Your feedback (non-cs related)

[delanvital]

Sorry for being off-topic here, but I need some help and I do not want to post this in a forum open to the internet.

I found a job in the largest, Danish job site called jobindex.dk. The job was listed by a recruiting agency called Litchfield Associates (www.litchfieldassociates.net) as a position as management consultant trainee. From their site, it seems they specialised in such jobs.

I found their site a wee bit simple and a bit well... amateurish... but decided to apply. I mean, what is to lose (most personal in my CV i sent was my age and my e-mail). After that I got a bit... nervous. The site seemed too poor, but I waited. I mean, come on - see what they call the email aliases on their site?? topcareer@..., success@...

And what do you know, I have today been selected from a shortlist for an interview somewhere in Copenhagen. The lady e-mailing me was from the Irish firm, but had an Eastern European name, and all I can find about that firm is in Easter Europe. I can't put my finger on it, but that firm, is just seems fishy. The email I got, well, see parts of it here:

Dear Vidar Thorlaksson,

Congratulations, you have been selected in the  shortlist for the Management Consultant Trainee position.

We will be  conducting interviews shortly.

Please proceed with visiting the following  website in order to schedule your  interview:
http://www.la-scheduler.com/candidate/index.asp

Use the  below details to login and select an interview time that suits you  best.

Login ID: blah...
Password: more blah...

If you cannot attend  an in-person interview in Copenhagen, we can offer you a SKYPE interview (web  cam is required). If you wish to have a Skype interview, please type "SKYPE"  AFTER YOUR SURNAME when booking a time slot. Thank you.

PLEASE CONTACT ME  IF YOU DO NOT RECEIVE A "CT - INTERVIEW CONFIRMATION" EMAIL IMMEDIATELY AFTER  BOOKING A TIME SLOT.

Best regards,

Katarina Cagalova
Litchfield  Associates N.V.
Tel: +353 1 675 2401
www.litchfieldassociates.net

I will now reply yes to having an interview in Copenhagen, in person, and see what happens. But I will not provide a thing more personal details before I feel more confident.

Any internet master cruisers here who can dig something up on that firm? Or know anything about it? My bro, who has worked in recruitment, is also concerned.

Any comments greatly appreciated. I don't want to miss out on a job, but I also don't want to be caught up in a scam.

[Jamoe]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7680091.stm

that rang a bell.

[delanvital]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7680091.stm

that rang a bell.

Based on that I am already quite sad to realise that the firm in question has -

my birth date (but not my social security number)
my current address
my cell phone no.

I reckon they want to meet me to get my picture. I will disregarding any dialogue with them from now on and not proceed.

How would you guys proceed here? I am about to contact jobindex.dk to alert them, at least to the potential and my concern with this site being.. well... suspicious.

What can I do with the suspicion? Alert the Danish police? And can I proceed without evidence, just relaying my suspicion?

[delanvital]

I have emailed the Danish job site and I will do drive by the local police station for a chat on how to proceed, to be sure.

[Browne]

I have emailed the Danish job site and I will do drive by the local police station for a chat on how to proceed, to be sure.

I called the Dublin telephone number provided on the pdf doc, and got an office answering machine, with the message " you have reached ******'s office, we are not able, etc etc". However, the name (***** above) was garbled (incomprehensible) so I'd be very wary.

I also noticed (doing a google) that there are several jobs of the same nature, in different countries, as in " must be resident in Slovakia or Czech Republic", or. "must be resident in Norway"...Be careful Delan, it doesn't look promising........

[delanvital]

I've just come back from the local police station. I have a file now on it, and will contact the technical police investigation tomorrow.

[Anonymous]

Well done for being cautious :clap:

Geez, you cant even relax trying to get a job these days :sad:

[delanvital]

Well done for being cautious :clap:

Geez, you cant even relax trying to get a job these days :sad:

I feel like a naïve idiot. I should never ever have registered there. Now I just hope I can stop it and I hope putting the police on the case safeguards me a bit - so I don't end up having to pay for a credit card I never issued :sad::sad::sad:

I must admit I don't feel that good right now.

[Bastet]

On the upside delan, you noticed it and took action before it got out of hand. Now if you would have went you could have been in a lot more trouble.
 
Sometimes you just got to trust your gut instinct.
 
Keep on fighting, a job will be forthcoming :boxing:

[Doorman]

I feel like a naive idiot...

No, a naive idiot wouldn't have suspected anything in the first place. Sad though, how it weakens any faith one might have had in humanity. :sad:

[Jabbs]

I've read this thread with interest and a little sadness.  Delan, I hope that you get things sorted and without any further problems.

Wisdom can be described as using other peoples experiences to ones own benefit.  In your case, your 'unfortunate' experience in this has probably helped the rest of us:

1) Jabbs at remove address and personal details from CV
2) If (or when) I'm looking for another job, I'll stick to known and trusted sites here in the UK.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. :sad:

[delanvital]

I have no evidence, but it reeks. I have called the jobsite and they will call me back asap with details. Letting them know that I am waiting for the information in order to cool the police sped them up a bit. Note, that I was wrong, it was not from jobindex.dk the advertisement originated, it was from stepstone.dk. Talking to the guy from stepstone on the phone was interesting, since there is no firm registered with the advertisement and the ad seems to come from stepstone in the UK according to him. The guy got nervous himself and is calling the UK-department right now for details.

In the meantime I did a WHOIS lookup and found this:

Domain name: litchfieldassociates.net

Registrant Contact:
   Litchfieal Associates
   Charles Graves
   
   PO Box 511126
   Punta Gorda, FL 33951
   US

Administrative Contact:
   Litchfieal Associates
   Charles Graves (gravescv@compuserve.com)
   +1.9419160805
   Fax: 9416392935
   PO Box 511126
   Punta Gorda, FL 33951
   US

Technical Contact:
   Litchfieal Associates
   Charles Graves (gravescv@compuserve.com)
   +1.9419160805
   Fax: 9416392935
   PO Box 511126
   Punta Gorda, FL 33951
   US

Status: Locked

Name Servers:
   ns605a.privatelabeldns.com
   ns605b.privatelabeldns.com
   
Creation date: 30 Sep 2003 08:06:31
Expiration date: 30 Sep 2010 08:06:31

I have marked with bold to show how well they spell. Also, I'd like to know what locked indicates?

[delanvital]

And looking up the upload link I find that it is registered in Ireland to some non-familiar firm:

Registrant:
 FF Solutions Ltd.
 Unit 4
 Greenhills Industrial Village
 Greenhills
 Drogheda, Co.Louth NA
 IE

 Domain name: LA-SCHEDULER.COM


 Administrative Contact:
    McKeown, Pat  pat@ffsolutions.ie
    Unit 4
    Greenhills Industrial Village
    Greenhills
    Drogheda, Co.Louth NA
    IE
    +353-41-9842346    Fax: +353-41-9842349

 Technical Contact:
    McKeown, Pat  pat@ffsolutions.ie
    Unit 4
    Greenhills Industrial Village
    Greenhills
    Drogheda, Co.Louth NA
    IE
    +353-41-9842346    Fax: +353-41-9842349

[DuVeL]

I had a short conversation on MSN with Vidar yesterday.
I had my CV on 2 websites aswell but these were well known Dutch sites.
Even when I had a job allready they kept emailing and phoning me if I wanted a new job.
I finally deleted everything from both sites.
 
Hope it goes well for you m8.

[delanvital]

Cheers mate.

I AM STORING WHAT I FIND HERE FOR LATER, HOPE THAT IS OK

FF solutions' site is this one

http://ffsolutions.ie/

It looks clean and neat. Does the co. name mean anything to anyone?

Do you have a site in the UK where you can search on firm registration numbers?

Edit: The Litchfield Associates N.V. firm in Ireland also now has a Dutch address and NV seems to be from Dutch, meaning naamloos vennootschap or nameless partnership... so the Dutch firm is the one in Ireland.


Edit2: From Duvel, firm now related to Costa Rica or might be a firm with a similar name

Edit3: Linkedin gave a public profile from a dude which works there. I am beginning to wonder if this is just me...

Edit4: This ad was put up by the same person, it seems, as the one emailing me

Edit5: This link seems to show that the NV-regged firm is from the US

Edit6: The US firm, if these are linked, seems to have some religious background

Edit7: They sure are all over the NL and CZ with ads

Edit8: They seem to have another Dutch address (although this is from a text book)