“Sometimes it takes a mid-life crisis to the point of losing yourself to find yourself.”
- Rich Love

Is this Graffiti or Art?

It seems that the economy is finally making an upward turn and employers are hiring again. On June 10th 2010 I decided that it was time to update my resume and post it on Careerbuilder.com. I’m currently employed however it’s always good practice to keep an eye out for new opportunities. On June 11th I received a suspicious email from someone posing as an employer. Here is the email I received below (i’ve excluded my full name):

” Hi (Full Name),

For more than 10 years Condition Express Inc. makes its business by processing with non-standard banking services around the world. We are expanding our firm and grant a range of new services in the United States. Transfer of money for non U.S. citizens with the US check is one of our new
turns. For this reason our firm has some vacancies of “Check Processing Manager”.

Your responsibilities are:
To receive a check by USPS to cash this check
To transfer money to the client the way he/she chooses
To make a special formed records on the carried out
work for every check

Staff requirements:
To have real address in the US
From 1 to 2 hours daily
To have Positive credit history

Your advantages:
The payment of 100 $ – 500 $ daily Payment of at least 3 000 $
Couple of working hours
We take care of all the taxes on the converts you carry
out.
If this vacancy is interesting for you and you want to step please, create an account at our webpage and continue everything in line with the instructions.
With best wishes,
TOP MANAGER
EXIM Exchange Compan

EXIM Exchange Company  Limited is a fully owned subsidiary company of Export Import Bank of Bangladesh Ltd. Canada Bangladeshi Community involved with the development of the Bangladesh economy through the remittance of foreign exchange and trade finance.  In order to remit their foreign currency we provide excellent remittance service to the Canada Bangladeshi Community. “

I’ve spent many years in the financial services industry. The e-mail above is obviously a highly illegal scam to say the least. Minutes after I received the fraudulent email I emailed the Career Builder security team (TSST@CareerBuilder.com). I provided the entire email along with the long header data. Here is another example email I received on June 14th:

” Dear (Full Name),

We have found your resume in careerbuilder.com,CareerBuilder database reviewed it and sure that you to be a great applicant for this position which we offer.
Our Organization are currently looking for a few qualified persons for a vacant position “Account Coordinator”.

The main task of this position is to collect payments bank transfers and checks from our customers in US. If you don’t have checking account our manager will help you to open a new one.

Average salary is $600-$800 per week.

General Requirements:

- Age: 21+
- Ability to work at home
- Computer skills MS Word personal e-mail address
- Responsibility
- US Citizenship

ALL FEES PAID BY US

If you want to join our team please register here “

In short, some job seeker that is desperate for a job may fall of this scheme and eventually get arrested. Here is a snippet courtesy of the United States Treasury – OFAC:

” The Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) of the US Department of the Treasury administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions based on US foreign policy and national security goals against targeted foreign countries and regimes, terrorists, international narcotics traffickers, those engaged in activities related to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and other threats to the national security, foreign policy or economy of the United States. OFAC acts under Presidential national emergency powers, as well as authority granted by specific legislation, to impose controls on transactions and freeze assets under US jurisdiction. “

I have not received a response from Career Builder regarding this issue, but I’ll be sure to keep you posted.

“Oh my” someone at apple might be in some hot water on this one… A picture is worth a couple thousand words on this one!! iPhone HD

*G.O.A.T. = Greatest Of All Time!