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I recently graduated college, and like most, I've just been trying to find a job. I'll spare the details, but I've been looking for a way to get some money to move to Philadelphia to become a day trader. Also like most, it's proved to be quite difficult, and even though I've proved myself to be a hard worker on paper (double major in 8 quarters) I'm incredibly inexperienced (6 months as a cashier in a cafe, 0 extra curriculars). And so to recount my story, a few weeks ago I was on...
Craigslist. Yes. I know. Craigslist. The most sketchy of sketchy places to find anything. Period.
Anyhow, I found a part time "Insurance Broker Assistant" that said was paying $1600 a month, and required no experience. Seemed too good to be true. But what did it cost? An email with a resume. And so I did, and I got a reply saying "you've been approved, to continue the hiring process please add this email to your contacts list and simply reply". And so I did, and was then asked to add another contact, and reply. So I did. Then I was told my "duties" which was a bunch of basic customer service stuff, and was asked to provide my mailing address and phone number. So I did. Then I was asked to log into my paypal account and change to to verified. Then I was asked to change the account from personal to business (which afaik lets you move larger quanities of money around and stuff). HOLD YOUR HELLIONS. At this point I thought, fuck, I'm going to be asked to withdrawl money from a bounced check or some bs. I wondered long and hard about what someone could do with a paypal email, and then I thought that if people give it out asking for random donations, I should be fine right? I'm the type of person who uses at least 10 passwords for every account (tl, computer, 4 emails, school, etc). I then thought what is now the title of this blog, took a deep breathe and said, screw it, lets do it. What could happen? I put in the information provided to me in the email, and reluctantly clicked submit.
Now after about 7-8 emails, I was sent an employee contract. I saw the subject of the email and thought "I'm totally fucked now". I opened it, read it very carefully, printed it out, signed it, scanned it, and sent it back. I was asked to verify some other information, and success! "You are now an employee of ****" I then received an email from my "supervisor" and was told that there were some delays, BUT NOT TO WORRY. My salary would be unaffected and paid on time. So I waited. I hadn't actually done anything right? No need to worry. Few days later I was told there were some more delays. So I waited. And waited. Then was told that no such delays had happened before, and my "supervisor" had contacted other people and decided I would be receiving a "bonus salary". What? In the meantime though, I should just wait. So I waited. And then I received an email the next day saying a package was being delivered to me, as a "gift" for the delays: a Kindle Touch. What is this madness?
4 hours ago I contacted the front desk at my apartment complex and asked if there was a package for me. Indeed, there was. I went back to my room and prepared to open up what was surely a bomb, but lo and behold:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/s3EKw.jpg?3)
Free stuff has never made me so confused. I suppose the lesson is, if it seems too good to be true, you might as well go with it if it doesn't cost you anything
 
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wtf? lol. Keep us updated!
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Keep us updated please. This is just... weird.
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LOLLL what? wtf. Not what I was expecting hahaha
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What the? Crazy series of events but hope it all goes well 
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The title of the blog kindled a curiosity in me. I was not dissapointed.
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On May 11 2012 09:17 Bippzy wrote:
The title of the blog kindled a curiosity in me. I was not dissapointed.
oh you.
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Thats crazy.
I find it always very suspicious if I receive free stuff, because there is no such thing as free stuff.
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Yeah keep TL updated, this is actually getting really weird O.o
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dafuq did I just read? If I read it correctly, congrats! I'm still confused, but congrats!
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free kindle 5/5
potential to fuck up your life 5/5
overall blog rating 5/5
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Haha wtf is right, I was thinking this was going to be another tragic blog of somebody getting screwed out of their life savings, etc. Wow man. Now for the bonus salary yeah?
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Russian Federation3631 Posts
At this point I thought, ****, I'm going to be asked to withdrawl money from a bounced check or some bs.
probably they will attempt to use your paypal account for money laundering. For example, money from a phished bank account will be transferred to you, and then they will ask you to transfer the money somewhere else, minus your $1600 "salary".
any paper trail comes squarely to your doorstep. The actions would also make you an accessory to criminal activity. Tread carefully sir.
See: http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2005-07-10-cyber-mules-cover_x.htm
tbh I would contact the police or something about the free stuff, there is .000000000001% chance that it was acquired legitimately, and I would not be surprised if it was obtained via a stolen credit card number.
PS Do you want to prove that they are not legitimate? From a separate email address, email them the shittiest possible resume you can compose (if you want I can make one). Something so bad that any sane person would never hire you. Odds are they will happily "hire" you.
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Couldn't help but to chuckle after I read this blog. Please keep us updated on what other amazing items you gain. 5/5
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This is gettin good. Keep us posted!
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On May 11 2012 09:37 419 wrote:Show nested quote + At this point I thought, ****, I'm going to be asked to withdrawl money from a bounced check or some bs. probably they will attempt to use your paypal account for money laundering. For example, money from a phished bank account will be transferred to you, and then they will ask you to transfer the money somewhere else, minus your $1600 "salary". any paper trail comes squarely to your doorstep. The actions would also make you an accessory to criminal activity. Tread carefully sir. See: http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2005-07-10-cyber-mules-cover_x.htmtbh I would contact the police or something about the free stuff, there is .000000000001% chance that it was acquired legitimately, and I would not be surprised if it was obtained via a stolen credit card number. PS Do you want to prove that they are not legitimate? From a separate email address, email them the shittiest possible resume you can compose (if you want I can make one). Something so bad that any sane person would never hire you. Odds are they will happily "hire" you.
Operation started, let's do this.
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On May 11 2012 09:37 419 wrote:Show nested quote + At this point I thought, ****, I'm going to be asked to withdrawl money from a bounced check or some bs. probably they will attempt to use your paypal account for money laundering. For example, money from a phished bank account will be transferred to you, and then they will ask you to transfer the money somewhere else, minus your $1600 "salary". any paper trail comes squarely to your doorstep. The actions would also make you an accessory to criminal activity. Tread carefully sir. See: http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2005-07-10-cyber-mules-cover_x.htmtbh I would contact the police or something about the free stuff, there is .000000000001% chance that it was acquired legitimately, and I would not be surprised if it was obtained via a stolen credit card number. PS Do you want to prove that they are not legitimate? From a separate email address, email them the shittiest possible resume you can compose (if you want I can make one). Something so bad that any sane person would never hire you. Odds are they will happily "hire" you.
Please do this, I'd hate to have a fellow TLer become a criminal!
Also, press your luck and ask for some e-books to go with it, LOL!
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Haha wtf, I was waiting for the "I lost all my money and now I feel stupid" line.
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Don't accept sketchy jobs.
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419 sounds like he's on the right track here... an insurance broker has little need for his/her assistant's paypal account whatsoever. Moreover unless you ran the contract or any attachment you've downloaded from them in a Sandbox I suspect a keylogger being hidden within it, as it is rather peculiar they asked for you to change your account information on your paypal.
If these people are reputable you should be able to find information on the company you've signed a contract with. There are checks in place for insurance brokers. (read: you can't be some random guy)
Contacting the BBB might also be an easy way to solve this mystery.
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On May 11 2012 11:04 DisOriental wrote:
419 sounds like he's on the right track here... an insurance broker has little need for his/her assistant's paypal account whatsoever. Moreover unless you ran the contract or any attachment you've downloaded from them in a Sandbox I suspect a keylogger being hidden within it, as it is rather peculiar they asked for you to change your account information on your paypal.
If these people are reputable you should be able to find information on the company you've signed a contract with. There are checks in place for insurance brokers. (read: you can't be some random guy)
Contacting the BBB might also be an easy way to solve this mystery.
Agree with the above. You should check for a keylogger on whatever you downloaded. There have been similar instances of keylogging here in Korea.
Nothing is ever really "free". ㅠㅠ
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Rofl wtf is this? Someone is going to steal your ID and use it to traffic drugs, then expect you to pay the fines!
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On May 11 2012 09:37 419 wrote:Show nested quote + At this point I thought, ****, I'm going to be asked to withdrawl money from a bounced check or some bs. probably they will attempt to use your paypal account for money laundering. For example, money from a phished bank account will be transferred to you, and then they will ask you to transfer the money somewhere else, minus your $1600 "salary". any paper trail comes squarely to your doorstep. The actions would also make you an accessory to criminal activity. Tread carefully sir. See: http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2005-07-10-cyber-mules-cover_x.htmtbh I would contact the police or something about the free stuff, there is .000000000001% chance that it was acquired legitimately, and I would not be surprised if it was obtained via a stolen credit card number. PS Do you want to prove that they are not legitimate? From a separate email address, email them the shittiest possible resume you can compose (if you want I can make one). Something so bad that any sane person would never hire you. Odds are they will happily "hire" you.
Thanks for the concern, I'm still very skeptic about this whole thing. When things start to get uncomfortably strange, I'll bail, and score one free kindle (:
On May 11 2012 10:24 iSometric wrote:
Nice road bike.
Thanks it's a fixie :D
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can't wait to hear how this ends up ... hell, if everything goes great maybe you can hook some TLers up w/ a job, lol I wish the best of luck for you and I sincerely hope you don't get screwed ...
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I though you were going to have your paypal emptied. Lo and behold, you got a kindle!
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This sounds like really bad news. As other TL'ers have mentioned, it's unlikely they'd want your Paypal account for anything besides money laundering or something shady like that. I hope the best for you and look forward to updates involving you *not* getting screwed, but in my (admittedly short) life experience, "something for nothing" always ends poorly.
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Korea (South)1897 Posts
Fuck, this is a trainwreak waiting to happen...funny as fuck though, but with the info you've already given, you're probably registered on like 10 financial fraudulent accounts of something right now, so gg, but at least you got the kindle! Kindle ftw!
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Russian Federation3631 Posts
Thanks for the concern, I'm still very skeptic about this whole thing. When things start to get uncomfortably strange, I'll bail, and score one free kindle (:
???????
There is no legitimate use for your paypal account that they could have. Any competent organization would use their own accounts for transferring fairly large sums of money. I think things have already passed the 'uncomfortably strange' point.
Could you post the email exchanges (or the contact email a prospective employee was supposed to contact)? They are probably rife with red flags.
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On May 11 2012 09:25 MysteryMeat1 wrote:
free kindle 5/5
potential to fuck up your life 5/5
overall blog rating 5/5
lol well said
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Yeah, giving out your paypal like that is a bad idea.
Not going to lie, this reeks of scammery. I'd get out now while you maybe can still salvage it.
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FUCK I'M SO PARANOID RIGHT NOW.
I downloaded the contract and everything on a different computer (that I'll never use again and didn't have any of my personal info on it) so hopefully I'm not getting keylogged? x.x
Here's the email about the "delays"
Dear x,
Thank you for your patience. I want inform you that this is the first time in my experience when there have been such long delays from our customers. In owning this matter I has sent the request yesterday to our Financial Team and they agreed (in owning delays) to add to your salary a bonus in amount $350.00. To avoid the further misunderstandings I guess it will be fine for you. Just await my message concerning the 1st assignment. Once again, the delays will not be reflected on your salary. Your Employment has been successfully started on 26th April. So the 1st salary will be paid on 26th May.
ATT: Please confirm reception of this email.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely yours,
Andrew King
And this is the most recent one after I had some troubles with getting the package (front office sent out a text but I didn't get it)
Dear x,
Thank you for your message and enjoy the gift. In the meantime please await for further instructions within the next 24 hours.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely yours,
Andrew King
I feel like I haven't been breathing properly at least the past hour because I've been so caught in this, but I mean I can just back out at any time right? I haven't committed to anything, and haven't even been assigned any job duty.
Appreciate all the concern numbers.
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I hope the libary has internet or something,+ Show Spoiler + so you can keep us updated from jail.
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I would contact the police if I were you.
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On May 11 2012 10:17 Antimatterz wrote:
Haha wtf, I was waiting for the "I lost all my money and now I feel stupid" line.
Yeah,me to 
But now i wana get some free stuff to... 
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rofl there's a mysterious first assignment.
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Russian Federation3631 Posts
Thank you for your patience. I want inform you that this is the first time in my experience when there have been such long delays from our customers. In owning this matter I has sent the request yesterday to our Financial Team and they agreed (in owning delays) to add to your salary a bonus in amount $350.00. To avoid the further misunderstandings I guess it will be fine for you. Just await my message concerning the 1st assignment. Once again, the delays will not be reflected on your salary. Your Employment has been successfully started on 26th April. So the 1st salary will be paid on 26th May.
Lots of grammatical/spelling errors, and some REALLY odd phrasing. They are not the sort of errors a native English speaker would ever make, in my opinion. I am betting the writer is Western African in origin.
In scambaiting terms, you've off-scripted him by having this delay come up (its not something he would have a prewritten message -- hence, 'script' -- ready to send to you). Generally this means their grammar / phrasing get progressively worse, as they have to improvise.
can you post the email headers?
--
If it makes you feel better, generally they use the "fill out this form and send back to me" thing as a test to see how serious you are, and further invests you into the fantasy they are trying to generate. The more invested you are, the more unlikely you are to back out.
TL;DR Its unlikely they would send you malicious software through the attachment. But no guarantees.
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Take the kindle and get outta there. Doesn't sound like you've done anything illegal yet so it seems weird... A scam wouldn't send you the kindle right? But it still seems like there is a close to 0% chance this is anything legitimate.
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I don't know what the headers are to be exact, but I'll take a stab at it, let me know if I'm wrong.
from: Andrew King a.king1970@live.com
to: *my email*
date: Thu, May 10, 2012 at 4:00 PM
subject: "Apps Finder"
mailed-by: live.com
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Russian Federation3631 Posts
google how to find full headers
if he uses live.com its likely his true IP will be in them
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Oh the heading is quite long o_o
Delivered-To: my email
Received: by 10.50.114.6 with SMTP id jc6csp84634igb;
Thu, 10 May 2012 16:00:57 -0700 (PDT)
Received: by 10.236.78.5 with SMTP id f5mr7715425yhe.14.1336690856889;
Thu, 10 May 2012 16:00:56 -0700 (PDT)
Return-Path: <a.king1970@live.com>
Received: from snt0-omc3-s1.snt0.hotmail.com (snt0-omc3-s1.snt0.hotmail.com. [65.55.90.140])
by mx.google.com with ESMTP id t24si2030662ano.121.2012.05.10.16.00.56;
Thu, 10 May 2012 16:00:56 -0700 (PDT)
Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of a.king1970@live.com designates 65.55.90.140 as permitted sender) client-ip=65.55.90.140;
Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=pass (google.com: domain of a.king1970@live.com designates 65.55.90.140 as permitted sender) smtp.mail=a.king1970@live.com
Received: from SNT139-W55 ([65.55.90.135]) by snt0-omc3-s1.snt0.hotmail.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.4675);
Thu, 10 May 2012 16:00:50 -0700
Message-ID: <SNT139-W556087F1ED10F199C06B7FE8160@phx.gbl>
Return-Path: a.king1970@live.com
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="_cb5b2ae0-6090-4cdb-a13b-ec4cd76bc331_"
X-Originating-IP: [75.36.41.28]
From: Andrew King <a.king1970@live.com>
To: <my email>
Subject: "Apps Finder"
Date: Thu, 10 May 2012 16:00:49 -0700
Importance: Normal
In-Reply-To:
<CAL0XGGiDW382xuntYAV9JxehstRw2Diaw5bvzZrukq1PzMFc5w@mail.gmail.com>
References:
<SNT139-W613B1B72E37EE4C833C4AFE8160@phx.gbl>,<CAL0XGGhu_B2caBPEE+L-EzKw0RXrLtpxkr1bZj3YGYyQPah7Vg@mail.gmail.com>,<SNT139-W63A7EAD02D30699CC8F433E8160@phx.gbl>,<CAL0XGGiDW382xuntYAV9JxehstRw2Diaw5bvzZrukq1PzMFc5w@mail.gmail.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
X-OriginalArrivalTime: 10 May 2012 23:00:50.0349 (UTC) FILETIME=[BE56FDD0:01CD2F00]
--_cb5b2ae0-6090-4cdb-a13b-ec4cd76bc331_
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Dear x=2C
Thank you for your message and enjoy the gift. In the meantime please await=
ing for further instructions within 24 hours.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely yours=2C
Andrew King
"Apps Finder" Inc
Personal Supervisor =
--_cb5b2ae0-6090-4cdb-a13b-ec4cd76bc331_
Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
<html>
<head>
<style><!--
.hmmessage P
{
margin:0px=3B
padding:0px
}
body.hmmessage
{
font-size: 10pt=3B
font-family:Tahoma
}
--></style></head>
<body class=3D'hmmessage'><div dir=3D'ltr'>
Dear x=2C<br><br>Thank you for your message and enjoy the gift. I=
n the meantime please await for further instructions within 24 hours.<br=
>Thank you for your time.<br><br>Sincerely yours=2C<br>
Andrew King<br><br>"Apps Finder" Inc<br>Personal Supervisor =
</div></body>
</html>=
--_cb5b2ae0-6090-4cdb-a13b-ec4cd76bc331_--
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I would never work for anyone I haven't spoken to face-to-face. At the very least over skype.
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You have some seriously steel balls good sir to do what you just did. Hopefully doesn't fuck you up or anything! I will be reading this with great interest in terms of what happens :p
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Ummm, okay. Totally didn't expect the ending, rather something along the lines of 'now I'm 10000$ poorer but gained valuable experience that people are dicks' or something like that. But hey, more power to you.
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Russian Federation3631 Posts
headers aren't very informative in this case :/
you forgot to remove your rl name in your post though
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Headers aren't helpful here.... Since it was sent over hotmail to gmail all the IP's contianed in the message are just going to be the source/destination servers of microsoft/google (I did dns lookups on all of them and they're registered to official channels, and one of them is in San Diego USA, which I'm assuming is where the OP is from).
Although a huge red flag is the fact that he's sending this from a personal email account (a.king1970@live.com), almost any legitimate business that's hiring an insurance broker/salesman is going to be using a corporate email account.
If you haven't sent them any sort of address or real world contact information other than your name, I'd get out with the free Kindle while you still can. It just doesn't make sense, for them to be employing you without any form of personal face to face communication.
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Screw the kindle, you went to be a "broker assistant"? To learn daytrading? Try working at the big banks and climbing the corporate ladder to really get to know the gurus of daytrading.
Or you could open a mini forex account like me, and learn for yourself!
Also, never trust brokers. You'll learn this when you start learning how to daytrade. Ever heard of stop hunting? It's where the big guys move millions of dollars to move the price of whatever you are trading, so that it hits your stop and then takes off like a rocket, only to come back down exactly where it was only a minute ago.
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To add to 419, HyperionDreamer, and my own comments...
The off-scripting, personal email account from a free service, and grammatical errors are all pointing to something insidious. More importantly, a genuine employer that is being upfront about issues does not utilize vague/meaningless words such as "delays" to address employment issues. Also, they do not offer bonuses for these issues. A typical signing bonus is agreed to during the employment contract, and any other bonuses are performance based or attributed to holiday dividends.
It is still quite apparent to me that you are being scammed here with false promises and that the Kindle may have some seriously illegitimate baggage attached to it. It appears you have not fully checked your computer for malware as well. I suggest you download MBAM and run a full scan. If this not an attempt to 1. utilize your paypal account 2. utilize you as a mule, then it could also be 3. an attempt at identity theft as your completion of the employment contract will likely have given a plethora of personal information.
I suggest you back up important data on a portable hardrive, do a dban nuke/reformat, and contact the police about your situation as well as closely monitor your accounts for transactions.
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EPT
