The offer
This morning I was saddened to get a mail from a friend in Brazil forwarded from a Zelda Coatings and Construction (not linked). The content of their offer (they were selected for approach from a jobs site rather quickly) was for a project management job - with some unusual hooks:
- Basic Salary: Between £120,000.00 GBP - £180,000.00 GBP per annum (this is will be disclosed after interview).
- Allowances: Hazard/Inconveniences allowance is 10% of Basic salary. Entertainment allowance is 5% of Basic salary. All allowances are paid weekly and locally in Pounds equivalent at the existing exchange rates.
- Paid Home Leave: All expatriates are entitled to a one (1) month paid home leave, which can be taken once at a time. All expatriates shall be entitled to a leave allowance (in Pound) of an additional 100% of their basic salary. All expatriates are entitled to free flight tickets to cover the span of their home leave.
Now I don't work in the construction industry, but I see it as a low margin, high risk sort of place - offering a salary of three times the Market Price seems an extraordinary offer!
The catch
This offer is (I guess) designed to appeal to people from outside the UK; and therein comes the rub; you need to attend an interview here - but (not to worry) - they will refund the fare later. For a large & reputable company - I would expect a detailed telephone interview first before they ask you to travel anywhere.
"With respect to the expected timeline of work take-off, Zelda Coatings & Construction Company has mandated a reliable travel agency based on your choice of travel documentation to ensure the processing of all travelling Document/immigration particulars.
If the conditions stated above are acceptable to you, you are hereby directed to contact the designated travel consultant (with your contact information) so that they can start the processing of your relevant documents/immigration particulars to facilitate your travel."
This travel agency turns out to be "Latona Travel" - which has another web-site long on (presuambly stolen) stock images. I wonder if you insist on paying your own way - whether they will continue to humour you and let you knowingly burn that money, or not.
For the benefit of anyone that wants to fund a criminal underworld, their details are as follows
RECEIVER’S NAME: Elizabeth Olivia MONREAL RECEIVER’S ADDRESS: 1 New Change Road, London EC4M 9AF, UNITED KINGDOM. ID NUMBER: 9170433600513
Nice web-site content
Apart from being a 'coatings' company (ie. usually paint) - they appear to have lots of nice case studies (without deep links or supporting press releases), and have stolen lots of content. The (apparently authentic) Jones Bros appeared to get ripped off eg.
The domain name registrant (who may be another victim) is one Kelly Dodder of 85 Dogwood LnApt/Suite, Fairfield, Connecticut, 06824 United States - which looks odd in itself.
Update 2017-04-05: now the company appear to have a google-maps annotation; but if you use street view to find any sign of their logo - you rapidly discover it is just a junk-yard (there is something apt about that).
Actions
Up to you - but I would recommend immediately cancelling any credit cards you may have given them details for. I'd also recommend a holiday in the UK - it's a lovely place - although I suspect the scammers of not being based here.
Update: - apparently the scammers ask for a money transfer; presumably to avoid delay to making off with your money.
Comment
I assume that every permutation of scams will eventually be tried; it is interesting that the initial ones preyed on people's avarice and dishonesty: "I will transfer millions to your bank account, then you share with me" - with subsequent scams appealing to another demographic: "I want to donate a large sum to your religious charity" - to perhaps capture a more virtuous but still credulous lot. Where will it end ?
It seems particularly sad to prey on vulnerable people who are between jobs, and extract potentially limited free capital from those who may not have much of a float to keep them going. Sadly our anti-fraud systems are insufficiently quick to deal with this stuff, but my hope is that eg. Google's Anti-Phishing team are faster.
