Dec
I’m pretty sure this is a scam since I don’t have any idea how they know I’m a finance and accounting major, and never gave my email address out to anyone, but I’m having a hard time figuring out just exactly what the scam is since they aren’t asking me for any personal information, even in follow up emails. anyway, this is what the email says:
fromJovita Bernat <jovitabernat0531@hotmail.com>
tog**************@gmail.com (I blocked my email out)
dateWed, Dec 2, 2009 at 4:32 AM
subjectEntry level position at MF GMBH is available now
mailed-byhotmail.com
hide details 4:32 AM (6 hours ago)
MF Group GmBH has a new enty level job opening in the Accounting Department. (No previous accounting experience is required). We are the largest Insurance Company in Europe with a successful long term commitment history.
About the Job:
We are looking for career oriented individual to join our accounting staff. This position is entry level and will be in our financial reporting and operations accounting areas. Candidate will handle various accounting responsibilities, including: perform data entry of journal entries, assist in performing financial transactions, assist with month�end, quarter-end and year-end financial reports, monitor and review transaction details, perform other duties as assigned.
About us:
Ag Int. is an independent, private, owner-managed company since 1993. Our headquarters are in Hamburg, Germany. Founded in 1993, we now have a global network of subsidiaries and offices around the world. Ag Int. has ended the year 2008 with USD3.22 billion in assets under management. The company provides unmatched convenience in Europe and the United States, serving more than 130.000 consumer and business clients. We take a global approach to our core businesses of general and life insurance. The diversity of our portfolio, both geographically and by line of business, is key to our strategy. We offer a comprehensive range of general and life insurance products and services for individuals, small businesses, commercial enterprises, mid-sized and large corporations and multinational companies. Our customers are some of the world’s largest industrial, c ommercial and professional service firms, insurance companies, and financial institutions. They trust us for our superior financial security, risk expertise, and service excellence. They value our fundamental strength � our capital and our people. We aspire to become the leading global insurance group in our chosen markets, and to consistently deliver top-tier results for our shareholders. By so doing, we will create strong relationships with our customers, agents and brokers, and provide rewarding opportunities for our employees.
What we offer:
Full/Part time employment
Compensation 45.000 � 55.000 USD + 13th salary
An excellent growth platform and a great working environment
Zero cost health insurance, matching 401(k)
Annual Partnership Exchange Programs
Free Regular Seminars
What are we looking for:
Must be US citizen or legal alien authorized to work in the US
High School degree (college degree is a plus)
Experience in Accounting/Bookkeeping is a plus
Must be willing to work overtime during certain parts of our month-end process
Ability to handle multiple tasks within a strict timeframe
Must have strong communication skills and customer service background
Should be able to work independently in a team environment
MS Office System Skills
Principals only. Recruiters, please don’t contact this job poster.
This company will appreciate your contributions and you will be valued for your dedication. AG Int. Is an equal opportunity employer and encourages applications from qualified women, minority and disabled candidates.
To Learn more about this position please contact Human Resources Department representative by replying to this E-Mail: alex.nuberg@gmail.com . Your request will be forwarded directly to a Recruitment Officer.
Yes, it’s a scam. I am NOT a finance/accounting major and received the same email. A large company will not recruit employees in this manner and would not use a gmail account. Mine was from piter.herrick@gmail.com. Also, a large company would not state that this position requires a HS diploma, but that a college degree is a plus. Most large companies expect a college degree so unless you are working an internship partnered with your school and are A) excelling in school and B) excelling in your internship, this type of offer would not be common. The other possibility of this type of job offer without a degree is that you are already employed by a company and have demonstrated outstanding performance and capability on the job.
You should cease communication; they are probably looking for your personal information…i.e. social security number, birth date, name…information to steal your identity. You say they haven’t asked…yet, but that will come when they "determine" you are their ideal candidate and want to "finalize" your application.
25 Responses so far to "Hi, is this a scam email I received?"
December 10th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
Yes, this is scam email. called 419 : Nigerian scam
References :
December 10th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
Yup. Old saying: "If it sounds too good to be true, it most likely isn’t!
References :
December 10th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
A large corporation (like they claim to be) would not advertise employment in that manner. Additionally, the "gmail.com" is a dead give-away. A large company would use their own email address. That ad is from one of those employment agencies (headhunters) where you pay THEM to find a job. Stay away please!
References :
December 10th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
It is a great scam.In my early days of blogging one time I was trapped on this. That was a lottery scam operated from senegal.Dont open this type of mail.Often contains virus that can harm your PC.
References :
http://earndollartaka.blogspot.com
December 10th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
Yes, it’s a scam. I am NOT a finance/accounting major and received the same email. A large company will not recruit employees in this manner and would not use a gmail account. Mine was from piter.herrick@gmail.com. Also, a large company would not state that this position requires a HS diploma, but that a college degree is a plus. Most large companies expect a college degree so unless you are working an internship partnered with your school and are A) excelling in school and B) excelling in your internship, this type of offer would not be common. The other possibility of this type of job offer without a degree is that you are already employed by a company and have demonstrated outstanding performance and capability on the job.
You should cease communication; they are probably looking for your personal information…i.e. social security number, birth date, name…information to steal your identity. You say they haven’t asked…yet, but that will come when they "determine" you are their ideal candidate and want to "finalize" your application.
References :
December 10th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
No company in the world is going to pay $45-55k/year for someone with only a High School degree that they haven’t even interviewed in person.
And how funny that a company that has over $3 billion in assets wouldn’t even have enough money to have their own domain names for email. The person sending the email uses a Hotmail account, the supposed HR manager uses a Gmail account. They call themselves MF GMBH in the title, but the About Us is about a company called Ag Int.
Here’s the real MF GMBH http://www.mf-gmbh.de/en/ueber-uns.html
And I can’t find any German company named Ag Int
It’s probably a check overpayment scam. If you reply, they’ll say they want you to process payments from their US customers, deposit the checks in the bank, then wire the money to them keeping a 20% fee. But these are fake checks and you could be arrested for money laundering as well as end up in serious debt.
References :
December 10th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
I am glad you asked this question…..I think it is a scam, because I received the same email too. But its from a different person. I am a business major too.
Effina Mcelrath <effinamcelrath0693@hotmail.com>
tome@gmail.com
dateWed, Dec 2, 2009 at 5:05 AM
subjectPart time employment opportunity
mailed-byhotmail.com
To Learn more about this position please contact Human Resources Department representative by replying to this E-Mail: marina.sonner@gmail.com . Your request will be forwarded directly to a Recruitment Officer.
References :
December 10th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
I am grateful for internet community. I wish I had been smarter in the past as I too have been scammed. Generally, these unsolicited e-mails are for what is called "Money Mule". Trust me, the banks are very aware of this and if you do get involved, you are immediately investigated and told to close all your accounts. For instance, they hack into someone else’s bank account (typically a large corporation) and send a big fat check to your bank account. You are then instructed to "wire" the money to another account minus your "fee". By answering some of these types of e-mail, you put all your personal information at risk and then the next thing you know, someone is hacking into your bank account and using YOUR money to pay cell phone bills, send Western Union Money Grams and they generally do it through 3rd Party bill pay methods. This makes them very difficult to track as the bill pay company will NOT give you any information about the person that paid their bills with your money. BTW, I received the same e-mail this morning and yes, the HR contact name is different then all these other posts.
References :
Personal experience!
December 10th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
Dear tmscarface14 ,
Yes this is indeed a scam. Don’t provide any info. If you read very carefully the entire email you can easily understand that it is fake. A company with USD3.22 billion in assets under management without a website ? come on ….
References :
December 10th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
I got the same email but with a different reply to___E-Mail: marina.sonner@gmail.com.
Probably not legit.
References :
December 10th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
I just received this E-Mail,total scam I’m a union plumber,why contact me
not to mention 3 billion in assets and i’m responding to G-mail………….
where’s the web site.
References :
December 10th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
My email had the initiating address: Hill Schallon <hillschallon8827@hotmail and a reply email address: peter.schtruberg@gmail.com . Scammy McScamScam, mayor of Scammy Town!
References :
December 10th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
THANK YOU for asking this. I just received this email and was skeptical:
fromJeoffrey Run <jeoffreyrun6854@hotmail.com>
To Learn more about this position please contact Human Resources Department representative by replying to this E-Mail: kristina.soller@gmail.com . Your request will be forwarded directly to a Recruitment Officer.
–> Every legitimate company has their own email address. This one is clearly fake. Jerks.
References :
December 10th, 2009 at 7:49 pm
A slew of these emails are coming out. I get updates from the FBI internet crimes section in the FBI website where you can report scam, phishing, etc. type emails to them for investigations. There is an alert for the kind of email that you got today. I got the exact same email, but from another person in the outfit or same one using a different email address. Mine was from:
Chengche Larkins <chengchelarkins894@hotmail.com> and the date was Dec. 2, 4:46am. This type of email is the 2nd one I got this week. I’ve been getting them now for the last few weeks. They are hitting hard now. I was about ready to report my email to them and funny, I got distracted doing something else when I stumbled upon your question.
When you get on the site and tab on the internet crime section, they have a page that has all the breakdowns of the different internet and scam crimes listed with really helpful tips on how to spot them and what steps to take. Regarding how they got your email address, it is impossible to know exactly from where they got it but I do know how they did. If you ever signed up with your email address online, such as school, shopping sites, etc., lists of emails are to be bought or hacked into. If they list a job with online employment, they read a resume, and bingo, have your email address. No fault of the employment site, they can not weed through every job they list. If anyone wants to report suspicious emails, they can go to: http://www.fbi.gov and click on the link on the left side of the home page that says "Report Internet Crime". I hope this will help.
References :
FBI.gov - Internet crime reporting
December 10th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
Yes, it is a scam, better than most I have seen, as the grammar is less atrocious, although still bad.
However, I want to address another matter: why are you opening mail from people you do not know? Opening spam mail alerts the sender that your address is a valid one and they send you loads and loads more.
When an E-mail offer sounds too good to be true, then it is definitely not true.
It is a scam to get your personal information and/or money.
Do not respond to it.
Report it, forward it to the FTC at spam@uce.gov and to the abuse desk of the sender’s ISP.
For yahoo, report them here: http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/mail/ya...
Choose Fraud as the reason for the violation you’re reporting on.
Also, if the E-mail appears to be impersonating a bank or other company or organization, forward the message to the actual organization.
And for your E-mail safety, remember:
Do not ever open E-mail from people you do not know; and unless you are absolutely sure who it is from then treat them as spam.
Never, ever give out your personal information to anyone, for any reason, whether by E-mail, snail mail, phone call, or at your front door.
And do not ever send money, checks or money orders to; or cash checks, money orders for any one - ever.
References :
December 10th, 2009 at 9:00 pm
I received the same email with different names and email addresses.
To answer your question, yes, it is a scam. I am a member of an anti-scam community, and while most scammers have bad grammar and spelling. others have good grammar and spelling skills which fools people into believing that the job is real. This email has a few mistakes in both.
The main tip off is that it comes from a free email address (Hotmail), and the email address that receivers of the email are asked to reply to is another free email address (Gmail). No legitimate company uses free email accounts to contact possible job candidates; companies and HR departments that are real and are looking to hire use their company email address.
Another tip off that this email is a scam is that it is very contradictory. The opening of the email states, "MF Group GmBH has a new enty level job opening in the Accounting Department. (No previous accounting experience is required)" but the next paragraph says, "Candidate will handle various accounting responsibilities, including: perform data entry of journal entries, assist in performing financial transactions, assist with month end, quarter-end and year-end financial reports, monitor and review transaction details."
As a business major who also has a lot of accounting experience, in order to perform the above duties, a person must have some accounting knowledge and experience. It would be very scary for someone without accounting experience and knowledge to perform those tasks.
It was just a coincidence that you received the email and are an accounting major. Like me, you must have created a profile on a job board somewhere. This came to my personal email address and it was after I signed up on snagajob.com. Scammers send out thousands of emails per day, and you and I are just two of the targets that this email went to. Even though they have not asked you for money yet, it is coming. I really hope that you won’t send them any money no matter how wonderful they make the ‘job opportunity’ sound. You won’t receive a thing in return except the loss of your money and possible financial ruin.
I hope this helps to answer your question.
References :
December 10th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
Thank you for asking this and also Thanks to everyone that answered you. I too received the same email with a different name@gmail. That is what made me suspicious first ….then looking at the salary!!!!! Yeah, right! LOL. I have been looking for work for a year and have NO accounting experience! Definitely too good to be true!
References :
December 10th, 2009 at 9:12 pm
I too received the e-mail. Sounds like a scam. When I do a search on the name only your question came up. There is no location for the job. And what large company HR person would be sending e-mails using a hotmail account. Good luck.
Darwin
References :
December 10th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
I got this exact same email today. I agree, it was too good to be true so I Googled it to see who else had received it.
References :
December 10th, 2009 at 9:45 pm
Hello,
My email was from Jeremy Morales. What tells me this is a scam is both of their email addresses end in @hotmail.com. If they were rep’ing for a large corp over in Europe, don’t you think their email would be something like j.morales@bayer.com, not hotmail.
I think they want us to respond because they are prospecting for "live ones". They come on slowly, trying to sound professional - I didn’t see any typo errors on this one. If you are on linkedin, that could be how they found you, or facebook, etc.
I see several of these a week, they still find ways to squeeze thru my isp provider’s junk filters.
References :
December 10th, 2009 at 10:32 pm
I am not an accountant and I do not know anything about that, however, I did receive exactly the same e-mail. Hard to say what’s the scam, but since they send it massively to many people, it is very suspicious…
References :
December 10th, 2009 at 11:01 pm
I recieved the same email that was sent by wellskeith1970@hotmail.com and noted the HR department as soffer.mory@gmail.com. My best guess is that it is a scam of some sorts. Legitimate companies do not use hotmail or gmail.
References :
December 10th, 2009 at 11:23 pm
Hi Jovita,
I got the same exact email and also believe it is a scam. Unlike you however, I am not an accountant type of any sort. My expertise is in the IT Operations and Service Delivery field. I would guess that this is just the initial lure and would be followed up with them requesting further information (personal data) during their "processing" phase. Then they could possibly attempt identify theft of those who responded and provided their personal data.
I hope people think long and hard about responding to unsolicited emails professing employment offers such as this.
Scott
References :
December 10th, 2009 at 11:50 pm
I received the same letter. Of course, I have worked in accounting and I am looking for a job. I have also been trying to figure what the scam could be.
References :
December 11th, 2009 at 12:19 am
It is a scam. Your job will be to deposit checks that you receive and send them 90% or so by wire. The 10% is your pay. In about 2 months the checks will bounce and you may be arrested for passing counterfeit checks.
₪ ʎəɿʞɹɐq ₪
References :