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Tuesday 4 December 2012

"ARK Bureau" (arkbureau.com) fake job offer

The ARK Architecture Bureau is a genuine company. This fake job offer is not from ARK Bureau, but is some sort of illegal activity such as money laundering.

Update: I didn't look closely enough at the site, I discovered that arkbureau.com is also fake, as is this email. See more below. This is still trying to recruit people for money laundering though.

From: Odette Holcomb [mailto:nbnian@esonchem.co.kr]
Sent: 03 December 2012 12:32
Subject: Help wanted.

POSITION: Customer Assistant

ABOUT COMPANY:
ARK Bureau has served hundreds of clients in the United Kingdom, Poland, France and Germany since 1998.

The firm was created by Lorinda Rogers, a young architect of Canadian origin. From its inception, ARK Bureau.s vision for design and construction was based on system approach, incorporating both building and landscape design. That philosophy has always meant the highest quality for our clients. That.s probably why ARK Bureau enjoys a strong loyalty from the past customers.

Now we have open vacancy in the U.S.: Customer Assistant

RESPONSIBILITIES:
- Process payments from customers;
- Filing invoices, statements and associated documents;
- Meet and exceed performance and time management goals;
- Other duties as required.

GENERAL SKILLS:
- High communication skills;
- Strong problem solving and planning skills;
- Experienced computer & internet user.

APPLY:
To apply please: arkbureaumanager@nokiamail.com
An alternative version uses the email address of arkbureau_manager@nokiamail.com. The two samples that I have seen have originating IP addresses of 174.52.171.8 (Comcast, US) and 109.173.54.245 (NCNET, Russia).

You should give this fake company a wide berth unless you want to end up in serious trouble with law enforcement.

Update: I had originally assumed from the amateurish spam email that arkbureau.com belonged to a genuine company. However, a search of UK company records shows no such company, the domain was only registered a month ago to an address which is actually consistent with the one on the site:

Domain Name: ARKBUREAU.COM     
                                  
 Registrant:                      
     N/A
    Allen Hart        (arkbureau@aol.com)
    108 Broadwick Street
    London
    London,W1F 8MT
    GB
    Tel. +44.448715283620    
                                  
 Creation Date: 16-Nov-2012 
 Expiration Date: 16-Nov-2013 


Their site is full of stock images (like the one below) which can be found in many other places, most of which appear to be in the US (where they don't have an office).

Fundamentally, the whole thing is a fake. A good-looking fake, but a fake nonetheless.

These contact details are presumably also bogus:
Int'l Customer Care: +1 646 583 0506

Our head office is located in London, UK:

108 Broadwick Street, London, W1F 8MT, UK
Phone: +44(0) 20 3290 1280
Fax: +44(0) 871 528 3620
Email: info@arkbureau.com

Since 2010 we also run a branch in Warsaw, Poland:

Pl. Pilsudskiego 3, 00-078 Warszawa, Poland
Phone: +48 22 208 4722
E-mail: info@arkbureau.com 
Well, a quick Google of "108 Broadwick Street" indicates that it probably doesn't exist. If we get down on the ground with Google Streetview we can see that Broadwick Street only goes up to number 76 which is a bank of cash machines. Also, the quoted postcode of W1F 8MT is wrong, that belongs to somewhere which is quite a walk from Broadwick Street.

Emails to info@arkbureau.com bounce, there is no such user configured on the server.

arkbureau.com itself is hosted on 64.191.88.71 (HostNOC, US). There are several other sites on the same server that look dedicated to either fraud or fake pharma. I would recommend that all of these sites are avoided:

abcforwarding.com
actualcard.net
afpeasttexas.org
agea-usa.com
arkbureau.com
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beauty-wish-list.info
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your-drug-blog.com

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Hello I was very surprised when I saw this blog.
Because I have one and a half years working for the company. I come from Poland.
During the work, I managed to get some practice in England.
With this company, I have a good steady income.
Previously, I was almost destitute. But after I got a job in this company, my life changed.
I have a good steady income each month, plus bonuses and prizes at the end of the year.
I do not know who took the name to discredit the company.
The company is now starting to gain market Usa. Soon I'm going on a long trip representative.
I am happy that I work at ARK Bureau. That the company cheats - is complete nonsense and lies.
I have a lot of friends who work for the company. I invite them to leave their comments.
Moreover, it seems to me that the one who put this ad here will have problems with the law.
Work and you will be happy in life.
Sorry for my english)))

Cappy70 said...

It's cool, Polyanka. They teach English in prison. Enjoy yourself.

Chaitanya Raj Goyal said...

Hello Dynamoo,
I got a job offer from www.proarchgroup.com. It has the same "about us" section as you have listed. A lot of web search tells me nothing legitimate about the company or the person who contacted me. However, I filled the job application form and sent it to them before checking. What is the purpose of doing this? How do they exactly indulge in money laundering? COuld you kindly elaborate?
THanks a lot!

Conrad Longmore said...

@Chaitanya: I notice that the "gallery of work" is copied from this Russian site. The "About" page says they are based in the UK. And that Antwerp is in Poland (it isn't).. but the address given is in Hungary. So yes, it looks like a scam.

The idea behind sites like this is to create a fictitious company that looks genuine, so when you are offered a job processing money or reshipping parcels or whatever, you will assume that it is real and legitimate work, when it isn't.

The scammers tend to re-use templates because it is easier to do so.