Another twist on the scam (false checks from Eastbiz Corporation)

Yesterday I wrote about a scam when someone sent hundreds of false checks written from our company (Eastbiz Corporation) bank account without us knowing anything. We are getting phone calls and more information from victims.

We are learning that scammers are using several ways how to get victims involved. Victims replied to ads with job offers. They applied for short term loans and were told to accept bigger amount with explanation they will get lower payments. They are always asked to send some money back by Western Union to scammers.

BTW: The info in the letters is the address of the scammer. This is where the money are supposed to go. I just hope police or someone will give them visit soon!

Here is another twist of this scam:

EVALUATION INSTRUCTIONS

Dear Survey Agent,

You will be evaluating the Wal-mart store and Western union outlet in your City. The Payment sent to you ($3,300) covers all expenditures including evaluation, shopping, transport and your compensation which is $200.00 for this survey.

You are to purchase Goods of your Choice for your own Use at the Wal-mart store in your City which you are evaluating, spending not more than a $50.00 and deduct an extra $25.00 for transportation cost.

Also as regards Western union, we will be using our company feed-back mechanism; therefore you will be sending funds through Western union outlet in your City to our receiving agent.

You will take a total of $3025 to the Western union outlet you are evaluating; you will have to deduct the western union transfer charges from the $3025 you are sending out and not from your share.

Please send all Western union transactions to the details below to our agent.

Name-Steven Luckett

Address- 4041 Malcom road

City- Norcross

State-  Georgia

zipcode- 30093

Below are details you need to send once funds have been transferred to the Agent’s Name and Address which is above:

– Sender’s Full Name and Address.

- Secret question and answer (if any)

- Western union transfer charges

- Actual Amount sent

- MTCN

After Evaluation, ensure that you send back (via Email) Western union MTCN  [10 digits] and Wal-mart reports as it is required for Company feedback purposes on service delivery.

EXPENDITURE BREAKDOWN:-

Compensation ………………………..$200.00

Wal-mart……………………………..  . $50.00

Transportation ……………………… $25.00

Please remember what we are really after are the lines of question stated below, those are guidelines that you will lookout for during your visits to Wal-Mart and Western union.

GUIDELINES:-

-How long it took you to get services.

-Ambiance/Outlook of the Shop/Outlet

-Smartness of the attendant

-Customer service professionalism

-Reactions when under pressure

-Information that you think would be helpful

-Your comments and impressions.

-Your personal opinion

We are counting on you and we expect a detailed report. Please get back to us if

You have something’s to know about your Evaluation.

Thank you.

Hiring Manager

Frank James.

Email of the scammer: evaluationteam09@rogers.com

From: Frank James

Sent: Thursday, February 11, 2010 10:39 AM

Subject: FIRST SURVEY / EVALUATION INSTRUCTIONS ATTACHED!(SECRET SHOPPER)

Dear  Tracie Miller,

Please note that your package for Evaluation has been sent out via USPS,and it should have been delivered to you or it will surely get to you todayor tommorow

You are to start your survey immediately you receive the package from USPS, the package contains the payment which is for your evaluation and the payment you will use to carry out your evaluation at the Western Union and Wal-mart store.

More details has been attached to this email  below as the Evaluation Instruction and will also be sent to you in the next email you will get, which will let you know more on how you will proceed in doing your survey.

Please make sure that you have highlighted the Wal-mart and Western Union outlets in your area. You will be evaluating both Services between 24 hours after you have received the package from USPS and the first three people to give their reports  before 24 hours is going to get a free bonus.

Ensure that you confirm via Email to us when you receive the package and that you understand how to proceed with it .

***I look forward to read an email from you soon as possible to confirm you got this update .

Thanks,

Frank James.

Be aware. These are scams! Don’t fall for it.

Eastbiz corporation fake checks scam – Craig Hatcher fraud

This morning was quite hectic. I was in the middle of business meeting when one my employees informed me that something is going on with our checking account. We got a phone call from a stranger who claimed receiving a check for $3,300 from our company (Eastbiz Corporation). There was no record of such check issued in our bookkeeping or in cancelled checks.

That is when my heart beat started rising. The bank account from which the check  was written is not even used for writing checks. We keep quite a big balance there and this is why we don’t use it for writing checks anymore. We have a different account for writing checks.

Someone posted ads with job offers on Craigslist, Carrier Builder and on different community boards (someone was even distributing flyers at some college promising  easy way to make quick bucks). It was highly organized over big area. As far as we know it looks like people in Texas, Georgia, South and North Carolina were targeted.

We saw a name Craig Hatcher (craigthehatch@live.co.uk) as the name which fraudsters used to answer to job applicants.

Here is the example of the actual email:

Hello .

Thanks for applying for the post, I quite I appreciate it? I received and read your e-mail and it’s reasonable and acceptable. So I will give this a go”

I am Craig Hatcher, I am the CEO of JIL Construction company, we provide full-service General Contracting, Construction Management, Design/Build, and Underground Utility Construction . We also have an on-site metal fabrication shop..

I’m sure you’ll understand I tend to have a very busy schedule at this point, as I am presently in the United Kingdom, I will be back in the states in Three Weeks.

Please note that this position is not office based for now because of my frequent travels and tight schedules,

it’s a part-time, work from home basis and the flexibility means that there will be busier weeks than others, so it’s a little difficult judging the exact number of hours you’ll be doing per week. If you can manage your time properly, this job may even give you some extra while you do something else on the side. As I have said, I’d want us to get a head start with things  as soon as possible. I do have a pile up of work and a number of unattended chores which you can immediately assist me with, I hope we can meet up with the workload eventually. Permit me to use the coming week to test your efficiency and diligence towards all this, also to work out your time schedule and fit it to mine. I really need to find the perfect person for this job, I’m confident you can take up the challenge and on the long run we should have a relatively sound working relationship between us.  It may be a little difficult working out the time difference between us initially, with time however, we should get used to it.

I’m online most of the time as I am hard of hearing so I prefer to we contact each other through E-mails, but if there is need for me to call, I will make use of the online means of making phone calls.  I am glad you are willing to work with me and i promise to be a good boss. I am also glad on the commitment in working. I have been checking my files and what i would want you to do for me this week is to run some errands out to some of the orphanage home, I do that every month . The funds will be in form of Checks and it will be sent over to you from one of my clients and i have some list to email you once you received the funds,You will make some arrangements by buying some stuff for the kids in the nearest store around you so you can mail them out. I will get you more information on that,I will like you to get back to me with your Contact Details such as:

Full Name:
Contact Address, NOT P.O BOX:
City:
State:
Zip-Code:
Phone Number:
Occupation:
Sex:

Once I have received your contact information, I will get back to you with the task for this week,Understand you will also be paid as well as its important for me to make the necessary steps before i get back from my business trip back to the states. Hope I am clear with that.

Get back as soon as possible..

Craig Hatcher

When people responded with their contact info they started getting fake checks. The checks were written in my company name (Eastbiz Corporation) with the real account number. The checks look actually different then our real checks. Someone had them printed and mailed them to probably hundreds of people.

The checks were mailed from address in Georgia. Here is the actual scan of the envelope:

It shows little bit of hand writing. I didn’t want to include the whole address of the victim. Maybe a real fraudster or  another victim actually mailed out all these checks. It is hard to say.

This is how the actual false check look like.

I cut off the name of person (victim) receiving the check. And I also cut off our account number. But you can see the check looks quite real. It has our company information, correct account number and correct routing number.

Most of the people got a check for $3,300 or $3,200.

Here is the kick. The people were asked to cash it and send $500 by Western Union to some other person. We already have three names were the $500 were supposed to be sent (addresses in south east U.S.A.). They were told that $500 is for victims of Haiti earthquake!! So that is how the scam works. You make easy three grand and you are asked to send couple of hundreds to victims of Haiti earthquake! While money goes to scammer!

We called FBI and they are coming to our office.

It looks like hundreds of checks were written. We were getting phone calls whole day!

If you have any information which can help to solve this crime please email me at info@eastbiz.com. This is really sad what is happening and how many people can be victims of fraud like that.

Great article. Must read. Why we need to support startups!

The economic problems of America will be not solved by bailing out big banks and corporations. Finally someone is saying it loud. I just hope many people will read it. We need startups. We need small companies who create jobs. Startups can really change the world.

Why then, has U. S. economic policy been aimed almost entirely at saving large and dying industries (banks and car companies)? Because sometimes even Presidents don’t get it.

U. S. technology startups are born and die at astounding rates. Ninety-five percent of technology startups fail — ninety-five percent. With odds at 19-to-1 against success, why do entrepreneurs even bother to build these companies? Because the potential rewards are huge (Microsoft and Apple, Cisco and Intel were all startups, remember) and for real entrepreneurs there are some things even worse than failure, like boredom or being like everyone else.

American technology startups change the world all the time and are this country’s primary global advantage, though hardly anyone understands that. Encouraging technology startups is the key to keeping America competitive and prosperous, though hardly anyone does that. Technology startups succeed despite these adversities because Americans are full of ideas, startups are so darned fun to do, and they don’t have to cost that much, either — sometimes nothing at all.
The Cringely 2010 (Not in Silicon Valley) Startup Tour

The least expensive shipping method for international package shipments

Most of  the people think about our service as a way how to buy goods in the U.S.A. from stores which do not ship internationally. I wish customer  see us as an alternative shipping method. Something like alternative to DHL, FedEx, UPS or USPS.  Even if store offers international shipping using Shipito can save a lot of money.

Shipito does things no major shipping company will do:

• Consolidation (this creates huge savings)
• Discounts for everyone (not just few high volume shippers)

This is an example from an actual Shipito customer account. Check the postage savings. There is a huge saving each customer can achieve by using our service.

Fake reviews

I hate when people play dirty.

I was reading a review about Shipito someone wrote on the xmarks:

This really caught my attention, because Shipito really has the lowest rates for shipping. I never heard anyone complain about that. So clicked on the user to see what other reviews he/she wrote.

Bad review for MyUS, BongoUSA … and great review for ForwardIt. This is really suspicious that one customer would even try all of these services. Also all reviews were written on November 28/29.

This is not the first time I see something similar. I don’t think this is the right way how to succeed.

Updated 2/9/10:  I have no idea who is writing the reviews, but I just look who is getting benefit. I cannot imagine real customers doing this. I really wish xmarks looks into this. I changed the title of the post which implicated Forwardit to write the reviews. I really cannot prove they dit it so therefore the change of title after email from Forwardit owner. The rest of the post stays.

Saving on international shipping

Customers can substantially save on international shipping through Shipito. Not only they save due to the postage discounts but also because Shipito can consolidate packages. Consolidation means that instead of shipping three individual packages they are re-packed into one bigger. Shipping cost is cheaper for one big package than for three individual packages.

For example look at this Shipito customer account. Shipito received 138 packages. They were consolidated into 42 packages. There is a postage saving on consolidation in the amount of 12 thousand dollars. Another saving is on postage  due to the Shipito discounts, which are passed on customers. Total savings is over 39 thousand dollars.

USPS tracking is not very reliable

Some people who are new to shipping are surprised that USPS tracking for international packages is not very reliable. They think it works the same way as FedEx. That is not true.  For example some USPS packages get stuck with a status showing: INTERNATIONAL DISPATCH.

It looks like this:

Does it really mean that there is a problem if the package still shows such status on November 18? Not really. This is pretty common. All it means is that nobody scanned the package after arrival to the foreign country. Most likely the package is already at the customs or local post office. And will be delivered soon to the customer.

This blog has one visitor

I just checked Google Analytics for this blog. And I saw I got one visitor. Based on the analytics the visitor came from the U.S.A. After checking more details I found out that the ONLY visitor is ME!

WOW. This is pretty cool. Just one person visited this blog. And it was me:-)))))).

Emails to CEO

I like when customers email to me (as to CEO) when they feel they are not getting enough help from our regular customer support and need someone to solve some problem.  I am glad to look with fresh eyes and find some solution.

What I don’t like when some customers email everyone  in our company including me and keep sending emails copying every person. That is really hard. When people see that email was sent to many other people no one really knows who is responsible. Some customers think that I want to see copy of all emails they send to customer support. Not really. I like to help if there is nobody else  who could help. But I cannot be watching every email conversation. There is simply no time for that.

Shipping to Bermuda – review of Shipito service

Love it when I see good reviews about Shipito service. Also feel the pressure how careful we have to be about providing great service to every single customer. You never know who will write something on their blog. This is really new era of business where everyone can share their experience and other customers can learn from that. I also hope any customer who is not happy with our service will contact me and give me the chance to fix whatever needs to be fixed.

Read a review  by our customer from Bermuda:

For your convenience your order has been split into multiple shipments

I was really happy to see that!:-)