Beware of Spam and Identity Theft Attempts

I received an e-mail this morning that was clearly spam - and a potential identity theft attempt. It was designed so as to appear as coming from a major hotel in Brighton in the UK. I have left out the name of the hotel, and the e-mail adress involved in the quote below, but I think you can quickly identify the signs of spam.

[Hotel name left out]

KING’S ROAD BRIGHTON
EAST SUSSEX, BN1 2FW UK
TEL; +447014275142
FAX; +447010029626
Email; [E-mail adress left out]

HELLO,
JOB VACANCIES IN UNITED KINGDOM
THE MANAGEMENT OF [Hotel name left out]
ARE URGENTLY RECRUITING NEW WORKERS IN THE NEW OPEN
FIVE STAR INTERNATIONAL HOTEL AT KING'S ROAD EAST SUSSEX LONDON.
ACTUALLY I'M SIR EDMOND PHIL {ADMINISTRATION MANAGER}
[Hotel name left out].
WE ARE URGENTLY EMPLOYING NEW WORKERS WHO WILL
FUNCTION IN OUR NEW BRANCH HERE IN CENTRAL LONDON.
WHICH WILL BE COMMISSION FOR FULL OPERATION BY THIS
MONTH.
AVAILABLE VACANCIES ARE AS FOLLOWS.
DUTY MANAGER / ASSISTANT DUTY MANAGER, ACCOUNTANTS,
SYSTEM ADMINISTRATORS, PROGRAMMERS, DESIGNERS,
COSTUMER ATTENDANTS, SALES MANAGER, RECEPTIONISTS,
TECHNICIANS, ELECTRICIANS, RESERVATION MANAGER, STORE KEEPERS, DRIVERS,
CHEF, FRONT OFFICE SUPERVISORS, OPERATION MANAGER, BUSINESS MANAGER, ETC.
ELIGIBLE APPLICANT MOST HAVE VALID INTERNATIONAL PASSPORT, MINIMUM OF HIGH
SCHOOL CERTIFICATE HOLDER, AGE LIMIT 18YRS AND ABOVE.

TO APPLY FOR ANY OF THE JOB POSITION ABOVE, EMAIL RESUME AND A SCANNED
COPY OF INTERNATIONAL PASSPORT TO THE MANAGEMENT BEFORE WE OFFER YOU A
SUITABLE POST HERE IN LONDON.
THE MANAGEMENT WILL PROVIDE AS FOLLOWS, FREE FLIGHT TICKET TO LONDON.
FREE ACCOMMODATION AND FEEDING, FREE HEALTH CARE AND QUALITY SECURITY IN
WORK ENVIRONMENT.
BASIC MONTHLY SALARY FROM £2,000 TO £4,800 GB POUNDS, BASED ON DEGREE.
INTERESTED PERSON TO EMAIL HIS DETAILS IMMEDIATELY TO THE CONTACT DETAILS
ABOVE TO APPLY.
THEN WE WILL RESPOND ACCORDINGLY AS SOON AS WE RECEIVE FORMAL APPLICATION
ONLY ( [E-mail adress left out] )
REGARDS
[Hotel name left out] MANAGEMENT

KING’S ROAD BRIGHTON
EAST SUSSEX, BN1 2FW UK

Four identifying signs of an identity theft attempt:

1. Don't EVER send photocopies of personal identity papers to hotmail, msn or any other common e-mail adress.


2. No professional company would ever send e-mail with fully capitalized letters. It appears as though you're shouting, and who would ever work for a company that couldn't write a proper e-mail?


3. The salary levels of £2,000 to £4,800 are attempts at redirecting your attention from reality into hoping this could be true.


4. Why should you respond to a @live-adress? A professional company has their own e-mail adresses...

Check the Company Website
You need to check the company website. Most hosting solutions come with a number of e-mail adresses available - and you can add more according to your needs. Why would a major hotel use an MSN-adress?

In Conclusion
Be alert when you check your e-mails. In this one instance I wrote the hotel to alert them of this happening, and also the abuse department at MSN, but noone has the time needed to do this every day. Normally such e-mails are just sent straight to the wastebin, but I did feel it was a good time to alert others now that "normal" Nigeria and lottery scam mails have diminished somewhat. We don't want people to fall for this type of fraudulous e-mails.