I received an unsolicited inquiry to work overseas for a company I had never heard of. That isn’t so surprising, but I got suspicious very quickly when they started asking for money up front for things like the telephone, electricity, my passport (they actually wanted the passport, not just a photo), and a few other things. This was well before the events of 911, but still their requests seems strange considering all they had asked for up to that point was a copy of my resume.
I placed a call to the local FBI office. They said there was evidence the company had links to a known terrorist group and the reason they wanted the passport was so they could alter it and sneak someone into the US. The up-front money was to finance their organization. It was one phone call I was very happy to have made!
Best regards - Al