to email someone who is using a personal email address (Yahoo or Gmail) to confirm your interest to the offer. On the email I received, I got this:

NOTE!!!! the email address you use to contact us for the first time is: Anna.Fitcher@gmail.com, in the subject field put “interested”. Please, use only mentioned email address, otherwise we’ll fail to receive your response.

Who is that person using a gmail account? Can’t I just go directly to someone directly involved with the company?

5. They say you will earn an estimated $2,000 per month for 10-15 hours a week of work. That’s $30 - $45 an hour fee for a part-time position. Wow! I hope something like this really exists but sorry guys… it is too good to be true.

6. It’s a spam email.

The money mule scam is an old scam lurking on the internet. They want you to receive the money to your bank account and forward the money to someone else. You’ll end up engaged in money laundering which can lead you to criminal charges. Plus, once the bank have verified the transaction is a fraud, the bank will get back to you to get their money back. You’ve already sent the money to your “employer” so you end up paying the bank back. And, you become an accessory to the crime.

So guys, please be careful… Make a research first before joining any program to avoid yourself becoming a victim of these scams.