I know that a number of forum members are looking for work .... but please be very very careful if you're using Gumtree. There's a lot of job scams on the site... and also unscrupulous b*ast*rds who'll contact you, offering you jobs.

My son got the following this morning:

Dear applicant,

We are glad to inform you that after carefully reviewing your cv for the post of warehouse picker and packer job vacancy our company advertised, you have been selected to join our new warehouse operative team in london bridge.The two days induction and training date will start at 10am and finish 12noon on the 27th and 28th of may 2012 at the MERMAID CONFERENCE AND EVENT CENTRE,PUDDLE DOCK,EC4V 3DB,BLACKFRIARS LONDON, it's five minutes walk from the blackfriars station on the district line train. The two days training will be fully paid for and you are expected to bring your passport,national insurance number and your bank details for your salary.

The pay rate for your position will be £10 an hour,your shift pattern will be 8 hours a day, 5 days on and 2 days off with plenty of over time work available. There is also full time and part time positions to choose from,we have morning shift ( 6am-2pm),day shift (2pm- 10pm) and night shift (10pm- 6am) and you will be paid weekly. The company will issue you a uniform on the induction/training day and you will start work on the 29th of may 2012 at the company's london bridge distribution warehouse,you will be given the work shift rota and other information on the training/induction day. it's very important to email us back with your uniform sizes comprising of shirts, safety boot,trousers and also most importantly your ukash £50 payment voucher number for a standard crb [criminal record ]check to be carried out through our crb specialist agent to ensure an accurate criminal record report.The company will strictly only accept crb done through us for security reasons due to the nature of business of the company you will be working in,no other crb will be accepted and you will not be employed if we don't receive your email with your uniform sizes and ukash £50 voucher number for your crb fees.

The ukash is a new safe and secure payment method that we use for effective payment for crb fees. The newsagent shops, off licence shops and mobile top up shops with the paypoint,payzone or epay signs can issue you a ukash voucher for £50,once you give the customer assistant £50 in cash.The ukash voucher 19 digits numbers is what we require you to email us back with for your crb payment fees and also to ensure that your job placement is still effective.The crb fees will be refunded on your next salary..

The deadline for the submission by email of your uniform sizes and £50 ukash voucher numbers for your crb fees will be on the 11th of may 2012,no work placement will be offered without any of the above and you will not be eligible to come in for the induction and training .The company will not accept any late email submission of the above due to the high volume of successful applicants. we are extremely very busy this period and may not be able to respond to any further enquiries at the moment,you will be given all the information needed on the induction/training day. we look forward to welcoming you to our company.

Recruitment Dept,
Aldo Warehouse Ltd
London Bridge.


This is a total SCAM.

Firstly, a CRB check is only required if you intend working with children or vunerable adults.

Secondly, substitute ukash voucher for Western Union.... a scammer's favourite choice for receiving money.

Thirdly... The Mermaid has no record of any bookings for these dates, and the company is unknown to them... "but we've had lots of calls about them".

I hope this saves some of you 50 quid.