Fraudsters are trying to recruit phishing mules with bogus job offers. Email filtering firm MessageLabs reports more than 20,000 copies of this scam email have been intercepted to date, following the emergence of the fraud over the weekend.

The bogus messages pose as offers for regional representative and general assistant positions with ICG Commerce. ICG Commerce is a legitimate procurement firm based near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, whose good name is being used by the phishers to lend credibility to the scam. Researchers at MessageLabs have found that the link included in the emails points to a website that is not part of the main ICG website.

The email offers employment opportunities involving money transfer for high rates of pay and minimal hours of work. It directs victims to a website where they fill in personal details to apply for the job, information which might later be used for identity theft.

"The fastest way for phishers to transfer money is between accounts in the same bank, and the easiest way for them to do this is to recruit unsuspecting dupes to act for them by opening up bank accounts and transferring money on the phishers behalf," explained Alex Shipp, senior anti-virus technologist at MessageLabs. "These people are actually money laundering, but usually do not realise it. This scam is a sinister demonstration of how fraudsters attempt to manipulate computer users into doing their dirty work for them, and potentially lead them to break the law in the process." ®

Subject: Apply for a position of REGIONAL REPRESENTATIVE/GENERAL ASSISTANT at ICG Commerce

Hi,

Recently I've reviewed your CV and I'd like to propose you a good opportunity to join our great team. Our company - ICG Commerce was founded ten years ago to serve the European business entrepreneurs and establish a profitable base for corporations desirous to succeed in new ventures in the United States and vice versa.

We are financially stable company with growing business worldwide. Due to expanding our business, we are glad to announce a number of vacancies of Regional Representative / General Assistant.

All operations are home based and will require just a couple of hours of your time. Successful candidates must admit a high rank of responsibility, as your duties will include money operations, transferring of valuable business documents and so on. The individuals hired into these positions will initially go through a brief training program that will give them exposure to all operations functions including routing, inventory control and special projects. Now we need regional representative in the most areas.

To apply for this position and for more information click on this link (not included):

Best regards,

Konrad Zemler, ICG Commerce.

Related stories

UK police arrest 12 phishing mule suspects
Estonian plasma TVs: Phishers fingered
Trojan targets UK online bank accounts