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Another one of these landing in my inbox. This time it was for the address I actually use for job search, so it took me a while to figure out this was an actual scam. Here's the details.
To: [my jobsearch address]
Subject: For $MY_FIRST_NAME
From: Hr Dep [u3011801]
(Note the lack of an email address one can reply to there. First hint of something being up)
Hi Megan, thank you for your interest in the position Investment Assistant/Advisor.
Congratulations, after reviewing your inquiry, we are pleased to offer you the job of Investment Assistant/Advisor. Upon joining ADAPTIVE STARTUP LTD, you will be part of a fast-paced team of highly-dedicated professionals that work harmoniously, as a team, in providing our clients with results and the highest quality of service.
To proceed to the next step of the application process, please complete the Application for Employment by following this link:
https://adaptive-startup.com/index.php?p=application
At ADAPTIVE STARTUP LTD, we are continuously improving our processes, services, and client relations. All of our team-members, including new personnel, must commit to performing in alignment with our mission: to deliver outstanding, high-quality results that exceed expectations.
Please click on the following link for more information:
https://adaptive-startup.com/index.php#careers
Salary:
We are offering an 6 hour shift, 5 days per week with compensation $7,500.00 per month + commission.
We look forward to hearing from you and welcoming you to our close-knit team of professionals. Be prepared for an atmosphere of success and a rewarding position upon joining ADAPTIVE STARTUP LTD as an Investment Assistant/Advisor.
Best Regards,
ADAPTIVE STARTUP LTD
Okay, so how did I guess this was a scam?
1) The compensation is far too high for the work they're asking. $7500 per month (assuming a 4 week month, each week consisting of 5 x 6 hour days) comes to $62.50 per hour. Which is high professional wages, and not the sort of money I'd be expecting. Then there's potentially commission on top of that... yeah. Right.
From (the front page of) their website, this is the position they're offering:
Investment assistant
Adaptive StartUp Limited is looking for a Investment Assistant to represent the company in North America and Australia to attract the investors and promote our products in this location on behalf of a wide variety of different development companies.
Your work includes contacting potential investors on a particular projects via the communication means (e-mail, phone); discussion and explanation of all the details of the proposed projects; assistance in the choice of the right projects for the investment, ensuring of the convenient methods of the investment between the investor and the developer company. We will provide you the database of the investors and companies with whom you will work.
Qualifications:
- Have strong communication, attention-to-detail and organizational skills.
- Proficient in MS Office skills and related computer knowledge.
- Possess an ambitious nature.
- Be a team player with ability to multitask.
Education: High School Diploma
Experience: Not required
Employment Type: Contract position
Salary: We are offering an 6 hour shift, 5 days per week with compensation $7,500.00 per month + commission.
Regular Benefits:
- Paid holidays, vacation/personal days.
- Commission/Bonus structure
If you are talented, active person with the high negotiation skills and looking for a position that includes working directly with clients in order to provide financial advice and guidance as part of an interdependent financial team, our company could be the next step in your career path and exactly the kind of working environment that you have been seeking.
Is it your type of person and you ready to start right now?
So, they're looking for someone who's graduated high school, with no other skills or experience, and they're willing to pay over $60 per hour for someone to phone clients and try to sell their "product" (such as it is) to them. Yeeeah. Plus, of course, the "benefits" of "paid holidays, vacation/personal days" to an Australian who has been part of the workforce previously sounds a bit like advertising that a car "also comes with tyres on all the wheels!". (Paid public holidays and vacation are part of the standard Australian working environment. If an employer isn't offering you these for full time work, you need to be talking to the Fair Work people).
2) It's very difficult to tell, from their website, what this company actually does (or indeed, if they do anything other than attempt to separate fools from their money).
There's a lot of talk about start-ups, and the start-up sector, and leveraging the power of start-ups, but very little actual discussion of what it is they're attempting to do. Are they selling your business to start-up companies as a client? (They might be). Are they selling your business to start-up companies as a service provider? (It's possible). The way things are phrased means this website appears to be attempting to be all things to all people, and as a result it's even vaguer than the average political platform. Their "method", for example, appears to involve basically throwing buzzwords at the topic until either a solution is obtained, or more likely until someone gives them money to go away. The copy implies they have links with everyone and everything, and are able to act as facilitators.
Their "in the press" section appears to link to three separate articles, none of which appear to have any immediate relevance to this particular business. Then again, none of the "links" actually work, which means you can't check.
They don't appear to have an Australian presence - there's an office listed in the UK:
TREVIOT HOUSE 186-192 HIGH ROAD
ILFORD, ESSEX IG1 1LR
(A quick perusal of Google maps implies yes, there is actually an office at this address, but it's the office of an accounting firm with a completely different name).
There are phone numbers given for the UK (UK: +44 203 868 1873), USA (US: +1 (646) 880 3616) and either Canada or California (CA: +1 (647) 247 0825), but nothing for Australia.
On top of this, they don't appear to have much of a history on google, either. Googling the company name just gets the standard business filings (as in, the registration information for the company), but nothing else. For a company which is supposed to be making a name for themselves (and a quick bit of googling points out their domain has been active for at least 160 days - so at least five months) this isn't particularly good news.
3) The final scam marker: I never applied for the job they're offering me in the first place. The email is written in such a way as to imply they received my details in response to a job application, but I keep a record of the jobs I apply for. I haven't applied for a position as an Investment Assistant/Advisor at any time in the last three months (or indeed, at any stage this year).
If you're receiving job offers from this mob, be aware they're probably scammers - which means if you do the work, they're probably not going to pay you. They certainly read as being dodgy as a three-dollar bill.
To: [my jobsearch address]
Subject: For $MY_FIRST_NAME
From: Hr Dep [u3011801]
(Note the lack of an email address one can reply to there. First hint of something being up)
Hi Megan, thank you for your interest in the position Investment Assistant/Advisor.
Congratulations, after reviewing your inquiry, we are pleased to offer you the job of Investment Assistant/Advisor. Upon joining ADAPTIVE STARTUP LTD, you will be part of a fast-paced team of highly-dedicated professionals that work harmoniously, as a team, in providing our clients with results and the highest quality of service.
To proceed to the next step of the application process, please complete the Application for Employment by following this link:
https://adaptive-startup.com/index.php?p=application
At ADAPTIVE STARTUP LTD, we are continuously improving our processes, services, and client relations. All of our team-members, including new personnel, must commit to performing in alignment with our mission: to deliver outstanding, high-quality results that exceed expectations.
Please click on the following link for more information:
https://adaptive-startup.com/index.php#careers
Salary:
We are offering an 6 hour shift, 5 days per week with compensation $7,500.00 per month + commission.
We look forward to hearing from you and welcoming you to our close-knit team of professionals. Be prepared for an atmosphere of success and a rewarding position upon joining ADAPTIVE STARTUP LTD as an Investment Assistant/Advisor.
Best Regards,
ADAPTIVE STARTUP LTD
Okay, so how did I guess this was a scam?
1) The compensation is far too high for the work they're asking. $7500 per month (assuming a 4 week month, each week consisting of 5 x 6 hour days) comes to $62.50 per hour. Which is high professional wages, and not the sort of money I'd be expecting. Then there's potentially commission on top of that... yeah. Right.
From (the front page of) their website, this is the position they're offering:
Investment assistant
Adaptive StartUp Limited is looking for a Investment Assistant to represent the company in North America and Australia to attract the investors and promote our products in this location on behalf of a wide variety of different development companies.
Your work includes contacting potential investors on a particular projects via the communication means (e-mail, phone); discussion and explanation of all the details of the proposed projects; assistance in the choice of the right projects for the investment, ensuring of the convenient methods of the investment between the investor and the developer company. We will provide you the database of the investors and companies with whom you will work.
Qualifications:
- Have strong communication, attention-to-detail and organizational skills.
- Proficient in MS Office skills and related computer knowledge.
- Possess an ambitious nature.
- Be a team player with ability to multitask.
Education: High School Diploma
Experience: Not required
Employment Type: Contract position
Salary: We are offering an 6 hour shift, 5 days per week with compensation $7,500.00 per month + commission.
Regular Benefits:
- Paid holidays, vacation/personal days.
- Commission/Bonus structure
If you are talented, active person with the high negotiation skills and looking for a position that includes working directly with clients in order to provide financial advice and guidance as part of an interdependent financial team, our company could be the next step in your career path and exactly the kind of working environment that you have been seeking.
Is it your type of person and you ready to start right now?
So, they're looking for someone who's graduated high school, with no other skills or experience, and they're willing to pay over $60 per hour for someone to phone clients and try to sell their "product" (such as it is) to them. Yeeeah. Plus, of course, the "benefits" of "paid holidays, vacation/personal days" to an Australian who has been part of the workforce previously sounds a bit like advertising that a car "also comes with tyres on all the wheels!". (Paid public holidays and vacation are part of the standard Australian working environment. If an employer isn't offering you these for full time work, you need to be talking to the Fair Work people).
2) It's very difficult to tell, from their website, what this company actually does (or indeed, if they do anything other than attempt to separate fools from their money).
There's a lot of talk about start-ups, and the start-up sector, and leveraging the power of start-ups, but very little actual discussion of what it is they're attempting to do. Are they selling your business to start-up companies as a client? (They might be). Are they selling your business to start-up companies as a service provider? (It's possible). The way things are phrased means this website appears to be attempting to be all things to all people, and as a result it's even vaguer than the average political platform. Their "method", for example, appears to involve basically throwing buzzwords at the topic until either a solution is obtained, or more likely until someone gives them money to go away. The copy implies they have links with everyone and everything, and are able to act as facilitators.
Their "in the press" section appears to link to three separate articles, none of which appear to have any immediate relevance to this particular business. Then again, none of the "links" actually work, which means you can't check.
They don't appear to have an Australian presence - there's an office listed in the UK:
TREVIOT HOUSE 186-192 HIGH ROAD
ILFORD, ESSEX IG1 1LR
(A quick perusal of Google maps implies yes, there is actually an office at this address, but it's the office of an accounting firm with a completely different name).
There are phone numbers given for the UK (UK: +44 203 868 1873), USA (US: +1 (646) 880 3616) and either Canada or California (CA: +1 (647) 247 0825), but nothing for Australia.
On top of this, they don't appear to have much of a history on google, either. Googling the company name just gets the standard business filings (as in, the registration information for the company), but nothing else. For a company which is supposed to be making a name for themselves (and a quick bit of googling points out their domain has been active for at least 160 days - so at least five months) this isn't particularly good news.
3) The final scam marker: I never applied for the job they're offering me in the first place. The email is written in such a way as to imply they received my details in response to a job application, but I keep a record of the jobs I apply for. I haven't applied for a position as an Investment Assistant/Advisor at any time in the last three months (or indeed, at any stage this year).
If you're receiving job offers from this mob, be aware they're probably scammers - which means if you do the work, they're probably not going to pay you. They certainly read as being dodgy as a three-dollar bill.
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