Worldsoft easy money scam

Here’s a pretty obtuse way to fish for legitimate email addresses. Pretend you’re a real company, send out a “job offer”, guaranteeing $6000/month for part-time work and see how many knuckleheads take the bait:

Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 08:21:41 +0200
From: “Hollie Whitten” aclaret@lleida.net
Subject: Need Part-time job?

WordSoft Ltd is a custom software development firm located in Sydney, Australia. We offer full cycle custom software programming services, from product idea, offshore software development to outsourcing support and enhancement. WorldSoft Ltd employs a large pool of software engineers coming from different backgrounds. We are able to balance product development efforts and project duration to your business needs.

WordSoft customer service department is currently offering employment for 30 Australian residents and 50 Spanish residents in order to provide it’s new branch with qualified personnel. The private client support desk is responsible for following up client enquiries, helping the clients to understand how WorldSoft Ltd. can save them money on foreign currency transactions, and developing new business through referrals. If you’re a customer service fanatic, and enjoy working in a challenging and rewarding environment, please see below for our current list of opportunities.

Requirements:

• Proficiency in MS Word, Excel & Internet
• Excellent communication skills both oral and written
• Bilingual English language ability is a plus

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- This work does not require any experience!
- This is a work at home
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

During the probationary period (30 days) you will be paid $4500 per month. After the completion of the probationary period your salary will go up to $6000 per month.

Should you have any questions regarding this letter, our offer of employment or anything else, please write me an e-mail. We are excited to have you join our organization and look forward to working with you. Please forward your full resume, contact information and questions to HR dept on e-mail:

recruitsoftcompany@googlemail.com

You will be contacted within 1 to 3 business days.

Thanks,
Recruiting Support Team
WorldSoft Ltd.
recruitsoftcompany@googlemail.com

Unfortunately, the email headers give the game away by exposing a popular spamming tool as the sender:

X-Mailer: The Bat! (v3.5.25) Professional

Some of the other stuff also tells us a fair bit:

Received: from [195.5.124.56] by mx.lleida.net; Thu, 7 Aug 2008 08:21:41 +0200

The mail originates from 195.5.124.56, which belongs to a domain registered to Luganet Ltd in Lugansk, Ukraine. It was then forwarded to lleida.net which belongs to Lleida Networks Serveis Telematics in Lleida, Spain. And this from a company located in Sydney, Australia? Right.

But even if you didn’t know how to look at your email headers, there’s still a couple of easy ways to tell that this is just another spamming hoax, designed to make people part with their email addresses:

If you’re a real company why would you use a googlemail.com account? And is it “WorldSoft” or “WordSoft”? One of them must be wrong.

Posted in Business, Email, Law by Ivan