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Story URL: http://www.silicon.com/research/specialreports/thespamreport/0,39025001,39126091,00.htm

Phishing 'mules' lured in with phoney job ads
It turns out 'get rich working from home' ads aren't all they're cracked up to be... who would have thunk it?

By Will Sturgeon

Published: Tuesday 23 November 2004

A number of job ads offering the chance to make good money working just one or two hours per day from home have been exposed as part of the money-laundering operations of organised phishing scammers.

The ads, which have been arriving in users' email inboxes since the weekend offer jobs with a company called ICG Commerce - which steals the name of a genuine US company unrelated to the offer.

With many people applying for jobs online and via email these days the scammers clearly hope the opening line of the email, which states "I've reviewed your CV and I'd like to propose you a good opportunity to join our great team" will lure unsuspecting job seekers into the scam.

There is a link in the email to a website purporting to be that of ICG, but even an independent check on the company name may lead recipients to the website of the genuine company, adding an apparent layer of credibility to the offer.

Once signed up, it is feared victims' personal details, including bank details which are disclosed to employers for payroll purposes, may be stolen after the unwitting 'mules' are first duped into opening new accounts for the purposes of conducting their new jobs.

Alex Shipp, senior antivirus technologist at MessageLabs, said: "The fastest way for phishers to transfer money is between accounts in the same bank and the easiest way for them to do this is to recruit unsuspecting dupes to act for them by opening up bank accounts and transferring money on the phisher's behalf."

"These people are actually money laundering, but usually do not realise it," added Shipp.

MessageLabs has intercepted 20,000 of the emails since they first appeared over the weekend and he is warning email users tempted by the offer of extra income to be on the lookout.

As with many other email scams it is likely the details of this one will quickly evolve and assume the identity of other companies with similarly contrived yet compelling offers for the gullible recipient and email users should be on the lookout for any job offers which sound at implausible or 'too good to be true' - especially if they have not been applying for jobs.