I am a Compliance Officer by profession, and I believe I came to this career because I am curious and like to get to the bottom of every story.
That's why, when I received an email from Jason Lukas (jasonlukas16@gmail.com), I realized it was a potential scam. So, I decided to play along to see how far it would go.
Jason Lukas claims to be from a company called Amira Laboratories Ltd UK. The company has a website, but it’s a site created by the scammers themselves to give a sense of legitimacy in case the victim googles them.
Jason Lukas tells you that he works at Amira Laboratories and offers you a business deal. This deal involves supplying his company with some herbs that they supposedly need for their business. He asks you to write to Dr. Patel:
Details here:
Dr. George Patel
Head of Procurement
Tel: +44 7452 292713
Amira Laboratories Ltd
Brunswick Road,
Ashford, Kent
TN23 United Kingdom
The story goes that you should offer Amira Laboratories supplies at a lower price. They assign you the contract, and then you split the profit with Jason Lukas.
### The Scam
The scam is that the criminals are involved in the entire process. Jason Lukas is a victim recruiter. Dr. Patel from Amira Laboratories assigns you the contract in record time, and then a third party, Fasi Torun, appears:
Fasi Torun Herbal Farm (products@fasitorunherbalfarms.com)
They offer to sell you the product so you can resell it to Amira Laboratories.
Where is the scam? According to Jason Lukas, since you are his partner, the two of you must pay for the barrel that needs to be sold to Amira Laboratories, and obviously, that's where the scam is.
Once I told them that I had figured out their scam, they disappeared.
Important:
Easy businesses do not exist. If someone emails you offering a million-dollar deal, there is a 100% chance it is a scam. These kinds of opportunities do not come knocking on your door, especially not from strangers. If the offer also includes something illegal, like using overpricing to deceive a supplier company, you can see that it is entirely illicit.
I know I'm going to sound like something my grandmother would say, but "everything that starts badly ends badly." Any business not founded on ethics and correctness will end badly, especially for the weaker party.
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