Global Money Transfers Fraud Alert

I am writing this to inform the public about the company Global Money Transfers. This company is a complete scam, engaging in fraudulent money transfers primarily through the Bank of America and Western Union entities.

If you visit GMTCO.org, the company's website, you will find what seems to be a very nice, well structured website. On the home page, which gives you an intricate rundown of the company's goals of being the leading firm in the international funds transfer industry, they specify they operate in countries of the "UK, USA, Israel, Greece, Cyprus, Russia and the Ukraine since January, 2001." They also have several other sub-pages to their site describing their activities such as Sending Money, Receiving Money, Why use GMT?, a FAQs page, Become an Agent, and Contact information.

Let me again reiterate...this company is a complete scam. They do however, hide it very well. They state their approval with organizations such as the Central Bank and AML (Anti Money Laundering) authorities. They also have legal notices, a street address, phone and fax numbers, and numerous e-mail addresses listed to their different departments. Their entire website is actually built very well, with quite a professional look to it.

So how do we know this is a scam? Well, I was personally involved in this company as an Agent and was investigated for bank fraud after my first transaction. I'll tell you my story, and hopefully anyone that gets a job offer from this company will find this article on the net and save themselves a lot of hassle by not being involved with these people. I will admit I feel extremely foolish for being sucked into this scam, which was the discourse for not following my gut instinct that told me to ignore them.

I'm a broke college student, so I'm always on the look out for part-time job prospects. I am also a very internet savvy individual, and very cautious. About a month ago I received an e-mail from a man named David Benson who is the employment manager of Global Money Transfers. He offered me a job as an agent with the company. I was directed to the website, registered as an agent, and was given a contract to sign. However, being very skeptical, I didn't respond to his offer until a week later.

During the course of that week, I did a huge amount of research on Global Money Transfers, trying to find any flaw in their system. First, I searched various major search engines trying to find any report of the public being scammed by these people, but to no avail. I browsed forums like scam.com and tried to dig information up about them, but there was simply no negative feedback. After several days of doing this I was beginning to get into the mindset that perhaps this was a legitimate means of work. The fact that they had listed a phone number and a street address also boosted my moral about Global Money Transfers.

So, I decided to give it a try, after all I didn't really have anything to lose; they weren't charging me a fee of any kind and I really needed the money. So I signed the one sheet contract they sent to me, and got my first assignment on Wednesday the following week.

My first assignment was to transfer $981.66 to someone named David Lemesh in the Ukraine. To do this I had to set up a bank account with Bank of America so that Global Money Transfers could deposit the money in my account and I could then take it out and send it via Western Union to the appropriate recipient. I set up an account, and gave them the account number and routing number so that the money could be deposited. The account was new and had a zero balance so in case something did go wrong or my information was put in the wrong hands, there would be no money of my own put in jeopardy.

The day before, on Tuesday, when Global Money Transfers sent me the information on my first transfer and gave me the name of the recipient, David Lemesh who was said to live in the Ukraine, I immediately put his name into several search engines to make sure I wasn't sending money to a felon or convict hiding in a foreign country. The search results found only one David Lemesh, who indeed lived in the Ukraine, and was a drummer in a death metal band. At this point I felt pretty safe with the idea of this money transfer job. They were offering me $150 per transfer I completed, and I was guaranteed at least 15 per month, which equates to at least $2100 per month.

The following day, Wednesday, at 12:00 p.m., I received a call from a representative of Global Money Transfers. I was a bit startled to find the man had no hint of an English accent (I assumed he would, as their headquarters and dispatch center is in the middle of London, or at least address on the website said). He gave me directions on how to complete the transfer. He told me that the money had been wired to my account, and that I was to remove it from the account, and send it to this David Lemesh character in the Ukraine via Western Union.

I completed the transfer without hassle from the bank or from the Western Union agent, and reported back to the employment manager via e-mail telling him of my accomplishment.

The next morning I was on campus at 7:00 a.m. printing out some notes for my classes. I decided to check my Bank of America account which held the money. In doing so I found that there was an $888,888.00 hold on my account.

After freaking out, and calling every bank representative and fraud specialist I could, I soon found out I had been scammed. The money that was transferred to me was stolen from someone else's Bank of America account, put into mine, and I had sent it off to the Ukraine. I called Western Union to cancel the transfer, but whoever it was that I really sent it too had already picked it up and it was lost. As it turns out, it takes Bank of America at least three hours to register a fraudulent online transaction, which I realize is why I was pressured by these people to complete it in the two hour time frame they gave me. For about a month I was under investigation for bank fraud.

I tried to contact Global Money Transfers during the weeks thereafter, but was completely ignored, and my agent account on their website was shut down. I knew I had been scammed, but I couldn't believe I had fallen for it, so I started searching for more loop holes in their system, and I found several.

First of all, I had neglected to look up their address to make sure it was legit. In doing so, I found out that indeed, there is an address located at 500 Lordship Lane in London, but it does not belong to Global Money Transfers. So where were these people located? The man I spoke to over the phone didn't sound like he lived anywhere near the UK. His accent sounded from the Middle East or possibly Asia.

Next, I decided to do some time zone research. The company's headquarters were in London (or so they would have you believe), which is in GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) and is five hours ahead of my time zone. I looked at the e-mails I received, and saw that the dates they were sent were an entire day ahead of mine. For example, if I received a message on the 13^th from these people, the date sent would say the 14^th, 12 hours ahead of me, to be exact. I did a bit more research and found that these e-mails were actually coming from Asia, around the Beijing, Singapore, and Hong Kong area. I then checked the call history on my CallerID, and found that the number they called from was something along the lines of 012-345-6789. I looked up the number and it's what shows up on your CallerID when someone on Skype calls you, which would be another give away to their scam as you can't really track someone who calls you from that program.

The investigation is over and I refunded the $981.66 back to the bank. I was embarrassed at first, and I still am a little, however, I feel I need to get the word out about Global Money Transfers and its completely fraudulent activity, so that others do not fall victim as I did. If you receive e-mails from these people on job offers, or any thing else, do NOT respond, just ignore them. Again, I hope that anyone who gets a job offer from these low life's does their research and finds this article, as I did not have the luxury when I was digging up this company. I did report them to several federal authorities linked to the FBI and the IC3 which deal with internet fraud. Stay away from Global Money Transfers and don't fall victim to their scam.