Hello,I have received a remote job offer that seems to good to be true. They sent a contract, it all seemed legit. I’ve signed it.They said that they’ve sent a package with an Employee Payroll ATM Card, and that because of the huge sum on the card plus a laptop and a printer I have to pay a huge sum for clearance.The shipping company is Goldenlight Airnow based in Kyoto. (1-1 Takanotakeyacho, Sakyo Ward, Kyoto, 606-8799, Japan) Upon trying to reply to the email from Romanian Customs Authority, the address changes from the governmental address that you can find on the official site to the Goldenlight address.
The main part of the email goes like this: Your parcel has an Employee Payroll ATM Card of $XXXX USD. You are required to complete an import duty/tax fee of 6,136 Romanian Lei within 12 hours from now before we can release the parcel to the Goldenlight AirNow Services to allow them complete delivery. This process has nothing to do with your Employer, Silistra Radu Alexandru is responsible for completing this clearance process. The Employer (Chemipro Kasei) will reimburse the employee within 1-2 days after the delivery is completed.
I have also been given a time limit of 12 hours and I do not have that amount of money either way. This also fits just so that I don’t have enough time to contact who would be in charge to ensure whether there is a package for me.Does anyone know about the shipping company? Or maybe the company that “Hired” me? I do not want to make a mistake if they are actually interested in me and only the shipping company is trying to scam us both.Wanted to keep it short but failed. If anyone knows anything I would ask for your help. It is full of red flags but I want to know if I am at least hired or if everything has been a scam since the very first mail.
Thank you!
Edit: Reddit was acting weird so there is a chance I have posted this twice, sorry about that
https://www.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/15ze70n/i_have_been_employed_and_i_am_being_asked_to_pay/
4 comments
>You are required to complete an import duty/tax fee of 6,136 Romanian Lei within 12 hours from now before we can release the parcel to the Goldenlight AirNow Services to allow them complete delivery. This process has nothing to do with your Employer, Silistra Radu Alexandru is responsible for completing this clearance process. The Employer (Chemipro Kasei) will reimburse the employee within 1-2 days after the delivery is completed.
This is definitely a scam.
No shipping company would ever tell you that “this has nothing to do with your employer, you are responsible for the clearance process, and your employer will reimburse you”.
The very short time frame is also another classic scam tactic to put pressure on you to respond quickly.
On the off chance that it isn’t, your employer should be making arrangements to pay off the duties (either with their corporate credit card, or a bank transfer directly from them); no shipping company would insist that it must be the recipient who handles it. Taxes are taxes, the government doesn’t care whose money is used to pay for it.
Most international shipping companies can hold a shipment for a reasonable period of time (7, 14, 21, 28 days…) if duties need to be processed without too much trouble.
Finally, I’m not aware of any Japanese company who pays it’s remote employees with a “Employee Payroll ATM Card”. It would be done by direct bank-to-bank wire transfers, from their account, directly into yours.
Edit to add: The [address provided belongs to a post office…](https://goo.gl/maps/9YWvbsABHF1TtXmh7) – I’m inclined to believe that there is no legitimate job offer, and even that might have been part of the scam. =(
Their website is unbelievably sketchy and has none of the information I would expect on a Japanese company’s official website (no 会社概要 page?!), not to mention the default is a poorly written English page with no real Japanese version.
Then we come to the fact that the company address is just a [post office](https://global.map.japanpost.jp/p/en/search/dtl/300144080000/) and the WHOIS shows the domain is registered through a privacy protection service in Massachusetts.
Be glad you didn’t pay anything, move on, and keep looking for work. Sucks that this didn’t work out, but do not keep engaging with this.
ETA: And of course if you reverse image search the “customer testimonials,” we learn that “Makoto Kenzo” is actually “portrait of a cheerful asian in a business suit looks at the camera with crossed arms and smiles”, and “Rodriguez Pitt from Norway” (what kind of Norwegian name is that?) shows up on ANOTHER fake but nearly identical site for a business supposedly called “[Grand Pioneer Courier Services](https://www.grandpioneercs.com/us/)”. Run away!
Be careful, this sounds like a scam.
Some scammer red flags – Pay money to receive money. Forcing you to act quickly.
How were you hired? Was it all on Zoom? Was there even an interview?
What’s the job supposed to be?
Classic scam.