Shipment Coordinator-CTE Property Management Craigslist Job Scam

While surfing through the Craigslist Jobs section a few days ago, I came across an ad for a Shipment Coordinator position. My first thought was that it could possibly be another reshipping scam so I checked it out. It seemed to be on the up and up other than the compensation claimed to be $17 to $23 per hour and it was part-time. Here’s a copy of the ad:

 

Shipment Coordinator (my city) 
compensation: $17 upto $23 per hour
employment type: part-time

An international textile company is looking for a dedicated person to fill a quick-paced and demanding position as a shipping and receiving manager.

Key requirements include:
+ Possess two yrs. of shipping/receiving and import/export acquaintance – Not compulsory
+ Should have a commitment to excellence

Preferences involve:
+ Great computer background, experience with Microsoft Navision a plus, expert level in Microsoft excel.
+ Knowledge of international and domestic shipping carriers (ocean and air carrier, FedEx, UPS)

Responsibilities but are not limited to:
+ Effectively manage and track all incoming and outgoing international and domestic textile shipments
+ Enter all shipped items into a database shipping log using Microsoft excel
+ Manage deployment of goods to proper domestic locations
+ Organize domestic and international shipment processing so as to achieve strategic goals
+ Advise customers on shipments when required
+ Create and check receipts based on needed shipping

Seems to be a legitimate offer, right? Well here’s the reply I received to this ad:

From: Silva Connor <silvaconnorbni@aol.com>

Subject: RE: RE: Shipment Coordinator (my city)

Hello,

You’ve recently sent us your resume, and I am excited to let you know that I think you are an awesome candidate!

CTE Property Management is an established company with about 30 years of experience in the market.
We offer benefits for you and your family and very competitive compensation. It will be all discussed during the interview.

Each applicant is required to fill out our application in order to schedule an interview. Please do it ASAP, so we can move on with the process.

It can be found on our site:

ctepmgt.org/job_application/(code)/

There is a personal application code required to fill the application.

Your code is: (removed)

Please let me know once you are done. If you don’t contact me by tomorrow I’ll assume that you are not interested in the job, and I’ll go on to the next candidate.

I look forward to seeing you on interview.

Silva Connor
HR Manager

What Does Property Management Have To Do With a Textile Company?

That’s the question I asked and I’m sure I won’t receive a reply. Here’s a screenshot of the homepage of the website they sent me to apply:

Click here-With UShip just Create a Free listing and watch feedback-rated carriers submit competing quotes for your shipment

So I checked out the whois information for this ctepmgt.org website and found that it was just registered in April 2015 for one year to someone named Artur Shukin in Kiev, UA  and hosted on a server in the Ukraine. So I did more digging and uncovered a very clever “job” scam that has been going on at least since 2010!

So What Is The Scam?

It seems these people have devised an elaborate scheme to get around the rules and policies that legitimate credit reporting companies have in place for affiliates in order to collect commissions. (one rule forbids any advertising on Craigslist whatsoever!)

So they devise fake job ads on Craigslist to:
#1- lure potential applicants and
#2- get around that rule!

While advertising as an affiliate for these companies is perfectly legitimate and almost every website and blog owner advertise various types of affiliate offers (myself included) to help generate revenue for their website or to earn extra income, these people are using unethical and possibly illegal tactics to trick unsuspecting job seekers during a so-called “application” process by requiring applicants to have or obtain a copy of their credit report in order to be considered for an interview. See the screenshot below:

Of course, most applicants won’t already have a recent credit report so the scammers have conveniently provided a link to their “online partner” for the applicants to get one. For every applicant that requests a credit report from this link, the scammers get a commission! Of course the applicant probably won’t hear another word from the scammers but then they still have your information to devise other ways to possibly scam you in the future.

But who knows what other scam applying for this position may lead to, it could also possibly be a money mule operation as well..but I didn’t complete the application to find out. This info was enough to recognize that it is a scam.

And I might add, the website and application process is NOT secured!

A Long List Of Scam Websites

It seems this scammer or group of scammers has been at this scheme for at least 2 years using many, many different .org websites. I’ve created and attached a huge PDF list of the sites they have created dating back to 2013, most all related to property management and credit reports:
listofsites.pdf

I’m still curious to know though, why they would place an ad for a Shipping Coordinator for a textile company then send applicants to a property management website unless of course they are running multiple job scams in various industries and sent me the wrong response in error.

Oh well, I said they were clever but that certainly doesn’t mean they’re smart!

Craigslist is still a good place to look for legitimate local job opportunities, but at the same time it can be a hotbed for fake employment scams. You just have to be cautious, do your due diligence and investigate any offer by asking questions, researching websites and companies and always be suspicious of offers and replies coming from free email providers.

Have you responded to a similar ad on craigslist or received a suspicious email you feel could be a scam? Feel free to copy and paste the email in the comments and share your experience so we can help alert and prevent others from becoming victims.

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