Job scam via Craigslist

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 22 Jun 2011 Posts: 2

Hi all,
I am new here, and I wanted to share a recent email I received after replying to an ad from craigslist.

The ad asked for a person to sit in with their mom and help her out, as a babysitter.

I already flagged the ad.

Here is the reply I got. He almost had me until he started talking about "arriving soon" and "you will get the money soon, before she gets here" and "my client" and "kindly reply me your entire life history in MLA format" etc.

Good day,
Thanks for responding to my add from craigslist, I need the service
of a Nanny / House Keeper for my Mom, I want a well behaved, nice
caring and hardworking person. she is healthy, speaks English and
Spanish Fluently, Get back to me immediately if you are interested
and remember i want a serious and a well behaved Person to work for
her as a Nanny . I have contacted my Mom concerning the pick up and
for other purpose which she might need you for, you will be helping her
in some daily domestic activities like grocery shopping, house cleaning,
Laundry, Payment of bills running errands for her, and other things as
well, which she told me it's okay by her,i believe you are fit for this
position in as much you will prove yourself a reliable and good person.
She will be coming to Tucson very soon.
I will let you know her arrival date and time but do get it clear that your
first payment will have been sent to you before then. I will be
offering you $300.00 per week. Remember that you will make yourself
available twice a week to her schedule for 4 on each day.
Also i want you to know that my client who is in US will be sending you
a check payment which i want you to know that the remaining funds will
be used by Mom for her travel expenses,accommodations and any other
expenses(overdraft), kindly get back to me with the following details
of yours below.:-

Full Name...
Address(No P O Box)...
City...
State...
Zipcode...
Phone Number...
Sex(M/F)...
Age...
Kindly Forward me this filled details above if you are good with the
offer so that the paycheck can be issued out to you as soon as
possible and i will appreciate quick response from you. Thanks and
please get back to me asap.

End Email

This is verbatim what I got. The email is [email protected]

I tried a little tracing but found that gmail only traces back to their server and that's it.

The funny thing is that I answered 2 of the questions at the bottom in my original email to the guy! The end was the final straw and told me it was a scam.

It really frustrates me that this happens so often. I really liked the sound of the job and thought I could land it no problem, and then I get this broken english, choppy, overly polite nonsense. Jeeze!!

Thanks for baiting them guys! I am too scared to do it myself, but you guys sure can give 'em the run around!

Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2011 5:17 am

Hi TheMan, and welcome to Eater!

I am glad you didn't fall for this, well done! Thank you for posting here. You may also want to post what you have on our sister site, www.scamwarners.com (I know that gmail isn't much for details as far as headers go), so as to warn others if they run across the same email reply from this same person. You're instincts are right, it's a scam for certain.

If this scammer has any of your real life details, do not contact them again. If you have any questions, PM a moderator here and they will give you good direction.

Cheers and stay safe,
Fae

EDIT: I knew I was forgetting something! Do you have a link to the original ad on Craigslist? Did you respond to one email and then the scammer's response came from a different addy (gmail)? The original ad link would help.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 22 Jun 2011 Posts: 2

Thanks! Yeah, they have my name and age, since I thought it was legit, and they have one more piece of info but I have since made it hard for them to use it for much of anything. Actually I doubt if they would know what it is used for. Anyhow, I will NOT contact them again just to be safe. Like I said, I flagged it, so it should come down soon enough. Thanks again!

Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2011 6:19 am

Hi TheMan,

Agreed, that particular Craigslist board may take the ad down because you flagged it, but oftentimes scammers plaster their ads on CL in many different cities and on other job boards, using basically the same script but giving different contact information. Flagging every ad in every city would be like playing whack-a-mole. Smile

I was asking only to understand if I could find a common thread. Please take no offense. Embarassed

I am a site killer. They don't allow me around whack-a-mole machines because I'm apt to look down and exclaim, "I don't see anything yet."

WHACK. Razz

j/k. Just wanted to explain.