Correspond with a spammer by Sean Mahan
November 18th, 2009 4:14 PMIt seems that many people have found this page while trying to vet Adam Albert's clumsy job offer. The short answer is: yes, this is a scam. If you apply and keep in touch, "Adam" will propose sending you a large check, $3k of which he will ask you to forward to a Moneygram account under the pretense of paying to ship those fictional broken laptops. My friends, the laptops are a lie.
A warning that should be unnecessary: you should not trust Adam's initial check (if it bounces after you've forwarded the $3k, you're out $3k), and trying to make money out of this would likely end in tears.
As a fellow work-seeking IT guy, I sympathize. And I welcome you to a wonderful way to spend your between-jobs time; the real-world game called SFZero!
Thanks to everyone who helped figure out what the scam is, especially Kamran.
There's an economic crisis happening, and I need a job. And heck, $750 for a week would put a nice dent in my SF rent, so I responded to this ad on Craigslist:
Date: 2009-11-17, 4:55AM PST
Reply to: adam.albert@rocketmail.com
We are seeking a motivated and experienced individual with computer systems engineering experience. with knowledge in the following below
(1.) Format Hard Drive
(2.) Install Win Xp or Vista with Service Pack 2 or 3
(3.) Microsoft Office Package
(4.) Recent Anti Virus Software with (Free Lifetime Updates)
(5.) Adobe Acrobat
(6.) Laptop Cleaning of the keyboard, screen and other case.
(7.) Diagnostics of the entire system after to check hard drive, cd & Dvd rom, floppy Disk.
Contact Adam for more details adam.albert@rocketmail.com
- Location: san francisco
- Compensation: $750 weekly
- Telecommuting is ok.
- This is a part-time job.
- This is a contract job.
- OK to highlight this job opening for persons with disabilities
- Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
- Phone calls about this job are ok.
- Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.
I had some questions about "Free Lifetime Updates", "floppy Disk", the strange numbered list structure, the OS ambiguity, etc. But hey, we all crank out the occasional unclear email, and perhaps some non-techy HR temp was given the duty of placing this ad. Also, y'know: money. My response:
Hi Adam,
I'm a former Sys Admin looking for some work, and I can certainly handle your computer repair/installation needs! As you can see from my resume, I've been in positions that involve those duties since 2003. I work quickly and can start immediately. I look forward to talking to you about the position!
Best,
-Sean
Resume was attached. I assumed no God-fearing Hiring Manager could say no to my dual exclamation points. Several hours passed, during which I ate a burrito with lowtek. I'll get back to the burrito later. And then I got a response:
Hello Sean,
How are you? I'm Albert Adam, The director of works at Action Aid International, we need to know if you are capable of repairing computers in large volumes, the organisation distributed few computers to a missionary home in Lima, Peru, and there objectives was to hold a free computer training section for the kids at the Mission Home, we got information that the computers all malfunctioned and They are shipping the computers back to us, we need to fix them and have it returned in time,are you available for this job? we need your urgent response to this ad.
The Director of Works.
Mr Albert Adam
Action Aid International.
47937 CRAWFORDSVILLE
INDIANA
www.actionaid.org
"That's odd, this follow-up email doesn't include any of the information that would be necessary to accurately respond to the question it poses."
... (mental digression on the difficulty in installing individual copies of Windows on varying hardware)
"That's odd, the address doesn't make any sense. Also, the computers 'all malfunctioned'?"
At that point, I knew it was a scam, but with the future I.T. job prospects of "the kids at the Mission Home" at stake, I poked around ActionAid's website just to make sure this wasn't just a horrible typo-fueled misunderstanding. I found no mention of Albert Adam, the title "Director of Works", Indiana, or computers in Peru. And if I'd been paying closer attention, I'd have noticed that between the Craigslist post and the email followup, Adam/Albert had swapped his first and last names. I wish I hadn't used my main email address.
Dear Adam,
I commend your work on behalf of the less fortunate! And yes I am "available" for this job! But I have a few questions:
• How will I work on these computers? Would you ship them to me? I can't go to Peru right now.
• I want to help your organization, so here is some FREE ADVICE: are the computers plugged in? Did you try turning them off and then turning them back on again?
• I understand if you want to use Windows, but you should really consider installing an open OS on these machines; maybe Slackware?
Truth be told, I don't really know how well I could do this job. It'll depend on how broken the computers are. Also, I hope they work in English, because I certainly don't speak Peruvian!
Just like the song says, "more information will improve this situation." Meanwhile, I'm attaching a photo of the dirtiest computer I've ever cleaned. Yes, I'm proud to say that after I got through with it, it didn't just sparkle – it mostly worked.
Thanks,
-Sean
I also corrected some of his typos and grammatical oddities in the quoted portion of the email. The embedded (not attached) picture is on a server I run. This way, I'll be able to see what IP address loads that image, and maybe get some idea of where Adam's writing from. I was tempted to write a lot more, but I want to see what Adam's planning. Poking around online, it seems there's a series of job scams that are all variations on Money Mule schemes.
Hence, the appropriateness of my burrito meal. If I'm not careful, I could end up being Adam's burrito argento, which I think means "Little Money Donkey" in Peruvian.
I'm posting this early, and if Adam doesn't write back it'll be pretty disappointing. I also don't want to get ratted out by Google — what if he searches for that amazing song lyric? But on the other hand, I thought you might like the vicarious fun of waiting for a response and watching the exchange play out. And I know you'll have good ideas about where my correspondence with Adam should go.
Nov 25, 2009 ~ 7pm PST:
Well, I'm pretty disappointed. Still no answer from Adam/Albert, so I assume none is coming. I don't know if he ever read my reply; the embedded image was never loaded, so if he did read it, he decided against checking out my dirty computer pic. Maybe the embedded image was enough to flag my reply as spam (in which case there's still hope). Or Adam/Albert might've gone out of unregulated business for any number of reasons. Maybe something in my email made him suspicious. In any case, I'm bummed that he didn't give me a chance to really earn these points. Maybe next time!
A final note: In a comment below, Carlos posted what probably would have been the next message — thanks!
Nov 25, 2009 ~ 10pm PST:
Wow, well complaining worked!
Hello Sean,
Here are some few detilas you need for the job, We supplied 47 Pentium IV dell laptops to the mission training home, after some couple of months we got an information that 10 of the systems malfunctioned and results into crashing, first we made enquiries about how they all malfunctioned and we found out that Below are the things needed to be done on the laptops.
(1.) Format Hard Drive
(2.) Install Win Xp or Vista with Service Pack 2 or 3
(3.) Microsoft Office Package
(4.) Recent Anti Virus Software with (Free Lifetime Updates)
(5.) Adobe Acrobat
(6.) Laptop Cleaning of the keyboard, screen and other case.
(7.) Diagnostics of the entire system after to check hard drive, cd & Dvd rom, floppy Disk.
Get back to me with your total cost for the services of 10 units. we will pay you with a certified check , and the laptops are just been returned from Lima, Peru were we donated them to, we have the tracking number for delivery, so we won't waste no time, after the systems gets here, they will all be shipped to your location, and we will give you a totality of 1 week to finish up with the repairs.
We await your urgent response so we can make Moving arrangements and delivery of payment as soon as possible....
Thanks
The Director of Works.
Mr Adam Albert
Action Aid International.
47937 CRAWFORDSVILLE
INDIANA
www.actionaid.org
Yes, all italics. Not only that, but he loaded the image!
41.222.192.69 - - [25/Nov/2009:21:51:13 -0800] "GET /filthycomputer.jpg HTTP/1.1" 200 88423 "http://us.mc1131.mail.yahoo.com/mc/showMessage?sMid=202&&filterBy=&.rand=489985637&midIndex=2&mid=1_74420_AG%2BliGIAAIbgSwSLnAQzc35V%2F0o" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0; SIMBAR={25761EAE-1698-42F9-8496-C0ADA6083FF5}; SLCC1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30618; Crazy Browser 3.0.0 RC2)" It looks like Adam computes in Benin (according to the best guess of an IP lookup tool), and is afflicted with a few pieces of adware/spyware.
So now what to do? I plan to think about it for a bit, despite the urgency of the computer repair situation. One note: I own the domain globalpolice.org — check out my New York Times meditation-on-self-censorship unfinished-web-art-project!
(testing testing testing!)
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This can go terribly far. I didnt put much time or thought into this because, being out of work, I'm doing all kinds of things on craigslist and with success. Now in my hand I hold a check for $3,150 that came without a return address. It did, however, have the address on the check matching a muffler place out in California, With a real bank too! This guy still pops up every once in a while to ask WTF is going on. If anyone has any more questons about this, email is optimush.christ@yahoo.com
I do wonder how they put together that first ad.
I replied to this ad too haha this is the last message I got...let's see if you get the same..
"Here are some few detilas you need for the job, We supplied 47 Pentium IV dell laptops to the mission training home, after some couple of months we got an information that 10 of the systems malfunctioned and results into crashing, first we made enquiries about how they all malfunctioned and we found out that Below are the things needed to be done on the laptops.
(1.) Format Hard Drive
(2.) Install Win Xp or Vista with Service Pack 2 or 3
(3.) Microsoft Office Package
(4.) Recent Anti Virus Software with (Free Lifetime Updates)
(5.) Adobe Acrobat
(6.) Laptop Cleaning of the keyboard, screen and other case.
(7.) Diagnostics of the entire system after to check hard drive, cd & Dvd rom, floppy Disk.
Get back to me with your total cost for the services of 10 units. we will pay you with a certified check, and the laptops are just been returned from Lima, Peru were we donated them to, we have the tracking number for delivery, so we won't waste no time, after the systems gets here, they will all be shipped to your location, and we will give you a totality of 1 week to finish up with the repairs.
We await your urgent response so we can make Moving arrangements and delivery of payment as soon as possible....
Thanks
The Director of Works.
Mr Adam Albert
Action Aid International.
47937 CRAWFORDSVILLE
INDIANA
www.actionaid.org
Very interesting how you are getting this guy's IP from sending a picture link along in your email! 5 pts for that!
I'm very curious how this story will unfold.
Hey Sean,
Contact me at kamranjamshidi@yahoo.com and I will tell you how my communication with this fraudster is leading to a definite money mule scam.
Ah, now it all makes sense. It's cool that you & the others are explaining the scam.
this guy or group of people are going under the name of Stanley Grosso as well now. i told him to go die in a fire.
Yes, I got almost the same bottom feeding letter with the same signature. I get about two or three of these Urgent need massive volume computer repair letters a week from I am assuming different people, but his was the most recent and easiest to show to be a scam.
Thank you for vetting the jerks!
Laura
No vote yet.
I'm gonna wait and see just how far this goes.
But at least now I'm watching it.