Sorrento-Casa?

By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics and access other forums reserved for members. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today by clicking here.

Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 4:18 pm

My mum saw a job advertised on TotalJobs by a (supposed) Italian company that rents out holiday villas. They say they are looking for a UK 'agent' to take payment from customers to their bank account and then transfer it to the company minus a 5% fee as it avoids higher taxes in Italy. I'm trying to convince her this is a scam but I've not found much info on the Internet about the company in reference to if they are scammers or not.

Here is a copy of the email they sent her when she originally emailled them after she saw the ad:

Quote:

Hello,
Sorrento-Casa is an Italian travel company looking for people who will help us establish a new distribution point in the UK.
We are trying to penetrate the UK market, so we need agents to receive payments for our tickets and to forward the money back to our agents.
Tax for international money transfers made by legal entities (companies) in Italy is 17.5%, but tax for international money transfers made by private individuals is only 5%, so it's less profitable to use transfers between companies.
By transferring money through private individuals we'll save money, because of the decreased tax.

HOW MUCH WILL YOU EARN? 5% FROM EACH SALE/RESALE OPERATION!
For instance:
1. you receive 1000 GPB
2. you withdraw the money from the bank account
3. you keep 50 GPB for yourself
4. you send the rest of 950 GPB to us, minus the transfer fee !
(you will pay all fees from the 950 GPB - bank withdraw fee, wire fee...)
If possible you can open a new bank account or you can use the existent bank account.
The amounts sent to your bank account will be between 1000 GPB and can go up to 10.000 GPB.

You will work as an independent contractor right from your home.
YOU DO NOT NEED ANY CAPITAL TO START.
IF YOU ARE INTERESTED, PLEASE LET ME KNOW AND I WILL SEND YOU AN AGREEMENT TO READ AND SIGN - AND THE JOB IS YOURS.

Regards,
-----------------------------------
Sorrento-Casa.
http://sorrento-casa.com/
Telephon: +39 011 234 14 679
Fax: +39 011 829 31 126
We are open 7 days a week

I also have a copy of the 'agent agreement' that they sent her if anyone is interested.

*** BANNED *** Joined: 02 Jan 2006 Posts: 2021

Take your mum here
http://www.joewein.net/419/419-phone-it.htm

Scroll down you,ll find those phone numbers and other matching details

Not quite a Newb Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 41

You may not necessarily find a specific companies name on an internet search, but you will often find either the phone numbers/email addresses (as Bombadier did) or a gazillion variations of this employment/check mule scam.

You can ask your mom to read the results of this search:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=employment+fake+check+scam&btnG=Google+Search

Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 4:30 pm

sorrento-casa.com : 207.189.97.164 [edit]see bit at bottom
Who is :
207.189.97.164 is from United States(US) in region North America

whois query for 207.189.97.164...

Results returned from whois.arin.net:

ViaWest Internet Services, Inc. VINS-BLK-7 (NET-207-189-96-0-1)
207.189.96.0 - 207.189.127.255
Fortix Webhosting FORTIX (NET-207-189-97-0-1)
207.189.97.0 - 207.189.97.255

# ARIN WHOIS database, last updated 2007-03-20 19:10
# Enter ? for additional hints on searching ARIN's WHOIS database.

Results returned from whois.arin.net:

CustName: Fortix Webhosting
Address: 3935 NW Aloclek Place Suite C-200
City: Hillsboro
StateProv: OR
PostalCode: 97124
Country: US
RegDate: 2003-01-28
Updated: 2003-01-28

NetRange: 207.189.97.0 - 207.189.97.255
CIDR: 207.189.97.0/24
NetName: FORTIX
NetHandle: NET-207-189-97-0-1
Parent: NET-207-189-96-0-1
NetType: Reassigned
Comment:
RegDate: 2003-01-28
Updated: 2003-01-28

OrgAbuseHandle: ABUSE360-ARIN
OrgAbuseName: Abuse Contact
OrgAbusePhone: +1-720-891-1000
OrgAbuseEmail: [email protected]

OrgTechHandle: ROUTI1-ARIN
OrgTechName: Routing
OrgTechPhone: +1-303-407-4700
OrgTechEmail: [email protected]

# ARIN WHOIS database, last updated 2007-03-20 19:10
# Enter ? for additional hints on searching ARIN's WHOIS database.

Is it slightly odd that an Italian firm would host their site in the US. I'm trolling through their web-site to see if there are any others clues.

Found this by googling the telephone number :
click

Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 4:39 pm

OK, thanks everyone. Confirms what I thought. I'll give my mum an email just now.

Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 11:00 pm

Quote:

Tax for international money transfers made by legal entities (companies) in Italy is 17.5%, but tax for international money transfers made by private individuals is only 5%

Drivel - pure and simple. Certainly in the UK there is no tax on transferring funds - not VAT, income tax or diddly squat. Tax is paid on income irrespective of who it comes from.

Apart from that - surely the villas would be hired out to private individuals, not companies, so why introduce another indivual into the chain ? - BECAUSE they need someone called PATSY I'm afraid, to take the hit.

I've shown the part in red because that misdescribes which way the money will be transferred in any event. The money is going FROM the UK to Italy, so the taxation (drivel anyway) for the transfer in the opposite direction is irrelevant.

There are some good reasons to have a local agent, this isn't it, I'm not saying, and this scammer probably can't add up either.

Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2007 2:19 am

Site content is stolen from sorrento-villas.com, which has been around since 2003 and has completely different contact and registration details.

[Edit] Site is a frame loading content from (oddly) http://penguintarts.com/.config/index.php?l=e
which seems to be someone's personal blog Confused

@coppolafan - can you post the email with full headers (your mum's email addy removed, of course), please?

Master Baiter Joined: 18 Oct 2006 Posts: 146

I sent the email to somebody at the Italian govt's tourism department. Here's what i just got back:

Quote:

Received: from postazione652 ([213.175.13.156]) by cdamsw15.mailhosting.rupa.it over TLS secured channel with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.1830); Thu, 22 Mar 2007 11:41:42 +0100
From: "ENIT Sede Centrale" <[email protected]>

Subject: R: Tourism Information
Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2007 11:43:55 +0100

WE HAVE NON INFORMATION ABOUT THIS COMPANY
ENIT IS IN CHARGE OF PROMOTION OF TOURISM IN ITALY ABROAD
MAYBE YOU CAN CONTACT CITY HALL IN SORRENTO FOR INFORMATIONS

BEST REGARDS
ENIT - GENERAL DIRECTION

I'm going to try city hall ans see what they say about it.