Offshore Outsourcing & Scammer

Blog about offshore outsourcing and scammer in the outsourcing industry

Skype Scammer: katsunori1207 - Edward Armah Mensah - from Accra, Ghana

A typical advanced fee scam has reached me today on Skype. With the promise of a few million dollars the scammer tries to get some upfront payments for different faked reasons.This scam is well-known already. What makes this scam interesting is the fact that the picture and the name got taken from the real bank Agricultural Development Bank from Ghana. They have a description and pictures of their staff at their website: http://www.agricbank.com/about-us/management/. From there the scammer has taken the name and the picture for using it on Skype:

Edward Armah MensahEdward Ian Armah-Mensah

Executive Head - Corporate Banking

He joined ADB from Barclays Bank Ghana Limited where he was Head of SME (Medium Unit). He had earlier worked at Stanbic Bank as an Account Relationship Manager and Credit and Marketing Manager at NDK Financial Services Limited. He holds an Executive Masters in Business Administration (Finance Option) and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration.

 

The invitation message on  Skype from Edward Armah Mensah:

*** Edward Armah Mensah möchte Sie auf Skype hinzufügen

 

Enter a message to introduce yourself.Hello Rudolf,

 

How are you today? My name is Edward Armah Mensah , I am Executive Head Corporate Banking with Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) here in Accra, Ghana. I am writing this letter to you because of your surname. I have been in search of someone with your last name, so when I saw your name I was propelled to contact you for this opportunity and hope we can worktogether.Late Jim Rudolf, a citizen of your country, who had a fixed deposit with my bank here in Ghana in 2009 for 36 calendar months, valued at US{$10.900 000 00} the due date for this deposit contract was last November 2013. Jim Rudolf, was among the death victims in the march 11th 2011 Earthquake disaster in Japan, He was in Japan on a business trip when the Earthquake happened.

 

My bank management is not yet know about his death, I knew about it because he was my friend and I am his account officer. Jim  did not mention any beneficiary when the account was opened, and i have tried without success to find any member of his family. Last week my Bank Management requested that i should give instructions on what to do about the funds, if to renew the contract.I know this will happen and that is why I have been looking for a means to handle the situation, because if my Bank Directors happens to know that "Jim is dead and do not have any beneficiary to the funds, they will take the funds for their personal use, so I don't want such to happen. That was why when I saw your last name I was happy and I am now seeking your co-operation to present you as beneficiary to the account, since you have the same last name with him and our bank head quarters will approve the transfer of the funds in your name because your surname is the only thing that qualifies you to stand as the beneficiary of Jim.

 

There is no risk involved because i am equally part of this process therefore you can be assured that this process will be a success for us. I don't want the bank to confiscate the money, meanwhile if you are interested please kindly write me through my private email address below.

 

Waiting to hear from you.

 

Regards,

 

Mr. Edward Armah Mensah

Email: edw-me-adb1967@outlook.com

Executive Head Corporate Banking ***

The Skype profile of Edward Armah Mensah:

Skype profile of Edward Armah Mensah

 

Scammer: Rohit Malhotra - Accent Technologies - USA Airlines Customer Care INBOUND Process

Accent TechnologiesThe new SCAM campaign from Rohit Malhotra is a USA Airlines Customer Care INBOUND Process (United Airlines). 

We know Rohit Malhotra already from the article Scammer: Rohit Malhotra - Accent Technologies with missing geography knowledge.

According the U.S. law is not one company able to outsource a customer support process to a country where the customer data protection is not guaranteed by law. See the explanations at Why all this offered offshore outsourcing campaigns where customer data are involved are nothing else then SCAM? and U.S. data protection law.

A similar warning got sent out on May 5, 2015 from campaignprovider.com:

USA Airlines Inbound (www.united.com) : We did contact the management team of United Airlines Inc, and they have confirmed that they are not looking for any Customer Support/ Inbound Team or Center.

 

One email from Rohit Malhotra:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Accent Technologies <accentt7@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Apr 22, 2015 at 8:51 AM
Subject: USA Airlines Customer Care INBOUND Process
To: Accent Technologies <accentt7@gmail.com>


USA Airlines Customer Care INBOUND Process 

Language Used : ENGLISH 

Find attachment for details of "PROCESS +  PROCEDURE + PAYOUT + Our CHARGES + About Client " * mentioned in index of attachment"

WE ARE NOT CONSULTANT. 

Skype us on : accent.technologies1

Call us on : "  +91  8284009208  "

             "  +91  8054143789 "

Rohit Malhotra

Accent Technologies

Accent Technologies

Disclaimer: Privileged/Confidential Information may be contained in this message. If you are not the addressee indicated in this message (or responsible for delivery of the message to such person), you may not copy or deliver this message to anyone. In such case, you should destroy this message and kindly notify the sender by reply email. Please advise immediately if you or your employer do not consent to Internet email for messages of this kind. Opinions, conclusions and other information in this message that do not relate to the official business of my firm shall be understood as neither given nor endorsed by it.

Attachment: USA_Process.pdf (520.24 kb)

Today I got a second email forwarded:

 

From: Accent Technologies [mailto:accentt7@gmail.com
Sent: Monday, May 04, 2015 time removed
To: corporate
Subject: Fwd: SLA

 

 

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: united Airlines Inc. <support@united.com>
Date: Mon, May 4, 2015 time removed
Subject: SLA
To: accentt7@gmail.com

Dear valued center,

 United is focused on being the airline customers want to fly, the airline employees want to work for and the airline shareholders want to invest in. 

  • World’s most comprehensive global route network, including world-class international gateways to Asia and Australia, Europe, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East with non-stop or one-stop service from virtually anywhere in the United States
  • A modern fleet which is the most fuel-efficient among U.S. network carriers (when adjusted for cabin size)
  • Industry-leading loyalty program that provides more opportunities to earn and redeem miles worldwide
  • Optimal hub locations, including hubs in the four largest cities in the United States
  • More than 84,000 employees reside in every U.S. state and in countries around the world

We had recently done NDA signup with xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (name removed), Now   we are moving to next step called SLA by signing this  agreement which indicates / Explains all  the requirements / Working Terms / Future Plans / Calls & Quality Parameters  and also some terms and conditions.

By Signing  this  agreement  Call Center ( First Party ) indicates that they are agree with below mentioned terms & conditions / Quality / Work or  other requirements.

 

Note: - Accent Technologies will be responsible or take care to arrange call , work flow , further signup / meeting tasks or verification of call center.

James (Jim) Compton

Member of the Board of Directors

Linda Jojo

Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer

 

Attachment: SLA.pdf (787.37 kb)

Update May 8, 2015:

A statement of United has arrived which confirms the fraud:

From: CustomerCare@united.com [mailto:customercare@united.com
Sent: Wednesday, May 06, 2015 8:53 PM
To: corporate
Subject: Re: [Attachments Contain URLs!] Experience (KMM26630439V25738L0KM)

 

Dear:

 

The fraudulent email you described is not from United Airlines. Please do not respond to this letter with any of your personal information. If you have any questions regarding our products and services, please visit us on united.com.

 

We appreciate your sharing this with us and look forward to welcoming you on board soon.

 

Regards,

 

Katherine Dawson

Customer Care

RE: 8976676

 

Over 50 fake call centres in Delhi-NCR duping job seekers

Call CenterThe article from The Indian Express shows, that the police is working there sometimes too and India is not above the law. Sometimes it can take a little bit longer only, but it is like everywhere in the world: The last are bitten by dogs.

In this case are the last ones the call center and the call center agents, which are doing this fraud job. The backers, the call center clients, will not be so easy to grasp.  

Call centers be aware and don’t support fraudster, you are the one, which are going into jail first!

Source: April 14, 2015 The Indian Express 

As Delhi and NCR has turned into a major educational hub, the region has also become the den of fraudsters duping job seekers of their hard-earned money on the pretext of getting them placed in multinational companies.

Investigations in this connection by Delhi Police and UPSTF reveal that at least 50 such call centers and job portals are running in the region. Similar frauds are being committed by some Nigerian nationals through phishing emails.

On March 25, UPSTF arrested two persons for allegedly running a fake call centre by taking data of job seekers from famous job portals, which unearthed the network of scamsters.

This case is just the tip of an iceberg and the police estimate that over 50 such fake call centers are operating in Delhi, Noida and Gurgaon.

Victims of such fraud are spread across India who are initially asked to make a payment of Rs 10,000 to Rs 25,000 for job in IT giants and MNCs.

Recently, an FIR was registered by the Delhi police against unidentified fraudsters after a complaint by Tata that several job seekers were duped on the pretext of getting them placed in it.

The youths were duped to the tune of Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 in the name of application and processing fee, police said.

While this case is being investigated by Economic Offence Wing of the Delhi Police, the wing formed to probe financial crimes had earlier unearthed a similar fraud in which gullible job seekers across the country were duped in the name of Maruti Suzuki India.

“Many of these gangs download resumes from job websites and then target people in faraway cities so that once duped they refrain from travelling to Delhi and registering complaints. We have also seen a case where people were duped in the name of getting them jobs in Delhi Metro Rail Corporation,” said a senior official in EOW.

Explaining the modus-operandi, UPSTF’s Additional Superintendent of Police Triveni Singh said, “Conmen first buy data of job seekers from famous job portals for Rs 25,000-Rs 40,000. Then they make a fake placement website which sounds similar to existing famous portals. They make calls to job seekers that their resume has been selected for a job in leading IT, banking and international companies and then demand money.”

Data of most of the job portals are compromised as they are not following stringent process to keep their data secured, a senior police officer said.

 

Offset uncomfortable official for the 45th time

Ashok KhemkaNew Delhi - An uncomfortable officer has been placed in India for the 45th time. The NDTV Indian TV channel reported that Ashok Khemka got now moved to a simple job in the Department of Archaeology and Museums of the State of Haryana. Khemka is known all over India, because during his 23-years career he has uncovered numerous corruption scandals - and he was removed from his positions by various governments again and again.

Before Khemka has been transport officer in Haryana. He tweeted after the takeover of the position a few months ago: "We have to decide between road safety, protection of the public good and the environment on the one site and private profit on the other side". He said he wanted to tackle license purchase on the black market and make the names of all illegal profiteers public.

It never came. Now he tweeted: "I have taken great pains to fight corruption and enforce reforms in the transport sector, although my room was very limited and many stakeholders were involved deeply. That moment is now very painful."

What can we expect from a country where such a corruption and fraud is already public and nobody is doing something against it? 

Why should in such a case the business to be honest? 

India is a land of scam?
No! There are after all honest people there too. Don’t throw all into one pot. A good example for a honest person is Ashok Khemka. 
He leads by being a good example and I hope that many people will follow his example.

 

Jailbreak via e-mail Scams

JailFile and carved soap gun are past: Modern Fugitive obtained his release by social engineering, as the case of a British prisoner shows.

A prisoner in London succeeded via an e-mail fraud his release.  He smuggled according to the BBC report a smartphone into the jail. He used the smartphone to create a similar sounding domain of the court with a registration of the investigating officer. In e-mails with this TLD he pretended to be a senior official and sent instructions to his dismissal to the prison administration. He got released without difficulty on the 10th of March.

Just three days later, when his defenders wanted to talk to him, the prison staff noticed that M. has been unlawfully removed from the jail. A few days after, M. handed himself later.  So much ingenuity obviously made an impression: both judge and prosecutor M. classified as "brilliant" criminal one, as the BBC writes.

The verdict on the talented social engineer M. is expected in April; he is said to have operated investment fraud under false identities and swindled about more than 1.8 million pounds.