Spam cites CareerOne as source

CareerOne said a number of people have contacted them about a company called Sparta-Trade which claims to have received the recipient's contact details from CareerOne.

The job search engine warned that the e-mail was spam and assures CareerOne users and other recipients that they have "not provided Sparta-Trade with any contact details and have no association of any kind with Sparta-Trade".

CareerOne product and business manager Colleen Aubrey, said they found out about the spam yesterday morning after they received calls and e-mails from people who received them. They put the pop-up warning on their Web site on the same day.

She added that they have never had a case like this where the e-mail blatantly pointed at CareerOne as the source of the e-mail address.

The spam e-mail states that Sparta-Trade is an "online-to-offline international money transfer service" based in New York and that they have five openings for a "representative to assist in the creation of a virtual local presence for the back office functions".

A person named Chris Mathew introduces himself as the project coordinator and the direct supervisor at Sparta-Trade. The spam asks the users to fill out a form through the link provided and then asks for the person's bank details.

CareerOne is currently conducting an internal investigation with their legal department and will soon be coordinating with the Australian High Tech Crime Commission (AHTCC).

"We want to clarify that the e-mail addresses used by Sparta-Trade are not from us. We've already sent out notification to our advertisers and CareerOne newsletter subscribers as well as through our job e-mails," Aubrey said.

Aubrey added that most of the calls and e-mails they get from the Web site's users ask for advice on whether the e-mail is legitimate. So far, CareerOne has not received information of anyone filling out the spam's online form.

CareerOne has advised its users not to provide Sparta-Trade with any personal financial information and "to proceed with caution if you choose to follow up anything with them".

Online job search engine Seek also warned its users last month of an e-mail scam that employs the bogus company name "Plasma Project" and claims to be powered by Seek.

The scam e-mail details a job involving the transfer of money on the bogus company's behalf. Previously, the scammers have employed the names Plasma Connection or Plasma TV.

The job "offer" employs phrases such as "Powered by Seek or "Seek Job of the Week" and even claims that the e-mail address was provided to the company by seek.com.au.