Victim Location 31401
Total money lost $5
Type of a scam Employment
[email protected] (Mathis Bonheur) IP Address: 138.201.199.38 Provider: HETZNER (Germany)
[email protected] (Cecile Bellefleur) IP Address: 138.201.199.38 Provider: HETZNER (Germany)
Bitcoin Wallet #: 1LhqZDsz4H2E5GWD2udwLeLYDp9mRvyb6V
On June 4th 2019 I was contacted by Cecile Bellefleur regarding an executive assistant position I don’t remember applying to (at the time I had applied to so many jobs n ZipRecruiter, I assumed it was one of these). She claimed to be HR at a company called Jacques Larue, (WEBSITE IS NOT SECURE: http://jacques-larue.com) supposedly they were a wine supply company from southern France. At the time I was looking for jobs in LA, so when she mentioned that the company was in the process of opening a new branch there I thought I was a perfect opportunity for me. I realize now that there were several red flags (no social media presence, website was created in 2019) I ignored, because I was blinded by the illusion that I had found the perfect job in LA with an amazing salary, as well as assuming some of the red flags were justified. The interview was conducted by phone(Unfortunately I did not save the number), and it was unusually short and rushed. The very next day I got an email from Cecile saying that I had gotten the job, and she even sent me an employment contract to sign which included my new bosses name (Mathis Bonheur), my job duties and salary (83k/yr). It looked legit, so I signed it and unknowingly began working for a scam artist for about 2 weeks. The first tasks seemed legit, like looking for office furniture, setting up a tour of LA for when they arrive, looking for office equipment and so on. Since I still lived in Georgia, I was working remotely until I was able to move. I sold most of my furniture, packed the rest and DROVE ACROSS THE COUNTRY to LA. Everything was fine until this *** asked me to do a ‘test’ to see if I could ‘work with different types of transactions’ or something like that. He wanted me to go to a bitcoin ATM that he chose and deposit $5 to his bitcoin wallet so I would learn how to use the machine. Blindly, I complied. I didn’t have to present ID or anything like that, but he asked me to record the process, so I did. I didn’t think much of it because he had said I would be reimbursed later. You would think that concludes the test, right? nope. He then said that the second part of the test was for him to deposit money into my PERSONAL ACCOUNT for me to then withdraw and deposit into his bitcoin wallet. Naturally, I questioned him about this because I was not about to use my personal account for something like this. I offered to open the company an american bank account where he could send the money, but he just gave me an excuse. He insisted on using my account(He already had the number and wire transfer code to be able to send me my salary), so I questioned him further about the name on the account, his identity, the purpose of this ‘test’ and so on. He pretty much ignored half of my email, and only said that the money would be used to pay the customs fee for some wine barrels he was going to send to LA. I told him I was NOT comfortable using my account and that I did not authorize such transaction. He immediately emailed me saying that the deal for the supply of wine was cancelled and that they were going to ‘take a break’ from opening the new branch, and that he will contact me in a week or two to see if ‘I still have a desire to work for the company’. How convenient. On the contract it states I would get paid via wire transfer, but in his last email he said he would send a check, which if he does (doubt it) I can almost guarantee it will be a fake. This guy even went as far as to make a collage of someones pictures with his child, and sent them to me posing as him. He had mentioned that we were going to have a Skype meeting, which never happened. I wish this site allowed me to upload more than one image, so I could upload the employment agreement and all my communications with them as well.
STEER CLEAR OR ZIPRECRUITER AND ANY OFFERS FROM JACQUES LARUE. It was heartbreaking to find out this was a scam. I moved across the country to an apartment I cannot afford because of the salary I was promised to receive. I want nothing more than to catch these people.
Victim Location 11374
Type of a scam Employment
When I had received this job offer from "Cecile Bellefleur", I had considered myself very fortunate. A wine company from Southern France was planning to relocate to the US, and wanted to pay me roughly $108K ($73,000 in salary, cash in lieu of benefits, retirement) to be an executive assistant. If I willing to accept compensation once a month, rather than twice a month, they offered to add an additional $1000 per month for a total of $120,000 per annum. They also wanted to pay for my internet, phone, and gasoline.
Naturally, I accepted the job. I was to not mention it by name on social media, in case a competitor would see. Odd, because as a veteran of the wine and spirits industry, I know they all want to saturate it, but I digress– I wanted to make money.
I provided my name and address for "Cecile" in "HR", photos upon request when my "boss", "Mathis Bonheur", wanted to see his new assistant. He wrote in a very friendly and encouraging manner and put me to work first finding storage for metal racks for wine barrels. Then it was onto designing the office, three pieces of each type of specified furniture, in different price tiers– no budget. Next was to design the game room and create a tour for to take the new team on when they arrived stateside.
After that was the office equipment and a request for me to do a test conversion from USD to bitcoin on a machine of "Mathis’" choosing and send the test amount (told $2-3, but possibly $20 minimum) to a random QR code. I was to use only the ATM he had designated and to use my own money. I would be reimbursed by the company.
This email is what I attached with this scam report. I have tons of others, as well as the pics they used, but could only attach one file here.
Even if I had had money, I was not willing to link myself to some strange company that uses bitcoin for customs payments of all things (I actually have experience in logistics, and am 99.9999999999% sure that USCBP does NOT take bitcoin, but they apparently either did not read my resume, or ZipRecruiter has some sort of glitch that advised the scammers that I was using it for jobhunting), especially since the ATM I was to go to required use of my driver’s license and would surely link it to what QR code for whoever’s wallet.
I created a video up to the point that I needed to scan the QR code to connect it to my ID before adding cash and stopped, per the request in the subsequent email.
Between the request for the bitcoin ATM "test task," the secrecy around the company, and "Mathis" telling me that he was going to have his financiers send a remittance marked for "personal" use to me for me to complete said
"test," ensuring to mark the cash–>bitcoin conversion and transfer as being for "personal" use, and the fact that I asked twice for my own corporate email rather than using my gmail (which this [censored] had the audacity to tell me NOT to delete), I forwarded everything to my husband and requested "Mathis" email me at my corporate email with our cybersecurity company.
He managed to uncover some things about "Jacques Larue":
(1) Their email addresses do not come out of France. The exact country from which the messages originated does not matter, but it is farther east than France.
(2) The French landline number from which they called me, showing as only from Lyon, FR, when I Googled it for myself, appears to also have different origins and just show as being French because of a VOIP system.
(3) The pictures of the fair-skinned guy with the baby and wearing/not wearing glasses/with some other kid/with a woman (it was a photo collage) was stolen from some American dude’s Facebook page. Maybe that was a previous target/victim. **If you’re reading this because they approached you for a job and you end up receiving from them pictures of a baby in a fleece jacket and bear-eared blanket or a brunette woman with a braided gold necklace and shortish guy in glasses and a blue suit/paisley tie, that is not them either (those are the two picture I had sent him).
Anyways, I played their scam to what I expect would have been just about the end, even after finding out that they were definitely 100% fraudulent, just so that I could provide a more comprehensive report than the first target. I’m sure that they would have overdrawn my checking account at the amount they had sent me by reversing that transfer upon confirmation of me having sent them the equivalent in bitcoin, were I to have complied with them rather than just closing my checking account before they could do anything else with my account information.
Victim Location 90036
Type of a scam Employment
The scammer act like a real employer whose preparing to establish a new business in the United States. After an one 15 mins phone interview, the scammer offer me the job a day after the interview. And the scammer start to ask me my information (legal name and address) in order to give me the employment agreement. However, the scammer didn’t give me the details of the benefits (such as health insurance, paid vacation etc), only give me the amount of the salary. The following is the information that the scammer provide:
(1. Twice a month
$6,083 – salary
$1,562 – (in lieu of benefits)
$1,375 – (Retirement Savings Plan)
Total sum: $9,020 per month.
1 payment: June, 20 2019 sum: $3.125.00
2 payment: July, 3 2019 sum: $5.895.00
2. Once a month.
If you choose this option, each month your salary will be on $1,000 more.$6,083 – salary
$1,000 – bonus
$1,562 – (in lieu of benefits)
$1,375 – (Retirement Savings Plan)
Total sum: $10,020 per month.)
I ask the scammer for the breakdown of the amount, she never responded.