PARTNERS-Group Inc scam

PARTNERS-Group Inc Fraud

Don't Bear Internet Fraud

This fraudster should not be confused with any legitimate company of the same or similar name - the website graphics below and the included evidence clearly identify the fake website and these fraudsters and no other company of the same or a similar name.

PARTNERS-Group Inc scam screenshot (28-Feb-2010)

PARTNERS-Group Inc scam is is just the latest of the numerous highly generic Russian/Ukrainian scam websites that has been set up to form a front for a money laundering fraud job spamming campaign in this case with an added side serving of re-shipping fraud. It's a bit slicker than most but at the end of the day its function is to con you into believing that they are a legitimate company when the evidence clearly demonstrates that they are crooks. The template is the same one as used for the ITS Group Inc, Palladium Group Inc, Bear Group Inc and TNM Group Inc scams, even down to the same fake management team for all of them. The website carries both a clear money mule solicitation and a reshipping fraud scam which is the sole reason for the site, their domain partners--group.com was only registered very recently for the usual 'criminal's domain' minimum period of only one year, they are not a registered company, their website content and fake management team is the same as previous aliases and all their contact and location details are bogus. The crystal clear money mule job is identical to the many hundreds of other 'Group Inc.' Russian/Ukrainian frauds documented on this website.

PARTNERS-Group Inc : Evidence of Criminal Fraud

i) PARTNERS-Group Inc make absolutely no claims whatsoever about when they were founded or how long they have been in operation, (although you will notice that the fake 'Alan Garner' below "has been working for the company since 2001"), but their domain partners--group.com was only registered with Directi Internet Solutions Pvt. Ltd. d/b/a PublicDomainRegistry.com (PROVISOV.NET as reseller) on 05-jan-2010 for the usual 'criminal's domain' minimum period of only one year. A clear indication of a fraud domain.

ii) They claim to be located in Cyprus, but a search of the Cyprus Companies registry database shows that there is no company by the name of PARTNERS-Group Inc registered in Cyprus. Check for yourself. Irrefutable evidence of a fake company.

iii) The usual suspects...this fake 'Management Team' with stock photos and differing names has been a feature of a large number of their previous scams (Google search for "creator of unique financial flows management schemes repeatedly awarded" from the text below to see a few:

President of the company: Scott Anderson (The fake name usually changes with the alias - this one's the same as the crook's ITS Group Inc alias).

Scott Anderson is the founder of the company. He has higher economic and legal education. For 15 years Mr. Scott Anderson has been occupied in the sphere of finance and banking. He has risen from a clerk to the chief executive of a large bank. Scott Anderson is the creator of unique financial flows management schemes repeatedly awarded for achievements in finance and investment. He is among top-100 world's leading financiers. Scott Anderson also gives lectures on business fundamentals and investment policy in the world's largest universities.

Chief executive: Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor is a co-founder of the company and a member of the Board of Directors. He boasts 2 diplomas of higher financial education being a graduate of the US university and a post-graduate of higher educational institution of England. Before the company was set up he had been working at the European leading trading site (oil and gas sphere). In the company Brian Taylor supervises the major trends of activity. Investment projects created by him have won recognition of the leading finance experts. From time to time Mr. Taylor holds seminars in the US universities.

Vice-President: Terry Bennett

Terry Bennett is a member of the Board of Directors. He has been working for the Company for 5 years and before that was a Commercial Manager of a large corporation engaged in electronics production. Beside his main speciality Terry Bennett graduated with honours from university of England qualified in "Long-Term Financial Obligations". He supervises investment policy and also co-ordinates the work of affiliates situated in foreign countries.

Chief Financial Officer: Alan Garner

Alan Garner has been working for the company since 2001. Previously he was engaged in banking, and within a short period of time he was promoted to the manager of investment fund of one of the largest banks of the country. Thanks to Alan Garner our company could reduce operating costs by 12% and minimize both own and partner-companies' financial risks. His terms of reference also cover continuous work with affiliates and attraction of potential partners.

Technical Manager: Tim Kay

Tim Kay has been working for the company for 3 years. He has higher education specializing in "Information Protection in Corporate Communication Systems". The scope of his team comprises: on-line projects technical support, information protection, software development, etc.

PR-Manager: Kenny Moore

Kenny Moore heads Advertisement Department. His work experience in the company dates back to the moment of its foundation. His responsibility is to promote "PARTNERS-Group Inc" brand in the global business community. A great number of his ideas were taken into account by many large companies of the world. His publications are recommended for study in many universities.

iv) A Google search shows no genuine internet presence at all for this particular "PARTNERS-Group Inc", apart from their own multiple fraud sites that pop up, of course. Not to be confused with other companies of the same generic name.

v) Fake Location Details (copied from their website)

(Bear in mind that these crooks are not a legally registered business entity in Cyprus so their location and contact details are not going to be genuine)

Main Address:
Cyprus
Nicosia
Ayioi Omologites, 1087

USA Phone: (917) 720-3684
Facsimile: +1(800)-477-8106

• - A Google Search for the address "Ayioi Omologites, Nicosia, Cyprus 1087" returns zero results for these crooks, just returning one hit for the Almond Business Suites Hotel. (Ayioi Omologites is just an area of Cyprus - this crook's clearly fake address is not enough to locate an entity).
• - A Google Maps business search for the incomplete "Ayioi Omologites, Nicosia, Cyprus" returns no hits for these crooks.
• - A Google search for the above telephone number "(917) 720-3684" returns only the crooks own fake website and other related scam websites, e.g. bongo-group.com and Condor Business. Clear evidence of serial fraud.
• - A Google search for the above Fax. number "+1(800)-477-8106" also returns only the crooks fake website and other related scam websites including the above scam sites and TransBridge-us - further irrefutable evidence of a serial scammer.

All clear evidence of fraud and the usual fake details for this serial fraudster.

vi) Among the usual smokescreen of 'Unavailable' jobs, here is firstly the obvious reshipping fraud position of "Forwarding Agent" posted on their website:

Forwarding Agent

AVAILABLE
Location: USA (This vacancy is valid for US residents ONLY)
Status: Open
Employee Type: Part-Time Employee
Number of employees required: 3

VACANCY: At the present moment in our company the position of Forwarding Agent is open.

WHO WE ARE

Partners Group Inc. is a developer of web-databases, design and C++ programming projects for companies all over the world. We provide with quick, easy, efficient and secure ways for businesses to outsource services locally, nationally and globally to maximize their competitive advantage and cost effectiveness.
We are foreign company. Our Head staff is located in Cyprus. We do our business with the US customers but unfortunately we don't have any offices or representatives in this country. Our company is growing and very often our agents are in their business trips in the USA. Sometimes they make orders in US shops but unfortunately they can't ship out the packages to their countries as they are not US citizens. That’s why we need your services.

WORKING PROCESS

You'll have to receive the packages to your address and then ship them out to abroad via US postal services. We'll make labels for you due to which you'll have to pay nothing for the package shipment. Nothing illegal will be into the packages, you'll be able to make sure in it by yourself; we give you full authority to open each coming package to get familiar with its content. There may be some ATV parts into the package, for example winch or something like that. We'll let you know by phone beforehand when the package is going to be delivered to your address.

PAYMENT

There will be minimum 5-10 packages a week, for each shipped package you will get 50-70 USD. I.e. for the first month your salary will form about 3000 USD. If you pass a probation period then since next month you will have a regular salary at the rate of 5000 USD and may be moved the other positions. You'll get paid by Western Union or direct deposit to your bank account. We'll pay you for every 10 packages shipped.

JOB REQUIREMENTS:

- The address for receiving the packages (your home or office address will suit it enough)
- Vehicle
- Availability by phone
- Responsibility
- Copy of your driving license or ID
- Document that would confirm your address (payment or public utilities bill)

OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS

The responsibilities of a Local Forwarding Agent include: receiving shipments; documenting items received; preparing and shipping items; maintaining shipping materials.

Shipments will be made to your home address by mail-order companies. A single package usually contains one product and an invoice. You will need to provide us details of received products, re-pack them, print prepaid shipping labels, attach them to packages, and drop packages at the nearest post office.

You will need access to the following equipment and software:

- Computer with an Internet access.
- Laser or quality inkjet printer (600 DPI or higher).
- Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0 or higher (available for many operating systems: www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html).

Receiving Shipments

Goods will be shipped to you via UPS, FedEx, USPS, and Airborne Express. Almost all packages will be delivered to your door by a courier but, occasionally, some packages may need to be picked up at the post office.

All the packages will be coming under the names of our managers.

When you receive a package you should open it, keep the product(s), and discard everything else (invoices, payment slips, catalogs, etc.).

Preparing Packages

Use the original packaging to reship the products.

Remove or use a marker to fill out old shipping labels from the package, and repack the package.

Email us package dimensions, contents and the weight.

The Package Number should be unique, and is used to name the prepaid shipping label for this package. Write this number somewhere on the package to attach the correct label to it later.

We will email you a prepaid shipping label that you will need to print from Adobe Acrobat Reader, and attach to the package.

To print shipping labels you need to open them in Adobe Acrobat Reader (version 5.0 or higher), select File/Print. The Print dialog will appear. Select your printer from the list, and click on Properties. Choose the best printing quality setting (refer to your printer documentation for details). Then insert Letter size paper in your printer, and click Ok to begin printing.

Follow the instructions on the shipping label to attach it to the package.

Shipping Packages

To ship packages via USPS Express (EMS) you need to take them to the nearest USPS Post Office or schedule a pick up online.

To ship packages via UPS you may call 1-800-PICK-UPS (1-800-742-5877) to schedule a UPS pick up. Or you can find UPS drop off locations at www.ups.com.

To ship packages via DHL Express you need to take them to the nearest DHL Post Office or schedule a pick up online. www.dhl.com

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO PAY FOR SHIPPING. EVERYTHING IS PAID AND INCLUDED IN THE LABEL.

EMAIL US WHEN YOU SHIP PACKAGES.

Suffice to say, it is a part-time, work from home job accepting parcels to your private address and forwarding them on to these crooks, usually in the Ukraine. It is a crystal clear example of the well recognised function of "re-shipping fraud". There is no genuine requirement for such a service and what the unfortunate 'dupe' may not realise is that the goods he has reshipped have been purchased by fraud, e.g. stolen credit card details or auction fraud and he will be the only traceable link in the chain. This fraud is well documented by many authoritative agencies, e.g. the United States Postal Service detail it here in a press release dating back to February 2005.

It amounts to handling stolen goods and such criminal activity will get you a visit from the police and possibly a criminal record - don't be tempted. Such a job is clear evidence of fraud - no legitimate company is going to entrust the job of 'Forwarding Agent' to any John/Jane Doe recruited at random from the general public. The packages will contain the goods obtained by credit card fraud.

vii) Secondly the advertised 'Money Mule' position of 'Payment Processing Assistant' from their website:

Payment Processing Assistant

AVAILABLE
Location: USA (This vacancy is valid for US residents ONLY)
Status: Open
Employee Type: Part-Time Employee
Number of employees required: 3

Candidate Requirements:

    * not less than 25 years old
    * internet access
    * availability by phone (1-2 hours a day)
    * a bank account to process payments
    * good credit history with your bank (new bank account is optional)
    * no criminal offense or convictions
    * experience in the field of finance is preferred

DUTIES
We are searching for employees to process payments coming from our clients. PARTNERS-Group Inc. will provide an agent with detailed instructions as in regard to payment processing operations, including sender full name and amount total for each separate case. When funds enter employee's bank account, Payment Processing Agents duty is to withdraw cash and transfer the funds via International Wire Transfer or Western Union/Money Gram money transfer systems. The main advantage of our services is the shortest possible time within which the seller can receive money for the services/goods sold. If this operation is delayed, our clients are entitled to cancel their contract with us and we suffer financial loss. Therefore, successful applicant must be very responsible and careful!

TRIAL PERIOD POLICY
Successful applicants are offered the position on a probationary period basis (1 month). This is the period when a new employee will be trained and receive online support while working and being paid. A personal supervisor can recommend termination during/after the trial period depending on agent's activity. New employee should be responsible and strictly follow supervisor's recommendations to pass the Probationary Period successfully and be employed by us on a regular basis.

SALARY
Your basic salary will equal about 3000 USD/month (7% commission per each processed transaction). You'll get 7% from the total amount of each transaction coming to your account from our clients. It will be your portion and you'll deduct it by yourself.

IMPORTANT DETAILS

    * Payment Processing Agents is supposed to process received assets during one business day, i.e. from the moment of money entering their bank account to the moment of re-send to our client in accordance with contract terms. If money enters employee's account on a day-off or holiday, all payment processing procedures have to be completed during the next working day.
    * Payment Processing Agents receives invoices for each transaction every 14 days. This document is a confirmation of transaction validity and in case of any (if any at all) unforeseen circumstances it will evidence your personal non-participation. All invoices will contain detailed information on money sender and will be both sealed and certified with President's signature.
    * After the Probationary Period completion, invoices will be sent every business day.
    * Since business transfers can be processed with delays, Payment Processing Agents should specify each transfer as a private transaction. This provision is also applicable in case of a third party interest in the transfer.
    * Our clients appreciate our operational efficiency and are ready to pay extra fee for shorter transaction terms. If we manage to deliver goods to buyer within 5 days, the deal is considered to be fulfilled at the earliest possible date.
    * Our company covers absolutelely all WU and MG fees. The Employee has to deduct them from the amount of the transaction coming to his/her bank account from our client - NOT FROM THE PORTION OF THE EMPLOYEE!
    * We don't ask for any investment to start cooperating with our company.

It's the usual identical job as posted by all of these Russian/Ukrainian fraudsters It's a crystal clear ILLEGAL money laundering mule position that will get your bank account and your assets frozen, lose you a lot of money and could earn you a criminal record. Clear evidence of criminal fraud.

viii) No legitimate company is going to spamvertise among the untrained, inexperienced and uncertified general population for a "Payment Processing Assistant" acting as a criminal money transfer agent. It clearly defines the fake PARTNERS-Group Inc as a criminal fraud organisation.

ix) The identical illegal money mule 'job' was posted by the fraudsters other 'Group Inc' aliases as listed above and the many hundreds of other 'Group Inc' aliases listed on this website.

The above evidence clearly demonstrates beyond any doubt that the PARTNERS-Group Inc website has been set up by money laundering criminal fraudsters purely for the purpose of spamvertising an illegal money laundering 'mule' job. If you are an abuse team that has received an abuse report regarding these fraudsters, please consider immediate termination of their services in view of the absolutely undeniable evidence of criminal fraud - please don't delay - these criminals will not respond to any communication from you, (all their whois data is false), but will simply take advantage of any attempt at communication as a delaying tactic to allow them time to carry on their criminal activity and prepare their next network.

PARTNERS-Group Inc Fraudsters - hosting details at page publishing date - check for changes

Main Domains, Hosts and Registrars

Domain

partners--group.com

Registrar

Directi Internet Solutions Pvt. Ltd. d/b/a PublicDomainRegistry.com (PROVISOV.NET as reseller) - 05-jan-2010

Host Network

reserverua1 (reserverua1 - Sergey Tegniryadno/hosting.ua)

Host IP

78.109.20.50

Active
Suspended or Inactive
Parked

Please notify me of any other current domains used by this criminal.

Domain Whois Data [N.B. - These are criminal registered domains - the whois details are either fake or stolen - redacted where necessary]

Registrar:     DIRECTI INTERNET SOLUTIONS PVT. LTD. D/B/A PUBLICDOMAINREGISTRY.COM
Status:        clientTransferProhibited
Dates:         Created 05-jan-2010   Updated 05-jan-2010 Expires 05-jan-2011
DNS Servers:   NS1.BUYVPS.RU NS2.BUYVPS.RU

Registration Service Provided By: PROVISOV.NET
Contact: +380.689284824

Domain Name: PARTNERS--GROUP.COM

Registrant:
    N/A
    *****************        (*****************)
    Trotwood Drive
    Florence
    South Carolina,176472
    US
    Tel. +84.35360768

Creation Date: 05-Jan-2010
Expiration Date: 05-Jan-2011

Domain servers in listed order:
    ns2.buyvps.ru
    ns1.buyvps.ru

Administrative Contact:
    N/A
    *****************        (*****************)
    Trotwood Drive
    Florence
    South Carolina,176472
    US
    Tel. +84.35360768

Technical Contact:
    N/A
    *****************        (*****************)
    Trotwood Drive
    Florence
    South Carolina,176472
    US
    Tel. +84.35360768

Billing Contact:
    N/A
    *****************        (*****************)
    Trotwood Drive
    Florence
    South Carolina,176472
    US
    Tel. +84.35360768

Status:ACTIVE

DNS Lookup: partners--group.com A record
Searching for partners--group.com A record at m.root-servers.net [202.12.27.33]: Got referral to E.GTLD-SERVERS.NET. (zone: com.)
Searching for partners--group.com A record at E.GTLD-SERVERS.NET. [192.12.94.30]: Got referral to ns2.buyvps.ru. (zone: partners--group.com.)
Searching for partners--group.com A record at ns2.buyvps.ru. [213.155.1.146]: Reports partners--group.com.
Response:

Domain	Type	Class	TTL	Answer
partners--group.com.	A	IN	14400	78.109.20.50
partners--group.com.	NS	IN	86400	ns2.buyvps.ru.
partners--group.com.	NS	IN	86400	ns1.buyvps.ru.
ns1.buyvps.ru.	A	IN	14400	78.109.20.50
ns2.buyvps.ru.	A	IN	14400	213.155.1.146

Looking up at the 2 partners--group.com. parent servers:

Server	Response
ns1.buyvps.ru [78.109.20.50]	78.109.20.50
ns2.buyvps.ru [213.155.1.146]	78.109.20.50

The website host is listed as reserverua1 (reserverua1 - Sergey Tegniryadno/hosting.ua) on IP address 78.109.20.50

***Latest News*** - Initial entry 28th. February 2010

***Latest News*** 4th. March 2010
News from Simon Bear - the domain partners--group.com has been suspended - please notify me of any active domains for this criminal.