Help please. Is this job a scam?

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 19 Feb 2010 Posts: 3

I received an email after applying for a personal assistant job on Indeed.com. My first clue that it might be a scam was that it sounded too good to be true. The guy claims he is in England on business and wants me to start before he returns. Now my gut tells me this is a scam, but I really need a job very badly, and I replied to his email agreeing to work for him before the idea that it was a scam sunk in.

He said:

"From the details you have sent to me, I would want to give you the opportunity to be my new assistant; I do hope my decision will be worthwhile. I'll be using the next couple of weeks to test your efficiency and diligence towards this, also to work out your time schedule and fit it to mine. I really need to find the perfect person for this job, I'm confident you can take up the challenge and on the long run we should have a relatively sound working relationship between us.

I hope we can get a head start with things as soon as possible. I have had to put a hold on a lot and I would appreciate it if you can be available for me immediately. I do have a couple of urgent tasks for you which will include you making some purchases and payments on my behalf. You will receive a payment check and some money orders via mail which will also cover your wage for the week as well as all other purchases and payments needed to be made on my behalf. I will update you further on this giving you a comprehensive list on how to go about them.

My daughter also has a birthday coming up in 2 weeks, I have a surprise party planned for her so you will also be working hand in hand with the planner in organizing gifts and anything else for the party.
Kindly reply this e-mail as soon as possible to further signify your interests in working with me. I have a confidence in you and I am looking forward to a good working relationship between us. I hope you will be up to, perhaps better than my presumptions about you."

Did I screw up when I told him I was excited and to go ahead and send the check and money orders? I've already given him my address and phone number, as well as my full name. Please, let me know what you think about this, and what I should do.

Thank you!

Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 4:48 pm

DONT PROCESS ANY OF THE PAYMENTS

The cheques and payments will be a scam. They'll take a while to be go through your bank, you recieve the money and send him the rest. But, the cheque continues through the system of the bank, eventually gets flagged as a fraud and the bank then takes your money back off YOU.
as an example you process a cheque for £1000
You keep £200
Send him the £800 either by transfer and/or purchase goods to send to him
Then the bank turns round and removes £1000 back out of your account, leaving you with a £800 loss.

Leave him alone, dont send him a thing. Don't respond to his emails

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 19 Feb 2010 Posts: 3

Rincewind wrote:

DONT PROCESS ANY OF THE PAYMENTS

The cheques and payments will be a scam. They'll take a while to be go through your bank, you recieve the money and send him the rest. But, the cheque continues through the system of the bank, eventually gets flagged as a fraud and the bank then takes your money back off YOU.
as an example you process a cheque for £1000
You keep £200
Send him the £800 either by transfer and/or purchase goods to send to him
Then the bank turns round and removes £1000 back out of your account, leaving you with a £800 loss.

Leave him alone, dont send him a thing. Don't respond to his emails

Before I came here, I responded and told him to go ahead and send me the checks. Should I turn the checks in to the police? I won't cash them, but have I put myself at any identity theft risk?

Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 4:58 pm

You can turn them in to the police or to the bank
The only illegality is if you try to process them

As for identity fraud, it'll depend on how much information you have sent to him

If you have sent him any bank details, inform your bank immediately even if you have nothing in it. All UK banks have processes to cover such issues, and the sooner you inform them, the sooner they can stop unauthorised access to you account.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 09 Feb 2010 Posts: 77

Rincewind wrote:

DONT PROCESS ANY OF THE PAYMENTS

The cheques and payments will be a scam. They'll take a while to be go through your bank, you recieve the money and send him the rest. But, the cheque continues through the system of the bank, eventually gets flagged as a fraud and the bank then takes your money back off YOU.
as an example you process a cheque for £1000
You keep £200
Send him the £800 either by transfer and/or purchase goods to send to him
Then the bank turns round and removes £1000 back out of your account, leaving you with a £800 loss.

Leave him alone, dont send him a thing. Don't respond to his emails

I'm wondering, how do they make money this way? I can see where the part is that the scammer gets money. Just curious how this works.

Baiting Guru Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Posts: 3193

It's not a script that I am familiar with, but it works the same way as job scams and mystery shopper scams. As Rincewind says it will involve fake checks and could cost you huge amounts of money.

When you deposit a check, the bank is legally required to make the money available to you within four days. However the risk associated with that money is always yours. If the bank later finds out the check was bad - fake or stolen - it will immediately take the money back and often will report you to the police for passing a fraudulent instrument. We have seen people with overdrafts of many tens of thousands of dollars. We have seen several people go to jail. A check never truly clears, whatever the banks' say. They always give the simplistic answer that the funds are available within four days and that is what most people understand as clearing. In fact it often takes longer for the bank to receive the funds even if the check is good, and it can take months for a fraud to be detected. For example the check could be a stolen company check, which would initially clear. Some time later, the company will do an audit and flag up the check as fraudulent. No matter how long it takes, you will lose the money.

Rest assured that whoever you are supposed to be sending the money, and wherever you are sending it to, the scammer will be picking it up. He may have a corrupt Western Union cashier who will give him the money no matter who it is sent to, or he may have other victims that are accepting funds and sending them on to him.

Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 6:44 pm

I'm glad you realized this was a scam before losing any money.

Please visit our sister site at www.scamwarners.com and post this scam so that other potential victims can find it. You will find a lot of helpful information about job scams there.

Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 6:52 pm

Hi gnanny.

You can find the same scam down near the bottom of this page:

http://hubpages.com/hub/Job-Hunting--10-Red-Flags-that-the-Job-Post-in-Craigs-List-may-be-a-Scam

Any Money Order or check coming your way from the scammer is going to be a forgery.
Just tell the theiving little bastard that you know it's a scam and that you don't want to hear from him again. Then block his address from your email.

As Juan says: go take a look around scamwarners. Now that they have your address and they know that it's live, they'll probably try to hit you with different types of scam.

Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 7:00 pm

I imagine I'm not the only one here who answered a definite "Yes" to the question "Is this job a scam?" before even looking at this thread.

This is a well written script. I wish there was some way to get law enforcement more interested in apprehending these cretins, I think it would be simple to catch a lot of them (look how easy many of them are to bait.)

After just a few public hangings I think running this sort of scam would become a lot less appealing.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 19 Feb 2010 Posts: 3

Slightlyoutofit wrote:

Hi gnanny.

You can find the same scam down near the bottom of this page:

http://hubpages.com/hub/Job-Hunting--10-Red-Flags-that-the-Job-Post-in-Craigs-List-may-be-a-Scam

Any Money Order or check coming your way from the scammer is going to be a forgery.
Just tell the theiving little bastard that you know it's a scam and that you don't want to hear from him again. Then block his address from your email.

As Juan says: go take a look around scamwarners. Now that they have your address and they know that it's live, they'll probably try to hit you with different types of scam.

Wow.

Seriously I'm pissed. Should I wait to receive these "checks and money orders" so I can take them to the police or my bank? Would that be helping bust the scam or putting myself at risk?

Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 7:12 pm

You can take the checks or Money Orders to your local police station - it won't hurt. But don't be suprised if they just throw them in the trash. This type of scam is very, very common and as the scammer is almost certainly out in West Africa, there's no chance of catching him. Even if the checks come with a post code from your country, again, it's almost certain that the scammer has used an innocent mule (basically a victim on another job scam) to send them.

Equally, you can just throw them away yourself and not worry about it.

As for risk? You're in no physical danger even if the lad has all your details. Lads are too lazy to even bother getting a proper job, let alone track down someone who they haven't been able to steal from. The only danger you're in is a financial one if you've given bank details over. If that's the case, just nip down to your bank and let them know. They'll hopefully give you another account and close that one.
And as I said: watch your inbox like a hawk now. Once they know that they'll get a reply, they start sharing your email around and like vultures, they'll all try to get a peck in.

Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 8:05 pm

Just email him that you no longer need the job because you've just won the West-African pan-national lottery.

Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 8:13 pm

^^ However funny that may sound to you, that would be a dumb thing to do for someone who has been on the edge of victimhood.
A lad may actually believe that you've won a real lottery and then start severely targetting you in the belief that you're rich.

As baiters, that's how we hook a load of them in the first place.

Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 8:39 pm

Just before you take those cheques to the police/bank, write FAKE on them clearly so there can be no mistakes/suspicions that you are trying to cash them!

You may want to keep the cheques (once you write FAKE on them) and use them as a talking point with friends, church, family to raise awareness of how good these scams are, and how to avoid them!

As for the scammer, if he starts hassling you, just tell him you've taken the cheques to the police after the bank told you they were fakes and that he should never contact you again. Be firm, then ignore any other emails/calls you get from him, he'll go away very soon.

419Eater is my life Joined: 30 May 2009 Posts: 298

If he's got your address, and he's sending fake checks, just tear 'em up and throw them away. Or write FAKE on them and keep them as collectibles. Then proceed to ignore the guy.

The worst case scenario is that he starts threatening to report you to the authorities for stealing his checks or something like that. Those are empty threats. Your E-Mail address will probably get passed over to some mailing lists and you'll get a lot of spam, but that's no big deal.

As long as you don't try to cash or deposit the checks, or wire any money anywhere, you're fine.

I'm sorry to hear about your employment situation. I hope things pick up for you soon.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 06 Aug 2008 Posts: 37

Rules of Thumb:

1.) If you ask if something is a scam or not, it usually is a scam.

2.) If something seems to good to be true, it is!

419Eater is my life Joined: 22 Jan 2010 Posts: 329

ash tré wrote:

I'm wondering, how do they make money this way? I can see where the part is that the scammer gets money. Just curious how this works.

Here's how the check scam works:

1. The scammer offers you a deal. He has a lot of checks which for some reason he can't cash where he lives. Instead, he offers to pay you 10% to cash them and send him the money. So you would, presumably get a lot of money for doing very little.

2. You start to receive fake checks through the mail. You cash these checks. By law, the banks must get the money to you within 1-2 business days, even if the check doesn't clear in that time frame. So you might get a $1000 check. You send him $800, and keep $200. Everyone's a winner!

3. Eventually, the bank realises the check is fake and cancels it. Because all the $1000 was deposited in your account, your account is debited for $1000. But you've already sent $800 to the scammer, normally via an untraceable method like WU, so he gets to keep his share of the money.

I remember a sting on www.419hell.com, where a baiter posed as a scammer who could make fake checks, and hence other lads gave him lots of victim's details. Might try that sometime.

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