Alert notice: Fake employment offers via email purporting to be from Williams Shipping
There has been an increase in phishing emails aimed at seafarers. The purpose of these emails to is both gain information & the trust of the seafarer and scam them into thinking they have been offered a lucrative position with Williams Shipping. At some point during the process they will be asked for payment for "documents" Visa/NI or recruitment fees of arround 740gbp payable via Moneygram.
Example
Envoyé : lundi 24 octobre 2016 12:24
À : xxxxxxxxx
Objet : LETTER OF INVITATION APPROVED
Manor House Avenue,
Millbrook, Southampton
SO15 0LF,United Kingdom.
Tel: +447087694079.Dear xxxxxxxx.
Approved Job application number:WS-APP-211.
E-Mail: info@uk-immigrationservice.com
Contact Person:Mlawson Williams
Designation:INSURANCE/PERMITS OPERATIONS.
Kindly contact the above office via email and let them know that you've been offered a job from Mr.Peterson Garry(William Shipping UK )Inform them that they should assist you in processing your Insurance Document and get back to you with the required information you should provide to them and the Official fees too be paid.
Congratulations on your success
Regards
Peterson Garry
Recruiting Desk.
Cybersail Assessment
Similar mass mails and offers of fake employment purporting to be from K-line & Vroon, these use the Williams Shipping name.
Since they are contacting seafarers on personal emails, it means that many of these mails will reach the intended recipient due to lack of corporate style security checks.
Note however the formatting of the email is not great, and that genuine shipping companies would not ask fees for recruitment services/visas/national insurance.
General advice
- If you are unsure contact directly the shipping company offering the position using the publicly available contact details (Do not use the details on the mail/documents they are to the scammer!)
- The quality of documents and emails will be low resolution graphics
- Genuine shipping companies do not ask for fees/payment
- Check for correct corporate email addresses vs outlook.com/gmail.com/yahoo.com addresses
We have a full article here on how the scam works
Note these emails do not come from Williams Shipping and there is no indication that Williams Shipping systems were compromised in anyway.