Thousands of Romanians Duped With Promises of Well-Paid Jobs Abroad

Jurnalul National presented yesterday the interlocking chain of companies which siphoned money from Romania to the Isle of Man, in the Irish Sea. Black money, that is.

Today the newspaper focuses on Philip Mark Croshaw, who took part in a large scale scam, which offered fictitious jobs on fictitious off-shore oil-platforms, as manager of over 2,000 companies he set up for conducting his scam.
Many fell for the bite: a promise of a well-paid job which required no experience and no qualification!
The job offers were made by Caledonian Offshore Ltd., controlled by Croshaw, and two Panama citizens: Tito Cordoba and Michael Beiertz.

The advertisement in a central newspaper read "Work now! On off-shore oil-platforms! Openings available. Salaries start at 59,000 USD a year!!!" It ran last year in Romania, and again last month! The advertisement was in Romanian language and the applicants were asked to send a CV by email.

Those sending their applications received information on the economic potential the company had. According to the information package, Caledonian Offshore Ltd. invested in the extraction of crude in the Middle East, The Gulf of Mexico, Venezuela, North Sea, Kazakhstan and West Africa.
The envelope also included a form the applicant was required to fill in with his or her personal data, plus a request to send part of the "recruitment commission", in the amount of 189 USD.
Many Romanians fell in the trap and sent that money.
Some did even more than that, and sent the full amount of the commission, set at 438 USD.

Obviously, no one heard back from the Caledonian Offshore Ltd., until last month, when the company’s advertisement resurfaced in the same daily.
This time Caledonian Offshore Ltd. asked applicants to send their CVs at job1@fastoiljobs.com.
It is worth knowing that this company conducted the same operations of duping people all over the world, using the same method it now deploys on Romanians.

Caledonian Offshore Ltd. is registered as a Liberian company, but has its mail-box in Toronto, Canada, at 599 B Yonge Street, Suite 350. Another company address is in Miami, USA, at 1601 NW 9th Avenue.
The International Federation of Transporters warned back in 2004 that Caledonian Offshore Ltd. manages its e-mail via 14 different web-sites and servers which are interconnected.

The www.fastoiljobs.com web-site is in fact the Caledonian Offshore Ltd., and its webmaster may be found at webmaster@ cooljobsite.com. The address of the server is 1601 NW 9th Avenue, Miami, and its owner may be called at (999) 999-9999 phone number.
This site and other 11 ones are all linked to the Caledonian Offshore Ltd. As they have the same postal address and same phone number.

The wording of another site set up by Croshaw, www.caledonianoffshore.com, is designed in such a way that conveys the idea that the company holds a sort of monopoly on work-force recruitment for the extraction of crude on off-shore platforms.
The company also spreads its message via newspapers all over the third world countries, its usual prey being the poor and the unemployed, who lost hope of finding opportunities at home.