If you’ve been following along at home, I added a new category for blog posts, “Kenny Responds to Scams.” For those of you who don’t know, I lost my job two months ago, and I’m still trying to look for a new one. In doing so, I’ve been spamming the hell out of Monster.com and Craigslist looking for anything to do, as I have mounds of bills about to pile up. I’m sure you all know, like email, Craigslist and Monster postings aren’t all real, some of them are scams.
Under this new category, I respond to obvious emails of people attempting to scam me. I already have two posts which fall under this category, and they’ve been recategoried as such. After the break, I’ll have the third email in this series.
Date: Mon, 22 Aug 2011 02:10:14 +0530<
From: HR Alexia Jones hralexiajones@ultisoftware.info
Reply-to: "hralexiajones@ultisoftware.info"
To: "Kenny Wells"
Hello,
Thank you for emailing us in regards to the available job opening. Good ne=
ws, we would like to setup an interview with you! Please login through Fac=
ebook to access our corporate website and learn more job details including =
hours, salary, and more information about our company -
http://ultisoftware.info?id=3D8d3f95c230
We look forward to setting up an interview with you next week!
Best Regards,
Alexia Sanchez
HR Department
My Response
Hello Alexia.I’m curious as to which company you represent. I see that you’re in HR, but for whom? I tried going to ultisoftware.info but it just redirects to a different URL and displays a blank page. The whois information for the domain shows that it’s “guarded” by Whoisguard. Why anyone would guard important domain contact information is beyond me.Also, who runs their corporate website off of Facebook (aside from Facebook)? You have a domain, as evident by your email and the link you provided. There are plenty of low cost providers of web presence if you’re unable/unwilling to host yourself. So please, give me valid contact information for your company, or don’t bother contacting me.
i have recieved the same one and also another email saying the same thing. several different times, and also the time that they send it, ive gotten an email from an unknown hr department at 2:30 in the morning.
Hello Kenny,
Happened across this while trying to search for “Ultisoftware” m’self. Regrettably I’m in a similar situation where I’ve been using Craigslist among a number of sites to hopefully turn something up by way of a job. In my case the letter was signed “HR Karen Cook,” but all the rest of the wording is the same. I had a feeling from the tone of that response that something was fishy, but wasn’t really sure… Thanks for posting about your experience! Now I am certain it was illegitimate, and will avoid any further contact.
I received the same!! Thanks so much for putting this out there!!
Emily
got the same message…seemed fishy and you just helped comfirm my thinking…thanks!
Thanks for checking out the site, guys. I’m glad I could help you out John, I mostly started doing this as a joke, but I’m glad that I could be of service to people who may be on the fence with these kind of deceptive emails.
@NearlyWise Yea, I’ve gotten several emails with the exact same body but differing names as to whom they’re from. Pretty much any time I see that it’s from HR but they neglect to say who they work for, it’s an instant sign that it’s fake. Any good HR person would know to put the company they work for.
The only time a hiring company would remain nameless is if they’re hiring through a staffing agency, but you would be contacted through said staffing agency and they would sign their mail with their company, not just HR Department.
@klmedrano Yea, it’s a little fishy getting an email from an HR dept at 2:30am. I don’t know of any HR person who willing stays in the office past 5pm or arrives before 9am. 24 hour HR does sound awesome, but I don’t even think Unions would allow that.
Once again, thanks for checking out the site. Please feel free to check out my other posts.
Wow, I just got the same thing, I knew it sounded wierd. Glad I search for it and found you! lol… really bummed it’s just a scam. Good luck on the job hunting guys…
When I clicked the link it took me to my facebook page :S
Going to change my password just incase. Thanks for the info. =]
I got the same one as Nearly Wise. Mine was from HR Karen Cook. It’s really a shame these whatever they are feel they have nothing better to do than jerk honest job searching people around. But, in craigslist’s defense, that is where I have found my last 3 jobs.
Anyone looking for something in a call center, get in touch with me and I can certainly “turn you on”. My company is hiring.
just stumbled across this blog tonight researching an email from a Co. I’ve never heard of ….what state are you in Katy? I worked several years for a telecommunications support company and the job search just seems endless! ( I moved over 100 miles away from my old company due to marriage – that’s been my silver lining
~ )
I’m in the job market after moving almost 2000 miles away from my old place of work, so I feel your pain.
I too got the information from Craigslist. What a waist of time for those of us seriously looking for work. Someone needs to come up with a system of weeding out the legitimate
from those that are not. With so many people desperately looking for work this just takes up valuable time and creates false hope. We don’t need more stress! Makes one wonder how legitimate the rest of their job postings are. Thanks.
I have a system for weeding out those illegitimate ads from the legitimate, but it doesn’t kick in until I get the first reply email. There are a few signs of a job not being real such as the pay for it is much higher than one would expect of a job of that type, any extraneous data in the job posting, or a big one, pictures. I mean, some legitimate ads can have pictures in the posting, but nine times out of ten, a real posting will be text only.
Well, I got another email from the same people. This is what they sent…The position will require you to work in a high financial environment so it’s our corporate policy that we do a financial verification check on all employees to verify applicant registration info. Its corporate policy that we have applicants sent through our link so we are compliant with the U.S employment standards act. Please copy and paste this link into your browser and complete the free report now: http://techproperties.info?id=f85ada9019
I am not filing out a credit report for someone who feels the need to go through facebook for people to check out their company. Like they say….if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck…..you fill in the rest.
Oh and the person’s name who sent the email today, Michelle Verano…just a heads up.
Katy
Any link that ends with a .info I usually regard as a scam. On top of that, it’s one of those things where if they need to do a financial background check, they’ll have you sign something in person, and they’ll do it, not trust the employee to do it themselves. Thanks for the heads up, Katy.
I have also been emailing different ads on Craigslist. Most of them have been scams. I spoke with a representative with CL. They don’t care. Not that they say that, they just don’t care. So, I have an IT friend, and we started doing some research on these companies, or so called companies. I have a dozen of IP addresses that I have handed over to a friend that works for a federal investigating agency. Some of those IP’s matched up to real names. Most of the ones I investigated were from the west coast and London. One IP address linked to 72 ads on various sites on the internet. What they get from doing this is not a crime. They get commissions from different companies for every link associated to them is accessed. CL representative told me if I could find out the “company” paying the commissions I could contact them, and they will cease any connection with the associate. That is not true, and finding this information is harder than get the President’s personal cell phone number. There are 2 IP addresses that I have linked to illegal activity, both are from the UK. They say they are in the SF bay area, they have you do some work, out of your home, with your computer (and your IP address), and then pay you with worthless checks and money orders. Most of these are stolen, and some are down right out fakes. I honestly believe CL will not find you a job, and it is a total waste of time. Try CareerBuilder’s, they seem to be ok. I have gotten several leads from them. Kenny, I wish you well, and good luck.
Thanks for the comment and the kind words.
Does any one ever respond back to you, lol? I’ve been looking for part time work via craigslist/monster/snagajob/ect, but only spam. I’ve been replying back with profanities. It makes me fees better, in some way, on the inside.
Unfortunately the only responses I’ve received having been auto replies. If you look here you can see that exchange. It would be nice if they responded, but they’re just looking for that initial in to get you hooked. If you don’t fall for their tricks, their plan has failed. I think the only thing that really saves me from getting worse things to happen to me is that I always attach my resume as a PDF when replying. I have a feeling that the bots they use to sift through their email only read emails, but if they sift through your resume, I doubt they’d be written to look through a PDF.
You should check out http://forum.419eater.com/. They even have there some scam baiting coaching program. Maybe you could get them then involved in a longer dialogue