What's the scam?

This is a common scam and offers great rewards for very little work. How many jobs are really out there that offer this? The scam is simple. You will be asked to use your bank account to process payments from "international clients" and forward the cleared funds via Western Union, keeping a commission for yourself. In reality the "international clients" are victims of other scams, sending money for Advance Fee Fraud or myriad other email scams. By taking on this "job" you will unwittingly find yourself assisting the scammers to move money around the world and cover themselves, whilst simultaneously implicating yourself in the commission of the crime itself.

What happens if I fall for it?

You'll find yourself in a very uncomfortable position. Firstly, you'll have become a "money mule", assisting criminals to launder the proceeds of their crimes. That's bad enough, (and could land you in prison), but you'll also find yourself hugely out of pocket, as the fraud prevention departments working for the banks from which the victims have sent their payments will recall the payments made into your account. Remember, you've taken out 90% of the money and sent it to the "head office" by Western Union, which is untraceable, so your account will go overdrawn in a big way! Victims of this type of fraud have actually found themselves in the position of being unable to pay their bills, lost their houses and had all of their assets frozen. An additional risk to this type of scam is that you'll be asked to provide personal details including your bank account details, copies of identification documents and your National Insurance number. This then gives the scammers all they need to steal your identity and apply for credit in your name, wrecking your credit rating in the process.

Key points to remember

1. No legitimate Company will recruit staff in this way. If you didn't apply for a job, you won't be offered it out of the blue via email.
2. No legitimate Company will send emails that don't identify the company in any way, or provide any contact details other than an email address.
3. No legitimate Company will allow its HR department to use a free email account such as hotmail, googlemail or yahoo. Emails from organisations large enough to boast a HR department will ALWAYS use email addresses that look like this: name@companyname.com or a similar format.
4. No legitimate Company will ask its clients to pay invoices via a third party, into a personal bank account. It simply doesn't make sense.

If it seems to good to be true, it usually is!