Post by kas on Dec 30, 2010 18:18:35 GMT -5
Money Laundering and Reshipping Fraud
bobbear.co.uk/?scamdex
bobbear.co.uk/?scamdex
Money Laundering, Re-shipping & Purchase Agent Fraud Information
Money Laundering Fraud
Fraudsters send unsolicited e-mails or place job offers on legitimate Internet recruitment sites or forums looking to recruit 'Money Transfer Agents' with bank or Paypal accounts. These bogus companies offer part-time employment as an agent receiving payments in the form of fake checks or stolen money transfers, sometimes for goods which the company claims to be supplying, and then passing the payment on to the company via a money transfer company such as Moneygram and/or Western Union less an 'agent's percentage', (usually in the range 5-10%).
These job offers are always illegal and fraudulent. Any person who agrees to act as an agent, (more correctly a money laundering 'mule'), is actually receiving stolen or counterfeit funds into their account. The final destination of the transferred funds will be an organised crime syndicate, generally overseas.
Re-Shipping Fraud
Another variation of this fraud is to offer part time employment as a Re-shipping Agent'.
This consists of accepting parcels to your home address and forwarding them on to criminals. Needless to say these goods are either stolen or obtained by fraudulent means. This type of fraud is well documented by many authoritiative sources such as Monster and the US Postal Inspection Service. Needless to say this occupation as a 'Reshipping Donkey' leaves the unsuspecting dupe as the only contactable 'fall guy', guilty of handling stolen goods.
Purchase Agent Fraud (aka 'Personal Shopper' fraud)
A third type of fraud is becoming increasingly common, this is the 'Purchase Agent' scam. In this scenario the potential dupe is offered the position, (often well disguised), of working for a company and one of his first tasks will be to purchase equipment for the company on his credit card, all paid for by funds directly transferred into his credit card account. There are two aspects to this, firstly the criminals need your credit card details, "to be able to make payment to you", and they will request you to ship the purchased items to them. Needless to say, any transferred funds will eventually come back as fraudulent and what they will do with your credit card details does not need much imagination. A variant of this is the bogus job of 'Personal Shopper' where you are asked to purchase goods on your credit card for onward shipment, usually to Russian or other Eastern European addresses.
Newspaper Job Advertisement Placers
In this scam the potential mark is asked to place job adverts in local newspapers for "$100 an advert". Needless to say these jobs are one of the above fraud jobs that the Eastern European criminals can't place themselves, (or are not willing to take the risk).
No legitimate company would offer a 'Money TransferAgent' 'job' to a home-based private individual - such a job is always illegal and the company offering it is always a criminally run 'front' company. Similarly, no legitimate company would offer a job as a 'Re-shipping Agent' or a 'Purchase Agent' or 'Personal Shopper' to an unknown, unverified home based private individual. Such a 'job' is always a solicitation from a bogus criminal company to fence stolen goods or to simply defraud.
These companies can be very convincing in their attempts to perpetrate their fraud. Many of them try and give an air of legitimacy by displaying bogus 'Verisign' and other certificates. Learn to recognise fake 'Verisign' certificates which will simply be .gif images on the criminal's own webserver and when clicked on will not display information that originates from the genuine Verisign https secure server, but simply another bogus .gif image from the criminal's site. Always ensure that the URL of the pop-up seal verification page begins with the address seal.verisign.com. If it doesn't, the seal is fraudulent.
Any person who suffers financial loss as a result of acting as an "agent" for any of these organisations would not be eligible for any form of refund from the bank concerned who would recover any monies, close the account involved in this scam and criminal charges could follow, not just for the "agent" but for anyone knowingly involved in provision of services to the criminal:
Knowingly supplying services to these fraudsters is a criminal offence in the UK under the UK Proceeds of Crime act (2002) Section 328 "A person commits an offence if he enters into or becomes concerned in an arrangement which he knows or suspects facilitates (by whatever means) the acquisition, retention, use or control of criminal property by or on behalf of another person". The notification level for this offence is low. Would all hosts and registrars with a UK presence please bear this in mind. Other countries will undoubtedly have similar provisions.
If you think that being a 'Money Mule' or a 'Reshipping Donkey' or a 'Purchase Agent' is a relatively safe and profitable occupation, then think again - the paper trail leads directly to you and you may well find yourself in the same position as these 14 Dutch entrepreneurs or these UK chancers or this US woman or even this girl here. Don't be a mug - don't do it or you'll certainly end up with huge losses, probably get arrested and possibly earn yourself a criminal record.
Brian Krebs of The Washington Post often produces excellent articles about these fraudsters. This article details how a particularly prolific gang obtain their funds and this one details how the 'mule' is recruited by a fake company documented on this website and the sequence of events.
For further information regarding UK money laundering law, please refer to:
http: //www.lawsociety.org.uk/professional/conduct/guideonline/view=page.law?POLICYID=225029
The USA has similar provisions in law to the above making it an offence not only to commit money laundering fraud but also to knowingly facilitate money laundering fraud as an 'Accessory after the fact'. For further information regarding those provisions see these Cornell University Law School links:
U.S. Code collection
§ 1956. Laundering of monetary instruments
§ 3. Accessory after the fact
Whether the fraudster uses a website, as in the examples above, or simply uses a response email address, (as these criminals also do - see below), the fraud is exactly the same. Remember the first rule of spam, i.e. All spammers are liars - if you receive a 'job offer' in an unsolicited email, (spam) it is invariably a scam.
Always abide by the Boulder Pledge and never respond in any way whatsoever to anything that is spamvertized whether it is goods or services.
Money Laundering Fraud
Fraudsters send unsolicited e-mails or place job offers on legitimate Internet recruitment sites or forums looking to recruit 'Money Transfer Agents' with bank or Paypal accounts. These bogus companies offer part-time employment as an agent receiving payments in the form of fake checks or stolen money transfers, sometimes for goods which the company claims to be supplying, and then passing the payment on to the company via a money transfer company such as Moneygram and/or Western Union less an 'agent's percentage', (usually in the range 5-10%).
These job offers are always illegal and fraudulent. Any person who agrees to act as an agent, (more correctly a money laundering 'mule'), is actually receiving stolen or counterfeit funds into their account. The final destination of the transferred funds will be an organised crime syndicate, generally overseas.
Re-Shipping Fraud
Another variation of this fraud is to offer part time employment as a Re-shipping Agent'.
This consists of accepting parcels to your home address and forwarding them on to criminals. Needless to say these goods are either stolen or obtained by fraudulent means. This type of fraud is well documented by many authoritiative sources such as Monster and the US Postal Inspection Service. Needless to say this occupation as a 'Reshipping Donkey' leaves the unsuspecting dupe as the only contactable 'fall guy', guilty of handling stolen goods.
Purchase Agent Fraud (aka 'Personal Shopper' fraud)
A third type of fraud is becoming increasingly common, this is the 'Purchase Agent' scam. In this scenario the potential dupe is offered the position, (often well disguised), of working for a company and one of his first tasks will be to purchase equipment for the company on his credit card, all paid for by funds directly transferred into his credit card account. There are two aspects to this, firstly the criminals need your credit card details, "to be able to make payment to you", and they will request you to ship the purchased items to them. Needless to say, any transferred funds will eventually come back as fraudulent and what they will do with your credit card details does not need much imagination. A variant of this is the bogus job of 'Personal Shopper' where you are asked to purchase goods on your credit card for onward shipment, usually to Russian or other Eastern European addresses.
Newspaper Job Advertisement Placers
In this scam the potential mark is asked to place job adverts in local newspapers for "$100 an advert". Needless to say these jobs are one of the above fraud jobs that the Eastern European criminals can't place themselves, (or are not willing to take the risk).
No legitimate company would offer a 'Money TransferAgent' 'job' to a home-based private individual - such a job is always illegal and the company offering it is always a criminally run 'front' company. Similarly, no legitimate company would offer a job as a 'Re-shipping Agent' or a 'Purchase Agent' or 'Personal Shopper' to an unknown, unverified home based private individual. Such a 'job' is always a solicitation from a bogus criminal company to fence stolen goods or to simply defraud.
These companies can be very convincing in their attempts to perpetrate their fraud. Many of them try and give an air of legitimacy by displaying bogus 'Verisign' and other certificates. Learn to recognise fake 'Verisign' certificates which will simply be .gif images on the criminal's own webserver and when clicked on will not display information that originates from the genuine Verisign https secure server, but simply another bogus .gif image from the criminal's site. Always ensure that the URL of the pop-up seal verification page begins with the address seal.verisign.com. If it doesn't, the seal is fraudulent.
Any person who suffers financial loss as a result of acting as an "agent" for any of these organisations would not be eligible for any form of refund from the bank concerned who would recover any monies, close the account involved in this scam and criminal charges could follow, not just for the "agent" but for anyone knowingly involved in provision of services to the criminal:
Knowingly supplying services to these fraudsters is a criminal offence in the UK under the UK Proceeds of Crime act (2002) Section 328 "A person commits an offence if he enters into or becomes concerned in an arrangement which he knows or suspects facilitates (by whatever means) the acquisition, retention, use or control of criminal property by or on behalf of another person". The notification level for this offence is low. Would all hosts and registrars with a UK presence please bear this in mind. Other countries will undoubtedly have similar provisions.
If you think that being a 'Money Mule' or a 'Reshipping Donkey' or a 'Purchase Agent' is a relatively safe and profitable occupation, then think again - the paper trail leads directly to you and you may well find yourself in the same position as these 14 Dutch entrepreneurs or these UK chancers or this US woman or even this girl here. Don't be a mug - don't do it or you'll certainly end up with huge losses, probably get arrested and possibly earn yourself a criminal record.
Brian Krebs of The Washington Post often produces excellent articles about these fraudsters. This article details how a particularly prolific gang obtain their funds and this one details how the 'mule' is recruited by a fake company documented on this website and the sequence of events.
For further information regarding UK money laundering law, please refer to:
http: //www.lawsociety.org.uk/professional/conduct/guideonline/view=page.law?POLICYID=225029
The USA has similar provisions in law to the above making it an offence not only to commit money laundering fraud but also to knowingly facilitate money laundering fraud as an 'Accessory after the fact'. For further information regarding those provisions see these Cornell University Law School links:
U.S. Code collection
§ 1956. Laundering of monetary instruments
§ 3. Accessory after the fact
Whether the fraudster uses a website, as in the examples above, or simply uses a response email address, (as these criminals also do - see below), the fraud is exactly the same. Remember the first rule of spam, i.e. All spammers are liars - if you receive a 'job offer' in an unsolicited email, (spam) it is invariably a scam.
Always abide by the Boulder Pledge and never respond in any way whatsoever to anything that is spamvertized whether it is goods or services.