quote:

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When Shelley Murphy responded to a work-at-home ad, she had no idea she would end up losing $3,500 from her bank account.

Her story illustrates a new and disturbing trend: Fraudsters who make money by looking for people who are looking for work.

While checking jobs posted on the Internet, she saw an ad for V-Tech Computer Ltd. It was setting up temporary branches in Canada and needed people such as financial controllers, account clerks, marketing and sales representatives to work for $30 an hour.

She checked the company's website, which seemed legitimate, and sent her resumé and references. Soon, she was working as a marketing representative.

She wouldn't allow direct deposit of her wages. Instead, she was sent four money orders of $850 apiece issued by Canada Post.

A month after depositing the money orders, she was told they were counterfeit. By this time, the bank had already emptied her account, taking payments to cover her mortgage and other bills. In fact, she ended up $100 in the hole.

Murphy's bank would not cover her losses. Nor did she get any response from the website where she'd seen the ad, TorontoJobShop.ca, which has disclaimers saying it's not responsible for damages caused by job postings.

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The first example (and the one Michelle quotes) is no different in principle from an employer simply failing to pay an employee. The only difference here is that the so called employer is at the other end of an internet connection as opposed to being in the office down the street.

They stole her labour as opposed to raiding her bank account.

The other stories are well known scams - you can generally find variants of these discussed on any board that's talking about the Nigeria letter.

There are inumerable variants - run an ad in the paper offering to sell something and the buyer sends you a check/bank draft/whatever for significantly more than the purchase price. Of course the seller refunds the excess and gives the buyer the item they just purchased. When the original check bounces you're out both the item you were selling and the refund.

The list goes on.

Absolute reprehensible but the results are completely predictable.

[ 04 November 2007: Message edited by: abnormal ]

The old line about "If it seems too good to be true, it likely is" is applicable here.

One of the things that attracts me to the philosophy of modern scepticism is that it isn't just an esoteric debating tool.

The rules of reasoned argument are as handy to the consumer as it is to the internet bloviator.

quote:

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“Since the Bre-X scandal ten years ago, there have dozens of corporate swindles that have bilked average Canadians out of millions of dollars and no one is in jail because we don’t have the laws to put them there,” said
Wasylycia-Leis

Wasylycia-Leis noted that all G8 countries except Canada have made major corporate accountability reforms recently.

“Germany, France and the UK all have new laws in the post-Enron era,” said Wasylycia-Leis. “The United States and Australia introduced tough legislation on accounting and whistleblowers, both under conservative governments. We’re calling on victims of corporate crime to take the lead and join us in fighting for reform

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