Fraud Aid Update Help for Advance Fee Victims
The new and revamped FraudAid site is up, Fraud recognition and prevention education, fraud victim advocacy, law enforcement support
If you have been victimized by a cheque cashing scam, described in detail by FraudAid below, then definitely check out this site.
The scam is composed of the following elements:
1. Persuading a job seeker to respond to an employment ad hiring Payment Processors for a foreign company at 5% to 20% commission for each payment processed. Payments to be processed may be for alleged products or services, alleged donations to a charity, alleged investment fund deposits, or any other excuse that is effective and persuasive.
In some instances, the job seeker is “hired” as a collection agent and provided with a list of [fake] companies to contact for delinquent payments. The victim, whom we refer to as a “scamployee,”
2. Stealing the personal information of the job seeker and gaining access to his or her computer
• by malicious code embedded in the HTML of email correspondence that downloads to the job seeker’s computer when the email is opened;
• by backdoor malware that is sent to the job seeker’s computer when the author receives an email receipt confirming that the recipient is online and opened the author’s email;
• by malicious code embedded in the HTML of a fake corporate web site to which the victim is sent.
3. Selling that information into Identity Theft Black Market Databases.
4. Persuading the job seeker to believe a legitimate foreign company has hired him or her as a Payment Processor. The job seeker is now a job seeker victim.
5. Sending funds from account holder victims to the job seeker victim in the form of counterfeit paper instruments or wire transfer of funds stolen from an account holder's (Identity Theft victim) checking or credit card account.
When funds are wired directly into the job seeker victim's bank account or credit card account, or when the job seeker victim is sent an electronic check, the account holder victims are also Identity Theft victims.
6. Instructing the job seeker victim to wire all but their 5% to 20% commission to various so-called company officers or company authorized personnel, and to do this by Western Union, Moneygram, or bank-to-bank transfer.
7. Getting the victim to do this as often as possible before the scam is discovered either by the victim, the victim's bank, or the check-cashing store where the victim cashed the check or money order.
