Wait a second, that's not right...

With the market going down the toilet and people losing their jobs at an alarming rate, many people are turning to the internet to supplement their income or get themselves a career change. For those who read my letter to the govt, I'm sure you can tell I'm unemployed now. So I have my resume posted on the usuals; Monster, Careerbuilder, Jobing.com, and I've gotten a few good ones that I'm pursuing and some that are not quite legit. Let's explore...

I'm not going to change anything from the email correspondence I received from the company; emphasis will be placed though.

Dear Troy,

Allow me introduce myself - I am Andrey Dubinin. I function as a hiring manager at One Box Advertising Company. I have located your candidature at www.monster.com. I am honored
to propose the following:

Type of job - Work from home W - 2.
Wages - $1500 - 2000 per month
Time for work - 2 - 3 hours a day (can be modified upon the request)
Mode of job - flexible


- We do not demand payment from you for anything
- This is not a MLM or a get rich quick scheme.
- This is a fee based job; you are paid based on performance.

One Box has been operating and actively thriving on the advertising market more than ten years.
Our activities primarily include trading ad campaigns both
to companies and individuals worldwide.

Currently we are employing Service Managers to aid to improve the marketing structure.

To obtain more information about our activities you can browse this URL: http://www.one-box.org

If you are interested, please leave your comments with your contact information at E MAIL manager@one-box.org and our agent will contact you in due course.

One Box Advertising
e mail: manager@one-box.org

Okay, so lets take a look, they want to offer me $1500-$2000 a month working 2-3 hours a day, they want me to make $33.33/hr working from home? Cool!

Red flag 2, they need to remind me that it's NOT a get rich quick scheme, which is good because 33 an hour isn't going to get anyone rich quick.

So I send the following:

Pardon me if I sound a little skeptical, your offer definitely sounds nice, but what does the job entail? Is it a sales job?

Most importantly, how am I making that money with that few amount of hours worked?

Reminder, nothing in this has been changed; so after that email gets sent, I was sure they would ignore me and move on to someone else, but alas, a week later I get this:

Dear Troy,


It is our pleasure to offer you employment with One Box in the position of Service Manager commencing on the terms set forth in the enclosed job description. Our organization offers various benefits to new employees which are described in the attachment to this letter.


If you would like to apply for this job offer, please follow these steps:


1. Read the JOB OFFER

2. Send me an e-mail containing these details:


I, your full name, consent to the job offer terms and desire to apply for this position.

DD-MM-YYYY


3. You will receive the application forms and documents within 24 hours.



If you have any questions about the job offer, terms or conditions, please do not hesitate to contact me directly, I will assist you with any step of the recruiting process. Thank you for your interest in our team.


Sincerely Yours,


Andrey Dubinin

HR manager

Wait a second, I ask you for information and you send me a form letter letting me know that if I have questions, I can ask you. How sweet.

Thanks Andrey,
I appreciate you getting back to me, but the email you sent didn't answer my questions, what would I be doing?

I was expecting to either receive nothing or another form letter like the one above, but I was surprised again.

I received an email that contained a word doc outlining the job duties which, of course, I will post here.

ABOUT US


One Box Advertising Inc. would like to offer you once in a life time opportunity. The attachment to this letter includes a job offer for a position within the ranks of One Box Advertising, a large thriving advertising company. Basically, we’re offering you the position of service manager – a wholesome part of the company itself – without the hassle of a desk job. This in no way means that you don’t have to be responsible for doing the job. However, it is a prime opportunity for

you to receive a wholesome salary for doing so.


DUTIES & JOB DESCRIPTION

In the long run, One Box Advertising is focused on buying, selling and exchanging online ad places, creating marketing plans for Internet-oriented projects and large clients. We’ve recently expanded our business activity to accepting orders from international customers and thus we offer you to become an important link in this new and progressively developing field. You will be in control of receiving orders, payments and transactions from our clients and investors. We are hiring new employees to this position because of local and international laws prohibiting direct orders and transactions from foreign parties. Doing so would require either opening local offices or hiring official sales representatives to handle all related duties. Every order will begin with the receiving an invoice and include a multi-step process to be carried out with utmost competence and diligence. Students, parents, self-employed people or even the unemployed: this is a chance for everyone with three hours and more of free time every day.


Note that acceptance of this offer would imply a very specific type of employment. You would become an at-will employee for the company, meaning that the employment can be terminated by either side at any time for any reason.


For your consideration below are the employee plans to choose from if you decide to accept this job offer. You may take your time to look through them and decide which one suits your interests and your capabilities the best.


Employee plan offer



1. Personal account plan. With this plan you will represent personal interests of our company on the territory of USA. With this plan you will work with our clients and partners, processing orders and performing simple online office duties. You will need to set up a personal checking account under your name for these purposes. You will receive a fixed 10% net from each cashed amount manually taken after each transaction.



2. Business account plan. With this plan you will represent our company’s business interests on the territory of USA. You will work with dedicated and personal clients only. You will process orders from our business clients and private investors. . You will need to set up a business account under your name for these purposes due to the high amount of every transaction. You will receive a fixed 15% net from each cashed amount manually taken after each transaction.

I will be accepting payments, in an account under *MY* name, and then forwarding the money to you. That doesn't sound illegal AT ALL!

What would you all recommend? It sure sounds like money laundering, but then again, I used to work for a Credit Card company, so I could be biased. Second of all, who would I even send it to? the freakin' FBI?

I Had a Gun Pointed at Me!

So, armed robbery isn't a popular crime here in Phoenix, but somehow I almost got myself shot. Now before everyone jumps to conclusions about how I was waiting for a bus, or I was standing in line at a bank being robbed, I want to quell that myth now.


I was shopping for a Christmas Tree....

Yeah, so imagine this, as you can see from a previous post, I live kind of out there in regards to Phoenix, still technically Phoenix, but not really close to anything, this includes Christmas Tree Lots. So we go to drive into town to see what we can find and eventually we find a place, nice North Phoenix, almost Scottsdale, nice place. Well, as we're walking in, being the dumb ass I am, I accidentally kicked over the soda in the center console of the car (as I was riding in back.) So we stop our walk and I start to clean it up.

So we start to walk in and I think to myself "Holy Shit, is that Rick D'Amico? Holy shit, that IS Rick D'Amico", which isn't as impressive as the following story, but hey, I met a local celebrity. Then again I went to High school with his daughter, so that's not a surprise.

So here we are, just about to walk into this place and we hear a big commotion coming from the inside, and we see 2 dudes grab the cash machine and take off running. As they are looking back to make sure no one is following them, they're sitting there waving a pistol around in the air. Luckily, working retail and having it ingrained into my mind not to chase the thieves, I stood there, like a good little puppy. The funniest part of all this was watching the register tape go trailing around the corner, kinda like when you leave the restroom and you have toilet paper stuck to your shoe.

Ok, so I personally didn't get robbed, but had I not seen the gun (like my oblivious roommate) I may have chased after the guys and gotten myself shot. Seriously, who robs a Christmas Tree lot?!

Paranoia, paranoia, ID theft is coming to get you!

CAUTION!!! LONG POST, ARM YOURSELF WITH KNOWLEDGE, READ IT!!!

So I stole a line from Harvey Danger to get my point across, but seriously, who hasn't? As I've stated before on some of my other blogs, I work for one of the 4 major credit card companies, for the sake of argument, I wont say who. Conveniently enough, I work customer service, specializing in fraud disputes. Now, this covers both credit card fraud, and Identity Theft. Be wary people, there is a difference, and unfortunately, 75% of the people I talk do, don't know it.

Card fraud: Basically, some jackass stole the #'s off of your card. This usually includes the long number, the short number and the expiration date. Most companies in this situation will simply charge back the merchant and say "sorry pal, you should have checked ID, the guy passed off a stolen card" or "sorry pal, you sent the product to an alternate address which you did not verify with us." Some card companies do prosecute, but really only when they know a suspect or the customer has an active police report. Don't be fooled, active being the key word, many companies require you to file one, but don't really act on it, now if the detective calls in, you bet your marbles they are working that case. In the rise of CC Fraud now a days, this is the easiest to deal with, call up your provider, say; "I know I didn't make this charge", then you may need to jump through some hoops, but in a reasonable time frame, the charges are gone.

Idea of note: Most of the time, you see internet charges on your account, don't tell the rep on the phone to jump off his/her phone to go find where it was being sent to and arrest those people. In many situations, they are victims just like yourself, and equally confused why a 1500 dell laptop just showed up on their doorsteps, usually a newbie criminal who forgot to reroute the mail when the product was about to be sent out, or didn't pay enough attention to realize that vacant house they thought they were sending it to, was in fact being lived in. Also, charges on your account do not mean that the 16 kid working at the McDonalds took a picture of your card while you were waiting for your drive-thru order. Most of the time, you bought something online and the information was compromised from the companies machines, they wont tell you, because they don't know. This is not to discourage you from shopping online, frankly, it's too easy, just make sure you watch your statements so you know if something is going on, ALL credit companies allow you to view your info online, take advantage of this, you see a 1 itunes charge on your card you didn't make? Call the *expletive*ing company, it may sound silly to dispute $.99, but getting your card replaced at the first sign could save yourself, the merchant, and the CC company a lot of money.

Now wait a minute, these evil hackers have my infoz? OH NO! Backup little miss paranoid, they have your account information, so if they stole your Citibank visa #, unless they work for Citibank and can view their account records, they don't have access to your Date of Birth or most importantly, your Social Security Number. Now we get into the heavy stuff.

Identity Theft: This sucker can come out of the blue, or your company can be careless and lose some employees information, it happens, we're all human. The most important thing is to is keep up on your information, you are entitled to one free credit report every year, and don't listen to freecreditreport.com, they are not free. Visit www.annualcreditreport.com, put in place by the US Government to "provide consumers with the secure means to request and obtain a free credit report once every 12 months from each of the three nationwide consumer credit reporting companies in accordance with the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT Act)." In a nutshell, they let you keep up with your shit. Now, depending on what you do, or who you are, you might want more. Personally, I keep close watch on my credit report monthly, I do a lot of online business, meaning I sign up with my SSN to many different companies, many reputable joints like Google AdSense and Amazon Affiliates, but also some places that need my SSN for tax reasons, for this, I want to be ready if anything happens. Also, for those who just want to be safe, credit monitoring services are generally very cheap and provide 100% unlimited access to your report, and in many times even your score. Score knowledge is good if you're looking to buy something by financing, but thats off topic, maybe another time. Equifax is personally the company I use, don't be fooled, you're paying Equifax, but you can see your report and scores from all 3 companies; Equifax, Transunion, and Experian.

Holy shit! I was looking on my credit report, and there is a BLANK card opened in my name, what do I do?

First off, calm yourself, credit card companies know this happens and they have reps to assist you, IE Me. Call them up, explain what happened and they will get the process going (ALERT!, it's a process, it's your identity, not ours, and it's your job to reclaim it). Say the account aged and was sent to a collection agency, the #1 thing you can do is know the policy for that company going in, some companies like Amex, if you pay they account, you are telling them, oh yeah, thats mine, ignore this claim. Discover on the other hand will reimburse you the money. Don't trust what a collection agency tells you, they want money, thats it, who cares about your debt. Also, you will likely be sent an affidavit to fill out and send back, usually just asking how you found out about it, and under penalty of perjury, you state this is not your account. Even after the account is closed out and the credit company takes the hit, (yes, they do, it's their fault the card was opened, tough break, although these are investigated a little more fully than card fraud, companies actually care about these.) you're not out of the woods yet.

Now what?

Protect yourself, thats what. Contact the bureaus yourself, let them know what happened, there are 2 things they can do, 90 day and 7 year blocks on your credit report. Be careful, 7 years sounds great, but it can bite you in the ass in the long run, honestly 90 days is more than sufficient, your criminal is going to give up and move on, most likely. A lot can change in 7 years, if you want to refinance your house in 5 years, you will need to know all the security questions they asked you back that long while ago. The best way in my opinion is sign up with a company called Lifelock, to be 100% honest, they don't do anything you cant do yourself, just read their FAQ's, but they do it automatically so you don't have to remember to do it, and also, they will pay for any expense you may incur because of the fraud. Make sure to sign up for some credit monitoring at this point, 10-15 bucks a month is nothing compared to what can happen, account goes unnoticed, bank raises your interest rate on your valid account because your credit shows a delinquent account, you pay more because you don't know, and BLAM.

My final topic of note, please, please, PLEASE know the definition of credit card fraud. Fraud is one thing, credit card fraud is another, when you claim fraud on your credit card, your company will look at 1 thing, was the card stolen or in some way compromised? If not, sorry, it's a different kind of case. Just because some Ebay seller stiffs you your Dell XPS you bought for $100 doesnt mean your card company will claim it as fraud, basically, you tell your card provider you bought something and the merchant never sent it, then they will contact the seller for proof of shipment, which they wont be able to provide, and you will receive credits. Or just contact Paypal, just make sure to pick one or the other, if Paypal gets wind you contacted your bank/provider, they will close their investigation of the seller.

Disclosure: Both companies listed above are affiliates of the author, the author may receive compensation for any services purchased through his links. But in all honesty, I hope I gave you enough knowledge that you feel this is fair. If you are interested in any of the services above, don't fight through the text to find it, just click the banners below.