Has anyone else heard of this being a scam...?

[wahchintonka48]

I applied for a job on Craigslist and got a reply back as a personal assistant for someone I will most likely never meet, The job entailed, responding to emails, running errands, doing some shopping, and shipping packages. The pay was good and I thought it would be perfect for a busy mom. So I responded that I would be interested in accepting the position. With a stipulation that I would not use my own bank account to do any transactions. They did not ask for any really personal information accept My full name, address and phone number (which was already provided on my resume anyway). I used my work address.

Fast Forward 2 weeks, I got a check in the mail for $2,123. Here is the strange part, it was from an atty firm. My husband and I had been involved in a class action lawsuit and we were waiting for a check for the settlement which was supposed to be right around 2 grand. Well when I get home I get an email from this person whom I had been assigned to be her personal assistant and She tells me that she has just sent me a check for the exact amount that I had just recieved and that this was my first assignment. To take my pay out of the check, and then Western Union the rest of the money to this other person, supposedly to pay for furniture. I already deposited the check, not realizing that it was supposedly from "my employer". Now I am nervous, I want to wait to send the money until I am sure the check clears cuz I do not want it to come back and bite me in the ***. Has anyone heard of anything like this? I tried researching the name she sent me to see what I could come up with...WDYT?

[ayize]

100% scam.

There is no job.

There is only a scammer trying to steal your hard-earned money.

The next email will be from another of the scammer's fake names and free email addresses pretending to be the "secretary/assistant/accountant" and will demand you cash a large fake check sent on a stolen UPS/FedEx billing account number and send the money via Western Union or moneygram back to the scammer posing as the "other person". When your bank realizes the check is fake and it bounces, you get the real life job of paying back the bank for the bounced check fees and all the bank's money you sent to an overseas criminal..

Western Union and moneygram do not verify anything on the form the sender fills out, not the name, not the street address, not the country, not even the gender of the receiver, it all means absolutely nothing. The clerk will not bother to check ID and will simply hand off your cash to whomever walks in the door with the MTCN# and question/answer. Neither company will tell the sender who picked up the cash, at what store location or even in what country your money walked out the door. Neither company has any kind of refund policy, money sent is money gone forever.

Now that you have responded to a scammer, you are on his 'potential sucker' list, he will try again to separate you from your cash. He will send you more emails from his other free email addresses using another of his fake names with all kinds of stories of great jobs, lottery winnings, millions in the bank and desperate, lonely, sexy singles. He will sell your email address to all his scamming buddies who will also send you dozens of fake emails all with the exact same goal, you sending them your cash via Western Union or moneygram.

You could post up the email address and the emails themselves that the scammer is using, it will help make your post more googlable for other suspicious potential victims to find when looking for information.

Do you know how to check the header of a received email? If not, you could google for information. Being able to read the header to determine the geographic location an email originated from will help you weed out the most obvious scams and scammers. Then delete and block that scammer. Don't bother to tell him that you know he is a scammer, it isn't worth your effort. He has one job in life, convincing victims to send him their hard-earned cash.

Whenever suspicious or just plain curious, google everything, website addresses, names used, companies mentioned, phone numbers given, all email addresses, even sentences from the emails as you might be unpleasantly surprised at what you find already posted online. You can also post/ask here and every scam-warner-anti-fraud-busting site you can find before taking a chance and losing money to a scammer.

6 "Rules to follow" to avoid most fake jobs:
1) Job asks you to use your personal bank account and/or open a new one.
2) Job asks you to print/mail/cash a check or money order.
3) Job asks you to use Western Union or moneygram in any capacity.
4) Job asks you to accept packages and re-ship them on to anyone.
5) Job asks you to pay visas, travel fees via Western Union or moneygram.
6) Job asks you to sign up for a credit reporting or identity verification site.

Avoiding all jobs that mention any of the above listed 'red flags' and you will miss nearly all fake jobs. Only scammers ask you to do any of the above. No. Exceptions. Ever. For any reason.

If you google "fake check cashing job", "fraud money mule Western Union scam" or something similar you will find hundreds of posts from victims and near-victims of this type of scam.

[garret]

Yes it's a scam. They have tried and did that a lot of times. My daughter almost got taken to the cleaners that same way. Be careful.

[ricard83]

Yes it's a scam. They have tried and did that a lot of times. My daughter almost got taken to the cleaners that same way. Be careful.

No

[fychan97]

It's called a money mule scam and has been reported on by most major news sources for the past few years

Call your bank ASAP and tell them that you have been scammed and that you found out the check you deposited is counterfeit. Tell them to put a stop check on it if it's not too late. If you do a stop check, it will cost you about $25-35 depending on your bank. If you wait for the bank to clear it and then they discover it was fake, YOU will owe the bank the entire amount of $2123. Better yet - go into your bank and speak to the manager. Also go to the police and file a police report for fraud so you have that as proof to show your bank manager

NOBODY would ever hire a personal assistant they have never met for any reason. Anyone on craigslist you have never met offering you a job is ALWAYS a SCAM. There are NO exceptions to this

[gedalyahu]

Hello,

My name is Lashmuto Ngdabe, I am the son of a wealthy investor in Nigeria, perhaps you have heard of him.

However, he has written me out of his will because he does not approve of my getting married to my wife who is Rwandan. He hate Rwandans, and he now hates me, too.

I have convince my brother to send me what was supposed to be my ingeritance but he is currently in the United States, and I must have an intermediary to transfer funds to an offshore account.

Please, I can give you $2million out of my inheritance if you do this for me.

My life depends on it.

Lashmota