I received the following response to an ad on CareerBuilder.com:
Erwido Oy
(Tanhuantie 6A 7, Helsinki, 00940, Finland)
Thank you for interest in our company representative position.
INFORMATION ABOUT PART-TIME JOB AS AN INTERNATIONAL COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE
Your job will consist mostly in dealing with our U.S. partners. Some of our partners prefer to cover our bills by local US checks, while we are unable to collect on the checks in timely manner, as the checks take up to 2 months to clear. This delay is caused by lengthily
clearing process of U.S. Checks through Finnish banks.
Our business requires fast cashflow, and therefore we are seeking a representative that can process local U.S. checks for our company. It is easier for us to pay commission to our representative and have the
funds working the next day than wait for 2 months.
You will have to receive the payment from our creditor, deposit it into your account and once cleared, forward the amount of payment, less your commission and other transfer expenses, to us. You will forward the money
by Western Union, which is the fastest way to send money worldwide, to one of our branches in Europe. We have branches in almost all European
countries.
We expect 3-4 payments a month to be forwarded through the representative, totaling no more then $5,000.00 each.
All applicants must pass a background check, must have a bank checking account in good standing(no negative balance). Also, successful applicants must sign
a Representative Service Contract with us.
The representative, pursuant to the contract, will not be liable for any taxes in the United States. You will be transferring the money received from our creditors out of the country and therefore will not be liable for
capital gains taxes. You will only be liable for your normal income tax on the commission received.
Further in his employment with our company, the representative can take on other responsibilities and will be considered to be hired as a permanent
representative of our company in the United States.
Our beginning wage will depend on a number of transactions that the representative will assist us in. The fee paid per transaction is US $600, plus all if any fees encountered during the transaction. The fee is fixed at US $600, and does not depend on the size of the transaction. We expect a minimum of 3 transactions a month. At first would like to limit it to one
transaction. When we see that everything is going fine, we will increase
the number of transactions and start normal work. There is no regular wage,
the wage depends on the number of transactions executed. The number of
transactions depends on how fast and accurate you will perform. We expect
high level of communication, fast feedback and accurate situation reporting.
There are no investments required from you. If in the process of work you will encounter any additional expenses, they will be covered by us from the checks that you will receive from our creditors.
IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS, FEEL FREE TO ASK THROUGH
[email protected]If you do not have any other questions, and you would like to apply for this position please take the following steps:
1. Print, fill in and sign the attached contract.
2. Fax it to our USA Fax number 1-888-780-7550 or our Finnish Fax number +358-9-253-60031. You must include one type of picture ID. It could be your driver's license, passport or any official identification document. If you don't have any of these items on hands right now (if they are lost/stolen or waiting for replacement), then your latest phone or utility bill is also ok. You may blank out sensitive information such as your Driver's License number and/or Social Security Number as long as ID is showing name and address.
3. Then please contact our Chief Accountant Ms. Kirsti Ollilainen at
[email protected] . She will guide you further.
Thank you.
Christopher Larson
Human Resources Department, Erwido Oy
Tanhuantie 6A 7, Helsinki 00940, Finland
Phone: +358-9-25360079
Fax: +358-9-25360031
The scam is that they claim this is a Home Based Business and they want you to work for them as an International Company Representative and send money to one of their European Branches Via Western Union. However, after researching the information, I could not locate any company called Erwido Oy and the phone number was out of service. Also, I noticed that the phone number and fax number provided was on correspondence from two "supposedly different" individuals. The primary email address was "
[email protected]" and I also received emails from "
[email protected]". However, when I received emails from these individuals, they always came within a few minutes of one another, leading me to believe that there was only one person acting as if there were two people.
Additionally, when I asked for a website so that I could research the company, they failed to provide a response. Also, when I told them that I tried to contact them but the phone number was invalid, they failed to provide me with a valid phone number. Therefore, this is clearly a scam and I wanted to make sure everyone was aware of it and avoided it.
Tom
Dallas, Texas
U.S.A.