I think I'm being scammed

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 11 Feb 2010 Posts: 3

So I was looking through craigslist for work, and I ran across a tutoring job that I was quite sure I could do well. I replied, and this is what I got back

Quote:

Dear Teacher,

Thanks for the email and your interest in tutoring my son. I want my child to learn more about Math for now in the area of Algebra because he is coming to visit USA for 3 weeks.... he is 12 years old, he understand and able to speak little english and i think that will help him understand what you are teaching him. perharps he is a good and obedient child...well, i will want you to tutor him for 2 hrs in both subject which is going to be twice a week depending on yours schedule or you can as well let me know the days that will be convenient for you which will be 4hrs for the 2 days. i don't know if weekends will be ok for you? just asking anyway. he will be flying to the USA from Denmark for the tutorial but will stay with a nanny. I will prefer the tutor take place in a library close to you ok.....However, i want the tutor to start by 4th week of feb, and i will be offering you $50 p/hr... You can email me back with time schedule for the 2days and also remember 2 hours a day. kindly let me know if you have interest in tutoring my child. Please contact me at my personal email address which is [email protected] this is the best way to reach me .

I hope to read from you real soon.

Dr. Peter Solomon

I thought the situation was a bit weird, but he wanted meetings in a public place. So I replied with some questions, and I got this back.

Quote:

Hello,

Thanks for the swift response. how is your day going? regarding the tutoring of my son, i will want the tutor to start by 4th week of feb and i will be offering you $50 p/hr, which is going to be 2hrs per day(2times in a week)Tuesdays & thursdays will be fine for the tutoring. i am going to pay for the three weeks in advance which will be ($600) estimated just for you to know how serious it is. also i want you to know that he will arrive in the states by third week in feb. I'm Dr Peter solomon and happily married and blessed with three children. my wife work with a TV station here, that's why we are trying to set a good standard education for our children. the name of my child that is coming to USA is FRANK as i've mentioned earlier in my previous email and he is 12 years old good and obedient child..your payment will be forward to you soonest and you will be receiving a check drawn from a Bank in US from my business associate which you will be receiving in few business days... since i'm from Denmark, payments wont be honored in a bank here...

Payment would be made out for the cost of the tutorial services you are rendering, and also for living expense, nanny fees and the taxi driver of my son. Regarding this- I hope i can trust you with these payments, as the payment would be made out in excess.. so all you have to do is cash the payment, deduct your part for the services also extra $100 for text books you might be needing making $700, and send the remainder to the Nanny who would be contacting you with further arrangements and instructions regarding pickup/drop off of my son to the library where you would always tutor him. I hope i can trust you that you will teach my son good academics and some moral respects especially in the areas of vocabs, reading, spelling and algebra. meanwhile, i will need some information from you before i can send out your payment....
FULL NAME:
MAILING ADDRESS:
CITY:
STATE:
ZIP CODE:
CELL PHONE:
HOME
GENDER:
MARITAL STATUS/AGE:
BEST TIME TO CALL:
PRESENT JOB STATUS/POSITION:
EMAIL:
I hope all these arrangements're ok with you, do email back as soon as possible so that i can make the arrangement for the Payment. Don't make any mistake when sending your details because i don't want the payment to get lost. moreover, i believe you will be good to teach my son and my son will be also happy to learn , he loves to play a little but he listens to correction and easy to learn.

Let me read from you soonest,
Dr Peter Solomon

The question being what do I do? I'm quite sure it's a scam, and I'm certainly not going to take the job, I just want to know what the plan of action should be. If someone else would like to bait him, I will give the information.

Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 2:49 pm

Welcome to Eater.
That's a common scam. The check will be fake, which you'd only find out after you've sent some of it via Western Union to the imaginary nanny (the scammer himself).
Not the most convincing scam. Who sends a twelve year old child alone on a transatlantic holiday?

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 11 Feb 2010 Posts: 3

Any thoughts on what I should do?

Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 3:19 pm

Well given you emailed him actually looking for work, I am going to assume he has your real life details. For that reason I would just drop him, tell him you found work elsewhere, are no longer interested but thankyou. and dont reply again. if you feel like baiting him, open a email not connected to your real details and re-apply for his position.

bait safe and have fun.

Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 3:34 pm

We've seen this scam many, many times before.

Rather than just dropping him (there's a chance that he'll keep emailing and phoning you if you do), just tell him "I know this is a scam. Don't contact me again". If you've received the cheque tell him "I've taken the cheque to the police". Then block him from your email address.
That should be enough to put an end to this particular scam.

Be aware though: now he has an email and he knows that it's live, he may try to approach you with other scams. Just keep on your toes.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 11 Feb 2010 Posts: 3

Huntington wrote:

Well given you emailed him actually looking for work, I am going to assume he has your real life details.

Not really, he knows my e-mail address, my first name, and the metropolitan area around where I'm staying. The last e-mail asked for many many more details, as you can see. But I have not replied.

Would requesting a face to face meetings, something I'm sure he wouldn't be able to do, be absolutely insane?

Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 7:38 pm

Its not unknown for scammers to meet vics. Generally its not the lad himself- he'll be far away but he may get an associate to meet you. However, with fake cheque scams there's no real point in the meeting so it would probably not happen

Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 10:16 pm

Often to bait these guys, you can use a P.O. box. They don't want to meet you. They want to send you a fake check for you to deposit and then wire money. Often they will get a sucker to open an account and deposit a small amount of money into it so the check appears OK then is returned NSF as the account doesn't have nearly enough to cover the check. Let the bank know the check is fraudulent. They will flag the account and the scammer lost the deposit.

A common practice is to have them send the check and then mark it fake and turn it over to your bank. If possible turn it over to the bank it was drawn on. The bank fraud dept will love you for that. Often fake checks are sent out as a batch. A soon as the account is flagged, then the checks are returned as a fraud instead of the bank trying to cover it in a credit line and then finally killing the check.

If you kill a bank, collect a piggy.

There is a youtuber that makes this a sport and has a room full of trophies (checks).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEsC4cD9FEU
Check it out. They pay postage and often lose a deposit to open the accounts.

Baiting Guru Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Posts: 3193

No crime has been committed until you get the fake check. The person you meet would almost certainly not be the same person that sent the check, and that will not be the same person that you are talking to. Checks are sent in bulk or printed in America and then posted from there. The scammer is almost certainly sub-contracting those jobs and they are different specialities.

This particular scam is a one-off. They take one lot of money off you and disappear.

All of which means that the person you meet will not be guilty of any easily-proved crime. It is very doubtful that the police would be interested unless they wanted to embark on a long-term intelligence gathering operation.

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