who's the scammer here?

Hi there,
The travel company I work for in the Netherlands keeps getting emails to our general info@... account from various people asking us to verify an email that was sent in our name (but not from our official email address). The people have obviously received a job offer from a UK based company and now a travel agency (similar name like the company I work for) is asking for payment of visa fees. The travel company that sent the email has a similar name like ours, but the address, phone/fax numbers, etc. are fake.

There is no doubt that the forwarded mail (job offer and the demand for Visa fees) is a scam.

However, my question is now, if it is safe to reply to the people asking us for verification? Or is THIS maybe the actual scam and they are trying to get information out of us? All email we are getting are usually written in a similar tone and come from "weird" email addresses ("[email protected]" in this case).

I attach below the email in question below. I removed our email address as well as the fake company name (too similar to our name) and their email address. I also removed the name of the company the "job offer" is claimed to come from.

Thanks for your help!

And here comes the mail:

Dear Sir,
This was mail sent to me when I posted my CV at a job opening at [i]COMPANY NAME REMOVED[/i] UK, Kindly verify if it is official or not.

Waiting for Your reply

Thanks & regards

A K.

Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2008 07:47:16 +0000
From: [i]EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED[/i]@yahoo.co.uk
Subject: VISA/IMMIGRATION DOCUMENT PROCESSING
To: [email protected]




GOODDAY A Khan

We have just received your appointment details from the [i]COMPANY NAME REMOVED[/i] Company United Kingdom. We want to inform you that we were officially handed the names of all the contracted expatriates by the [i]COMPANY NAME REMOVED[/i] UK LIMITED, and according to the memo passed to us by the company, we are to commence the processing of your travel papers and immigration particulars which comprises of your Visa, flight ticket, work & residential permits.

We will forward your names and contact details to the office of the united kingdom embassy and for the authorization of your visa and other traveling documents as soon as possible and thus we await the following relevant documents from you which are as follows:

1. International passport ( first three pages )
2. A medical cerificate from a recognised hospital or medical practitional. (Optional)
3. Your drivers license.
4. Your recent passport photograph
5. Certificate of birth.
6. Your full Residential Address .
7. The sum of £350 (pounds) to be sent to us and will liase with an attorney for the facilitation of all your required travel papers stated below:

Cost of Procurement.
Working permit £850
Residential permit £970
Visa/Flight Ticket £1330
Accommondation £10,850.00 (One year Rent Contract)
Administrative charges £500
DHL charges £80
Total Cost £ 15,910.00

The required sum of £350 represents the deposit amount of the total processing fee (excluding £ 15,910.00 charges). The [i]COMPANY NAME REMOVED[/i] UK Limited Company have agreed to pay the balance of the processing fees for each of their expatriates as soon as we successfully done with the processing of your traveling/immigration documents. According to the company, the deposit amount required from you is termed committment fee, and it is meant to ensure that all recruited expatriates will honor their job appointment and it's laible to refund on your arrival in the united kingdom. (Please contact your hiring company for more details about this).

We will take responsibilities for your accommondation charges as we have to secure a one year resident contract with the united kingdom Housing Coorperation after which you can relocate to any of your prefered residential within your Job site location.

Please note that requirements is needed very urgently and should be sent via email attachment as soon as possible.Payment Option: You are required to send the sum of of £920 (pounds) via western union transfer to the financial secretary of this company, (mr.david lison) as soon as possible. A scanned copy of your payment slip should be forwarded along with the payment transfer details, this is for official reason which is best known to your company as they have instructed that we send them a detail letter indicating how much was expended by each of her staff.

Payment Information:
Name: Mr.david lison
Address:12 boxleyhouse,
pembury road.london
Country: united kingdom

We urge you to make these requirements available as soon as possible so that we can proceed with the processing of your visa/immigration particulars in due time. We have been given a target time limit to conclude all the relevant documents for you and your team members within Twenty-One (21) working days, and unpon the receipt of the above requirements, we will send your original letter of appointment, contract engagement document, your scope of your work and your traveling/immigration documents via DHL courier service to your contact address.
Please call me for more enquiries.

Sincerely,
[i]COMPANY NAME REMOVED[/i] Ltd.
Mr. Richard Mayer
UNITED KINGDOM
Tel: +44-7031948032
Fax: +44 871 900 6983

It seems to me that your company name is being used by the scammers to add legitimacy to their scam, (nothing you hadn't already figured) I doubt that the emails you are recieving are also part of the scam, I would think they are potential victims trying to verify the email offer.

It is possible that the scammers have contacted you in order to see if you would reply to such an email, your lack of response may actually encourage them to use it more often.

If you know about email headers you could view them, I noticed you use yahoo, bottom right hand side is a tab for show full headers, if you click on that, then copy and paste the headers here we can usually tell where they are from.

I would think it is best to give a reply that several reports have been recieved of such a fraud attempt using your companies name, you could direct them here for further advice.

If you need any help with a standard reply please ask.

It also may be of benefit to put a standard scam warning on your website's home page. I know that some businesses are loath to do this, but a generic warning about visa scams would probably cut down on the number of email inquiries that you receive, and might keep some folks from falling for the scam. As Ralph said, we are happy to help with the wording of both emails and scam warnings.

I attach below the email in question below. I removed our email address as well as the fake company name (too similar to our name) and their email address. I also removed the name of the company the "job offer" is claimed to come from.

I think it's worth putting the scammer info back in. If it's posted here, the search engines will find it and potential victims may land here if they research their offers.