Identity theft scam uses job site lists

NEW YORK — Job seekers, watch out. You are the target of a new scam that steals identities through fake job listings.

This warning comes from advocacy group Privacy Rights Clearinghouse and researcher World Privacy Forum, who say they have documented several cases of people who have been scammed recently. The groups point specifically to Macrocommerce Intersales as a suspect in the fraud.

The scam starts with a posting on job Web sites such as CareerBuilder.com, Pickajob.com, TheJobSpider.com and Jobvertise.com. Macrocommerce Intersales’ job postings describe the company as a European seller of electronics willing to pay between $50,000 and $70,000 for a "finance manager."

Anyone who applies then receives an e-mail that asks the applicant to open his or her bank account to the company for wire transfers.

Pam Dixon, executive director of World Privacy Forum, received such an e-mail when she applied for the job, as did the people who contacted her about the problem.

E-mails from the company claim to be from Thomas Becker in Berlin, but the Web site is registered to Osama Eltahtawi in Montgomery, Md. Attempts to reach Eltahtawi were unsuccessful.

The trick is similar to one popularly known as the Nigerian money letter, which asks the recipient to make his or her bank account available to a large wire money transfer in exchange for a portion of the funds.

"Our company agrees to deposit founds (sic) into a company/individual US bank account if the company/individual agrees to accept, 5 percent of these founds as payment for services," reads the e-mail that Dixon received. It then asks for information such as name and address, bank account number, routing number and bank issuer.

"If you’re out of work for a year and you look at something like this, it can really be tempting," Dixon said.

She contacted the job search Web sites that listed the scam as a real job but didn’t get a very good response, she said. One removed the posting immediately, but most of the job search engines didn’t respond, Dixon said.

CareerBuilder.com spokeswoman Jennifer Sullivan said the company immediately removes all postings that appear to be in violation of its standards, as it did with Macrocommerce Intersales.