Don't you just love online scams?

I have been enrolled in a resume-forwarding service for a while, and that's fine. I've gotten some temp assignments thanks to them.

However, I got an email today that is getting filed immediately under "SCAM". They can't vet EVERY company that goes through their listings and sends job opening information, and some of those companies are sending opportunities that are bogus, to say the least.

What would you say if a company told you to find out more about its job opening at xyyCONSALTING.com/careers? (emphasis added by me.) I don't know about you, but I would think, "What? 'Consalting'? They can't even spell 'consulting' correctly?"

But for kicks, I opened a new browser window and typed in the address they provided, misspelling and all. (I never click on links in emails from unknown senders.)

Well, what do you know. xyyconsalting.com/careers actually exists. It's a real site, created with a typo in the name. If the spelling error triggered my suspicions, they were NOT allayed by the fact that a so-called business would let itself have a website with a misspelling in its web address.

However, still more red flags went up when I noticed that the COMPANY NAME displayed prominently at the top of the page was "XXY Consult, Inc.". Note that it's XXY, but the website URL says XYYconsalting.com. Last time I checked, that's not the same thing.

Inconsistency is never good. Still, I clicked on their job opening link, because I was morbidly curious as to what a company that can't correctly spell either its own initials or its primary function in its URL could possibly have to offer.

Uh huh. I figured as much. The "Finance manager" is supposed to take in money from customers and then use money orders, Western Union, or bank transfers to forward the funds along to the company.

It's called money laundering, folks. Why can't the customers send their funds directly to the company? Why do they have to HIRE someone to take the incoming money, put it into a form that absolutely guarantees that money will be going to the end recipient, and send it along to said end recipient?

Also, this trick is used to bilk money out of stolen credit card numbers. They "send" a payment to this poor sap of a finance manager, the finance manager takes the "payment" that they think is actually worth something, and converts the money into a form that really IS worth something. Then they send the money-that's-actually-worth-something along to the end recipient.

Trouble is, the "payment" sent by the "customer" will eventually turn out to be phony. It will have come from a fake cashier's check, a stolen credit card, or some other thing that's worth absolutely nothing. So basically, the poor sap of a Finance Manager will have the "payment" reversed out of his/her account. But since the money order they bought has already been paid for with their own money, the end recipient still has their money. Real money, not fake money like the Finance Manager received.

This "job" will do nothing but clean out the Finance Manager's own bank account, while leaving the "customer" who sent fake money and the employer who received REAL money both in the clear.

Yeah, great. Where do I sign up? NOT.

I hate these bleeping parasites who do these things. It's been a while since I've received this kind of scam "job offer", but clearly there's plenty of fraud out there.

P.S. I tweaked the name of the guilty company. But if you want to see the actual website, substitute "MCC" for "XYY", and instead of "/careers", substitute "/careers.php". But for goodness sakes, don't sign up for their bogus job offer.