Advice please. Is this a con?

[cookiemonster]

Out of the blue, I got a job offer this morning via my email. Now, I've never heard of these people before but there are a few things that ring alarm bells.

First, they don't seem to exist either on the companies house UK or the USA equivalent website. Even their New York address doesn't come up on google. Secondly, they have sent me an application form to fill in which is more like a contract, this is before they even meet me. Three, they ask for my bank details, never seen that on an initial application form. Four, I have already emailed them and asked where they got my details from, they just sent the same stuff again that they sent me this morning.

My instincts are telling me this is dodgy and I have been stiffed on to many occasions lately to be too trusting. I have attached the items I got sent today, could someone with more experience in these things have a look please? Thanks

 

[cookiemonster]

BTW, I know I said I would be away for a while but I missed this place.

 

[TVC]

Welcome back, we knew you couldn't resist us.

Absolute scam, they're just after your bank details. I had a quick look at the app doc, complete nonsense.

The interesting bit is how did they get your e-mail. I assume you have been signing up for job websites, in which case one of them may be dodgy in that it just harvests those looking for employment.

Edit: just skimmed the second document, it's very bad English for a New York based global company, looks more Nigerian to me.

 

[psmiffy]

I would suggest totally bogus - there would seem to be a variety of these going about - several very reputable firms are warning on their job websites that bogus job offers purporting to be from them are making the rounds

 

[cookiemonster]

Welcome back, we knew you couldn't resist us.

Absolute scam, they're just after your bank details. I had a quick look at the app doc, complete nonsense.

The interesting bit is how did they get your e-mail. I assume you have been signing up for job websites, in which case one of them may be dodgy in that it just harvests those looking for employment.

I did email them asking how they got my details. No reply except to send the same docs again. I'm only registered with Target jobs, Monster and Reed. I know they are very reputable and have been good in the past. I have done a search of this company on those respective websites and I'm getting no results.

 

[Andrew_Culture]

If in doubt anything like this head over to www.snopes.com

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Cookie, I am suprised that you are even considering that this might not be a scam. It's best to assume that nobody ever e-mails anyone out of the blue with a job offer, free money or a notification that you've won the lottery.

 

[Globalti]

Having stupidly clicked yesterday on an attachment in a bogus Vodafone email, which told me somebody had sent me an MMS picture that turned out to be a trojan, I'm reluctant to open those attachments. Can somebody copy and paste one into a post here?

 

[vernon]

Now, I've never heard of these people before but there are a few things that ring alarm bells.

First, they don't seem to exist either on the companies house UK or the USA equivalent website.
Even their New York address doesn't come up on google.

Is there any need to progress beyond your second point?

The company doesn't show up in search results and a bogus address screams fraud.

Compare and contrast....

My son received an unsolicited approach from an American company that he'd never heard of within 24 hours of making his Linkedin profile public which asked him if he was interested in applying for a Ruby on Rails post with them. He was able to find out about the company and the jobs being offered from Internet searches and when he found the salary on offer, £60,000+ , said yes he would be interested.

He was then given a telephone interview, then invited to a technical interview in London before being rejected. He was not asked to commit anything to paper at all until a few days prior to his trip to London.

 

[vernon]

Having stupidly clicked yesterday on an attachment in a bogus Vodafone email, which told me somebody had sent me an MMS picture that turned out to be a trojan, I'm reluctant to open those attachments. Can somebody copy and paste one into a post here?

There's noting to see apart from scammy guff in Microsoft Word format. The formatting would not be preserved in a cut and paste operation.

Download a copy of Open Office and open the docs in that as it can't run any macros written in MS Word if you are really curious.

 

[cookiemonster]

Cookie, I am suprised that you are even considering that this might not be a scam. It's best to assume that nobody ever e-mails anyone out of the blue with a job offer, free money or a notification that you've won the lottery.

I'm always suspicious of these kind of emails FM but I thought it would be no harm in asking about it.

 

[lulubel]

The interesting bit is how did they get your e-mail. I assume you have been signing up for job websites, in which case one of them may be dodgy in that it just harvests those looking for employment.

You don't have to sign up for job websites to get this kind of cr@p. I get these all the time, along with the ones telling me I've won some obscure lottery, someone needs my help to recover millions of dollars of a deceased person's money, or that I need to verify my online banking details with a bank I've never used.

 

[EltonFrog]

One should never ever open an email or attechment unless it's from a known source.

 

[ianrauk]

Welcome back Cookie!

 

[Stephenite]

Glad you're back. And, yep, a scam.