Work-From-Home Spam Mails Defraud Innocent People

Researchers at UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham) Spam Data Mine are urging people to exercise caution while thinking about a "work-at-home" employment, particularly those offered through e-mail. The Spam Data Mine of UAB gathers a large amount of e-mails for providing researchers with spam intelligence and to determine fresh attack techniques.

Gary Warner, UAB's Director of Research in Computer Forensics, says that the number of job offers for 'work-at-home' coming via spam mails has spiked with students returning to schools.

These e-mail messages are advertisements that actually boost online crime. These ads often target mothers who desire to work from home because their children are at school age, or are fresh college students looking for an additional income.

Moreover, a number of 'work-at-home' job offers is circulating, belonging to scams that appeal to audiences looking to get rich fast, though they demand an investment at first without yielding any return at the time of winding up. Majority of these 'work-at-home' jobs require the job seeker to first buy a training session from the employees who are in reality scammers. As per a new incident, the training is for seven weeks with a scheme to purchase multiple lessons before receiving a 'certificate' authorizing the potential employee as a Rebate Processor. The problem arises when a person gets no work after receiving the certificate.

Warner also cautions of employment offers that make reference to "financial services" or "foreign currency transactions", as these hunt for people who can be used as a "Money Generating Mule". The work assigned to this Mule relates to allowing a receipt of stolen money into his private bank account for subsequently transferring the funds overseas, retaining a small amount as his commission.

Another recently widespread scam is Freelance Homewriters. This scam offers the recipient to set up his own business by writing blog posts, short stories or articles for several companies in the locality. However, according to UAB, to begin the business, users are required to pay $2.95 up-front and $47 as monthly subscription. Moreover, after depositing the money, a number of victims reported that they got no work whatsoever.

» SPAMfighter News - 9/20/2008