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Beware of the Job Offer
Case 1: Ramesh (name is not real) in Madurai received an e-mail from Omni Hotel Canada as follows:
WORK AND LIVE IN CANADA
OMNI ROYAL HOTEL MANAGEMENT <publicize_omniroyalhotel@walla.com> wrote:
THIS IS OMINI ROYAL HOTEL CANADA.
I AM MRS ROSE GILBSON THE PUBLICITY OFFICER OF OMNIROYAL HOTEL CANADA ,HEREBY INFORM THE PUBLIC THAT THERE ARE SOME VACANCY IN OUR HOTEL.WE NEED SOME GROUP OF ABLEMEN AND WOMEN ALL OVER THE WORLD WHO CAN WORK AND ALSO LIVE HERE CANADA.
HOTEL WILL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR AIR TICKET TO CANADA AND FREE ACCOMODATION. FOR FUTHER INFORMATION'S ON APPLICATION GUIDELINE THE INTERESTED APPLICANT OR APPLICANT'S SHOULD CONTACT US THROUGH OUR E- MAIL ADDRESS.
NOTE; FOR IMMIDIATE CONSIDERATION REPLY TO OUR EMAIL ADDRESS INCLUDING YOUR RESUME.
E MAIL;info_omniroyalhotel@canada-11.com
THANKS.
SIGN BY
MADAM ROSE GILBSON.
PUBLICITY OFFICER.
OMNI ROYAL HOTEL CANADARamesh sent his bio data and received the following response:
DEAR APPLICANT,
FOR YOUR INFORMATION YOU ARE HEREBY TO INFORM THAT WE HAVE SEEN YOUR APPLICATION FORM FILLED AND YOUR RESUME ATTACHED.KINDLY FORWARD THE FILLED FORM TO THE IMMIGRATION DIRECTLY TO THEIR HEAD OFFICE IN OTTAWA CANADA THROUGH THIS..........................
EMAIL;immigration_post@canada.com THE FORMAL EMAIL INDICATED TO YOU IS CHANGED,BECAUSE WE GOT INFORMATION FROM THE IMMIGRATION BUREAU AND THEY WERE TELLING US TO DISSIMINATE THE INFORMATION TO OUR VARIOUS APPLICANT'S FOR SECURITY REASONS.
KINDLY REGARD.
OMNI ROYAL HOTEL MANAGEMENT.
Ramesh followed up with the given address and received the following e-mail:
IMMIGRATION BUREAU OTTAWA, CANADA.
DEAR APPLICANT(s),
WE ARE SET TO SERVE YOU TO YOUR MAXIMUM SATISTATION, WE HAVE SEEN THE FORM SENT FROM CANADA HOTELS TO YOU.
YOU ARE DEMANDED TO PROCURE THE FOLLOWING DOCUMENTS IMMEDIATELY.
YOU ARE DEMANDED TO PROCURE THE FOLLOWING ,
[A ] HOTEL ACCOMODATION PAYMENT RECEIPT
[b] BIRTH CERTIFICATE
[C] INVITATION LETTER FROM CANADIAN HOTEL
(D)MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE IF YOU ARE MARRIED
(E)SCAN VALID INTERNATIONAL PASSPORT
NOTE
ALL THESE SHOULD BE SCANNED IN COMPUTER AND SEND TO IMMIGRATION BUREAU OTTAWA.
THE CANADIAN IMMIGRATION BUREAU WILL ASSESS YOUR DOCUMENTS, AND IF APPROVED, WE SHALL SUBMIT YOUR DOCUMENTS TO YOUR COUNTRY / CONTINENT FOR VERIFICATION OF GENUINENESS AS YOU ARE IN THE SAME CONTINENT FOR FINAL APPROVAL BEFORE YOUR VISA WILL BE ISSUED.
AFTER SUCESSFUL INTERVIEW AND LEGAL VERIFICATION OF DOCUMENTS, YOU WILL BE REQUIRED TO GO TO THE CANADIAN EMBASSY IN YOUR COUNTRY WITH THE BELOW AFORMENTIONED.
THANKS
DIRECTOR OF IMMIGRATION
Mr John BrownRamesh also received the following communication;
THE HEAD QUARTERS OF COORDINATOR/NATURALIAZATION U.S.A CANADA
AFRICA/ ASIA CO-ORDINATORS , ADDRESS # 24NH CLOSE 54FLO TORONTON CANADA
U.S.A Canada coordinator/naturalization
24nh close 54flo Toronto Canada
Mr. Bruno Kandy
No:28 Kariaba Avenue
The Gambia West Africa
MR. Steven Haword
#104 Airport Road, Dakar Senegal
West Africa
FILL THIS FORM FOR YOUR VISA APPROVAL LETTERS.
Country of origin -______________________ Date of birth __________PassPort number________________________
Tel Phone Number________________Fax Number____________
Gender __male______ /__female______ Marital status ____________
Occupation _______________________Years of experience ________
Registration fees
Africans and Asia ……………………… U.S $ 171 dollars each person
our job here is to screen all the nationalities from Africa and Asia who are visiting The USA and Canada
2, if the applicant is unable to visit the zonal office, he or she should fill this form and send it to the zonal office together with $171 us dollar for each applicant for approval registration fee.
OUR PAYMENT IS U.S $171 DOLLARS, TO EVERY OF THE APPLICANT ASPIRING TO CANADA FOR VISITING, INVITATION, AND JOB APPOINTMENT,
YOUR SHALL FILL OUR FORM AS SOON AS POSSIBLE TOGETHER YOUR $171 U.S DOLLARS, TO ENABLE US PREPER YOUR VISA APPROVAL LETTER WHICH YOU WILL USE IN COLLECTION OF YOUR VISA PIN CODE,
WE ONLY RECEIVE MONEY THROUGH INTERNATIONAL MONEY GRAM HERE IN OUR OFFICE IN CANADA ,
Mr. Bruno Kandy
NO 28 KAIRABA AVENUE
THE GAMBIA WEST AFRICA.
GENERAL CO-ODINATOR NAME IN CANADA
PROFF DEMBA NERUS
ADDRESS,
NO 24NH CLOSE 54FLO TORONTO CANADA
THIS IS WHAT WE NEED FROM YOU PAYMENT THROUGH MONEY GRAM
NAME OF THE SENDER __________________________________
NAME OF THE RECEIVER.
PROFESSOR DEMBA NERUS....................................................... .......................................
PIN NUMBERS OR REFRENCE NUM____________________________________________
TEST QUESTION__________________________________________
ANSWER__________________________________________________
WHICH COUNTRY THAT MONEY SEND OUT ?______________________
Ramesh was happy that he would be getting a foreign job and sent the payment. In response he got an e-mail suggesting that he should remit a sum of US $ 500/- towards consultancy charges indicating the bank account details.
He was also informed over phone from Canada where a sweet young lady's voice stated that there are more vacancies and he can suggest any of his friends if interested. Ramesh was a good Samaritan and told some of his friends. Six other friends joined him and all of them went to ICICI Bank to get foreign exchange.
ICICI Bank manager was another good Samaritan and told them that it would be difficult to release foreign exchange for the stated purpose without further documents but gave a suggestion that the money can be remitted as a "Gift". Ramesh and his friends did not bother and signed whatever form the Banker held out and the money was remitted.
There afterwards, Ramesh and his friends waited and waited until they realized that they had perhaps been conned. The matter is referred to Naavi for his views. It takes less than five minutes for Naavi to provide Ramesh and his friends with a copy of the e-mail received from another similar victim from Omni Hotel Canada that the offer was a fraud and there was no person by the name Mrs Rose suggested in the e-mail working in their Hotel.
What was sad in this episode was that though enough information was available on the web with a simple google search, neither the seven job aspirants who collectively paid US $ 3500/- nor the Bank manager of ICICI had enough awareness to check out. On the part of the ICICI Bank it may be stated that the employee was inept, lacked the basic knowledge for the job and had in fact facilitated the fraud by suggesting violation of foreign exchange regulations.
Case 2: A Senior Geologist in Trichy receives an e-mail on similar lines and proceeds to remit US 350/-.
He checks out with Naavi through e-mail. Naavi again makes a search and locates the website of the Petroleum Company in whose name the e-mail had been sent and finds that the Company has already posted an alert on their website about such frauds.
Geologist escapes further damage.
Case 3: A Lady in Nagercoil reveives a job offer from a consultant in UK. On responding to the e-mail with the resume, she received a confirmation of a job in United Nations along with an application form carrying the logo of UNICEF. There was a request for payment of US $ 1850/- which was sent along with the copies of Passport etc. Nothing happenned.
She is still waiting for the promised tickets to travel abroad.
Case 5: A software employee receives an e-mail with a job offer from Malaysia..on lines similar to above
Case 6: A consultant receives an offer for the post of General Manager of a Telecom company in South Africa
These incidents represent a few which have come to our knowledge in the last few months. These appear to be the tip of the ice berg and there must be several hundreds in Tamil Nadu and may be thousands in India who might have lost amounts from US $ 150 to US $ 2000. Some of them might have given up other job offers and also borrowed money for taking up these jobs.
It is important for every job aspirant to remember that these are well established frauds which are referred to as "Advance Fee Frauds" and are a part of the international scam falling in the category of Nigerian Frauds and Lottery Frauds.
Some of these cases have been referred to the Police. However the local police are not able to take up international investigations involved in this regard since they will have to refer them to Interpol through CBI. CBI is not interested in such cases where the frauds of individual nature and values which according to them are insignificant.
The market is therefore fertile for several more such frauds unless the concerned members of the society do not take some action.
The first and foremost is to take the information about such frauds to the public through local Press and TV.
Second is to provide a "Fraud Complaint Collection Mechanism" (Naavi.org can act as the Information collection service and any person can send details to naavi@vsnl.com.
Lastly the Police and CBI should realize that these are crimes against the society and they need to take action suo-moto without waiting for individual complaints nor looking at the value of individual losses. There is a need to set up a special cell to handle such crimes who are given powers to investigate abroad.
Police can also suggest Cyber Cafe owners to put up notices on their premises to warn the browsers.
We must remember that most of these frauds may even be providing money to drug and terrorist syndicates and hence cannot be considered as ordinary crimes and people should suffer if they are ignorant enough to get themselves conned.
I urge local press to take up this cause and provide enough publicity to such frauds so that people are alerted.
Naavi
March 25, 2007
Related Article: List of Advance Fee Fraud Scheemes
