Spam with a Touch from the Orient
Of the many spam samples we receive here at SophosLabs, one of them is from oriental China.
Shopping experiences are totally different from Western countries, where end consumers have to figure out their own sales tax based on the tagged price for an item; but at least in China, shoppers do not have to do mental calculation on how much they will have to pay for the sales tax because they simply have the total price listed on the tag.
They would rather spend their time figuring out how to bargain and haggle for lower prices before making the final decision to purchase.
This does not mean China is a tax-free country, but all the sales tax, also know as Value Added Tax (VAT) is billed from the retailers rather than the end consumer - and this is where the spammers come in too. Some criminals provide illegal invoices and charge a fee based on the amount shown on the invoice, so that retailers could evade part, if not all, of the VAT taxes.
For example, if a retailer, who is responsible for paying the VAT to the government, purchased certain commodities in bulk for a total of 5,000 RBM (local currency in China), then he would liable for a VAT based on this 5,000 RMB. So, these “invoice providers” would provide a fake receipt for the same item, but valued at 1,000 RMB, and the retailer in this case would be liable for VAT based on this 1,000RMB, if the government accepts this fake invoice. And finally these spammers would bill the retailers 3-7% of 1,000 RMB, which is 30-70 RMB for this service.
Here is a translation of the text in this spam message:
“We are an authorized company in providing invoice services, and provide such services for all provinces and major cities within the country. We provide State Tax and Property Tax invoice at a rate of 0.5-1% and VAT Taxes at 3-7%, details negotiable based on the amount needed.”
“We will provide you with the invoice first, and will ask for your payment after the invoices are legally accepted (by the local government); therefore, you do not have to worry about the legitimacy of the invoices! We will keep all our dealings confidential and will provide “under the table” money for any middleman who hook us up. You are more than welcome to contact us (all the contact information will be in effective use for a long time! Sorry for any inconvenience!!)”
Posted on September 16th, 2008 by Nicolai Zhao, SophosLabs Canada“Contact: Mr. Yang
Telephone: [Removed]
E-mail: [Removed]“
Filed under: Spam
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