Hot off the press! Or... am I paranoid!

[Lisa Siegel]

Oh, this one is VERY CLEVER! If it isn't, I'm just getting paranoid!

It comes with an attachment, but DO NOT OPEN IT!!!!

It is sent by someone who says he is Albert Wagner and the Subject line reads: "Vacancies". I recommend you read it, so you can see how clever he is. : )

Here it goes:

You can earn money and help children with us. We receive donations in United States, you have a possibility to become a "Freelance financial representative" of our organization. Requirements: - free 2-3 hours a day; - 21+ years old; - Honest, responsible and prompt in operations; - Have an adaptable, flexible and professional attitude; - Polite, tactful; - Have constant internet access for communication with us via e-mail. This job will give you: - part-time employment; - communication and business skills for working in other spheres of activity; - possibility to combine this job with your full-time employment and own schedule. Your job will be processing payments from our partners. You processing: 1) Accept payments on your account and distribute them 2) Accept check payment Our company is in Germany. We are not so long ago began to accept donations in the U.S.. Direct translations in Germany takes a long time. To do this we need staff that will process these payments. Your job will not take you long time. If you really want to work with us please contact us. The contract you will find all the information. Read it carefully and if you want to work with us sign it and send us

Our mailing address is: Kottbusser Damm 72 Berlin, Berlin 7456 Copyright (C) 2010 WagnerINC All rights reserved.

[Sue Copening]

Lisa... You don't seem to finish this.... are you meaning that this is one of those email scam's where they try to suck you into cashing money orders, or giving them your bank account info?

Looks like one to me too!

Can you believe that not only do people fall for things like this... I heard that one city had a comptroller that invested a bunch of city money (that they basically embezzled) into one of those scams. They figured they would replace the city money before it was missing... but... OOPS!

I used to have a friend who was a financial planner who would forward along all these "scam" emails... you know the ones that say Bill Gates is going to pay you... or whatever. They were so obviously scams... I was glad he wasn't investing MY money... being as gullible as he was. Yikes!
.

[Lisa Siegel]

Dear Sue,
First of all, I want to tell you I'm extremely honored to see that you have read something I've written! Thank you!
On the other hand, you would not believe how frequently, how directly and how specifically we as translators (independent contractors) are targeted by these scammers.
I have been known to file complaints with the FBI Fraud Alert Unit and have posted tons of warnings on sites and blogs where my colleagues frequent. However, to be honest with you... When I tried to 'cut and paste' the email on Walls and other social sites like LinkedIn, etc., I was limited by the amount of characters. That was why I figured I could just post this quickly and maybe give ConnectionsGroups an extra 'plug', since I have been able to post this warning that I wanted people to see 'as is', because it really looked so legitimate.
Again, I appreciate your visit and remain,
Respectfully yours,
Lisa

[Sue Copening]

.
Is German a language you translate?

I looked up the address for that "company" and it is a legitimate address ... but all the links are in German.

It's good you report those... though I doubt any agency has the resources to investigate. I was targeted by a local check fraud ring a few years ago (they were stealing checks out of mail boxes)... and I could find no local police agency interested in investigating.

The only one that WAS... was the Post Office. The local police were SO disinterested I could not even get them to pick up a VIDEO at a Kmart where I found a check on my account had been cashed (I figured they kept the videos over the registers for a time - and they did). I called Kmart and they agreed to hold the video for the police... but the police refused to pick it up ("not their job").
.