Sad, and Yet True. But You Can Learn From It!

Posted on November 23rd, 2008 by oiloffshoremarine

As you probably know, on our Engineering Job Board we have dedicated Scam Alert / Job Scams Info available.

Read the below AND LEARN FROM IT! It’s very bad many people lose money to scammers, but consider yourself lucky to be warned beforehand. And always refer to our Anti Scam Information Portal

RE: INTERNET 419 FRAUD- “SCAM JOB OFFER” WITH SHELL GAS UKTo whom it may concern;

I am writing to you because I am the victim of an Internet Job offer scam. I was
offered a job with Shell Gas UK, in Chesterfield England. I am a geologist here in
the United States and the position Shell Gas UK has offered me is as an “Exploration
Geologist” (see attached contract). The Shell Gas UK, HR Director - Mr. David
Prescott, has referred me to a gentleman named Mr. Jeffery Straw, who was in charge
of arranging for my Work Permit and visa to facilitate working in the UK. I was
asked to supply several documents, including a copy of my degree, professional
certificates, a copy of my passport, social security number, date of birth, and a
police clearance from my local police department here in the US covering the last
ten years and verifying that I have no affiliation with any terrorist organizations
(a list of 44 terrorist originations was supplied to me). I supplied all of the
necessary documents as requested.

However, I was then asked to send a “Stamp duty fee” to process the documents I
provided. The fee was £653.00 pounds. I had serious reservations about this. I sent
Mr. Straw a letter voicing my concerns, (see his response below). Mr. Straw assured
me that this was all legitimate and that I would be reimbursed for my expenses. I
gave him my credit card number to run the charge through. Mr. Straw said that my
credit card would not go through. I was then instructed to send him a money gram,
western Union transfer, or a direct bank transfer to him personally. I then sent him
$1,080 USD through Western Union. He did pick up the money and then sent me a
receipt and a copy of the British Metropolitan Police Entry Certificate.

I was also informed that the “British Home Office” requires me to purchase and
supply documentation of travel insurance that will cover me for a period of at least
one year. Mr. Straw gave me a contact to purchase the insurance from,
Reliance-Assurance. I asked for additional companies to get a competitive quote
from. He would not supply me with any and stated that Reliance-Assurance was the one
I should go with because they are approved by the British Home Office and are
familiar with the requirements and procedures. I did give them my credit card
number to run the charge through on. However, they said my credit card would not go
through. I called my Credit Card Company and they said there have been no recent
attempts by “Reliance Assurance” or anyone else in the UK to charge my credit card.
Now the company (Reliance Assurance), is requiring me to send them a Western Union
money transfer or a direct bank transfer, to Mr.Howard Clark, (Accounts Manager
for Reliance Assurance),to his personal account.

I did some further research and discovered that Shell gas UK is a scam. It was
listed on a couple of web sites as a “scam job offer”. Mr. Prescott’s name was
mentioned several times on some of the correspondence blogs. Shell UK has posted a
notice on their web site warning about this scam.

They have a lot of my personal information, (copy of my passport and number, social
security number, date of birth, place of birth, address, phone numbers, and two of
my credit card numbers. They also counterfeited several documents (see attached). A
UK Metropolitan Police Certificate, Insurance receipt, Insurance Certificate etc.

I also sent them $1,080.00 USD via Western Union Money Transfer:

1. Receiver Name: Jeffery Straw;
2. Email:jeffrey.straw@yahoo.com
3. Address:29 East Lanchashire Road, Gilmos, Liverpool L110BB, United Kingdom;
4. Phone:636-465-2747
5. MTCN:[removed]
6. Date Sent:Nov. 13, 2008
Please make a note of this scam, post a notice, etc. whatever you need to do to
prevent this from happening to others. I am probably out of my $1,200 dollars, but I
guess I should have been more cautious from the beginning. There scam is VERY
elaborate, detailed, technically correct. They cited the actual Shell UK web site,
gave an actual physical address and phone number, mentioned an actual Shell Project
that I would be working on, and sent a detailed job description of my expected
duties that only a Professional geologist would understand. I can’t believe that I
was so stupid to fall for this.

I hope there is some way that you can follow up with this and artist these scam
artists. I would be more than willing to travel to the UK or anywhere necessary to
testify against these jerks.

As said on http://www.oil-offshore-marine.com/bewarejobscams.php -

FREE Checking System: if you get a job offer that sounds too good to be true, please email us at info[at]oil-offshore-marine.com and we will investigate and check if that job offer is a scam or not, and if the job offer was made by a real, good-faith, company.