Over the last three weeks, I have received two different ProAdvisor referral scam emails all coming from the Find-a-ProAdvisor website.
The first one just sounded 'too odd' to be true, the second sounded almost identical to the first one, but the information was different. Yet if you read the two referral notices they sounded just 'too' similar.
In both cases, they came from persons claiming their name was almost exactly like another ProAdvisor, with perhaps 1 letter spelling difference. This may be intended to attempt to make you think someone you know is sending you a referral.
The first notice started out...
Dear Your Name, I hope you're doing well. My name is such-n-such, and I am...
The first one advised that the person was a representative of a major movie production studio that was shooting a film somewhere in Europe and they needed a 'professional bookkeeper.' They prop you up by saying your "experience will provide invaluable guidance to this project."
The contact email which comes from accountantdirectoryleads@intuit.com then proceeds to advise that they are needing an individual to work with actors as part of a remote consultation on three dates (days in a row) to provide training in bookkeeping/accounting terminology. You are then asked to reply back via the link (which appears odd, as though it's been substituted somehow.)
That email came the week just prior to Intuit Connect.
Then yesterday, the second suspicious referral email came.
This one begins in exactly the same way:
Dear Your Name, I hope you're doing well. My name is such-n-such, and I am...
In this case the person is a Real Estate Agent working on a new project in the United States and needing a professional bookkeeper as a consultant. Exact same pat-on-the-back line: "Your experience would provide invaluable guidance to our new project."
One of the kickers in this most recent email that told me this was a fake is that it says "I discovered your profile on 'Good Directly'..." (I don't even know what 'Good Directly' and what does that have to do with Intuit Find-a-ProAdvisor?) It then proceeds to ask if you are available for remote consultations on three days in a row.
If you respond back to one of these 'fake requests', I suspect you will find this is some 'tech' appealing version of the old... "I've got $500,000 for you, just need you to authorize a small bank transfer of $250.00 with your local bank so that we can verify the bank transfer connection with which I can wire you the $500,000."
This appears to me to be a scam that is making use of the Find a ProAdvisor referral program. Neither one have had telephone number contacts listed, they want all communications to go through replies or emails sent through the Intuit Find-a-ProAdvisor network.
I could always be wrong, but I don't think so.
I'm not so vain as to think that someone has tracked me down from half-way around the world to be their 'bookkeeping expert' for stupid actors who don't know debits from credits in a major motion picture. First of all, I don't do bookkeeping, never have, and there is no mention of it in my profile.... "so why me."
For that matter, 'why seek out anyone in the U.S., if you're shooting a film overseas?'
This is, in my opinion, just a fancy form of (cyber) fishing... using a tool many ProAdvisors rely on for their lively-hood.
The problem is, these cyber criminals have overworked their presentation, like a novice fly-fisherman using a "Pheasant Tail Nymph" (fly) for fly-fishing Arkansas' White River, when a 'Caddis' (fly) would likely catch the most trout.
Just trying to keep you safe... take care.
Don't let yourself drown by having a cyber criminal pull you in by your waders.
Murph