Job Scam

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Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2014 11:49 am

Here is my story...recently i was approached on a job board website about a job offer as a virtual assistant...i took the job and performed some work before i found out that it was a scam....nothing this person told me about his identity was true from the photos, name, company, the type of work i would be doing. they almost got me to commit a crime but i was able to contact the local authorities hopefully before anyone was affected. of course i found all of this out after the fact. moral of the story educate yourself...never take things for face value even if it looks real...like checking with the bbb, looking at employer websites about what they do, looking for any red flags before getting involved.
i did all of these things and i was still misled. how i found out it was a scam...i talked to the real person that the scammer was posing as. i'm very upset that this happened to me so i spent the last 4 days trying to track down the person and doing research. does anyone have any good advise about ways to find the scammer...this is not about revenge...this about getting the word out to other victims.....

Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2014 11:52 am

You won't "find" the scammer - he will probably be in West Africa, the Far East or perhaps East Europe and using fake IDs to hide his true identity.

The best thing to do is post all the details of his email addresses, the emails he sent and any websites he gave you etc on our sister site www.scamwarners.com, so that anyone else being scammed has a chance of finding them.

Something the mods dream up Joined: 22 Apr 2014 Posts: 905

Post all the details on our sister site www.scamwarners.com and also read the stickies on our site

Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2014 12:19 pm

thank you...i posted my story on there as well with most of the info.

Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2014 12:31 pm

here is what i know....hiring for virtual assistants on elance.com under the name of markie9990, the request perform payroll duties, the emails are from [email protected], he claims to be an online autioneer out of texas, the photo goes back to an online speed dating website, the ip address traced back to california, the phone text messages from # 924-665-01, the person who called me his voice sounded middle eastern....the scam... email images of checks to be printed to be sent using usps labels ...all of these images were sent to my email..he asks you to buy bank checks at a local office supply store...he then says he'll reimburse you with your first paycheck for any costs....as it turns out all of these images are counterfit...after contacting my local authorities...f.b.i., sherriffs department, postal inspector, and ic3....i was able to prevent the usps envelopes from being mailed...from what the authorities told me this is a very common scam what happens in the end is the original scammer gets peoples bank account information and is able to steal money from them....i'm at a dead end exhausted all my resources....now just looking for advice and telling my story.

Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2014 1:39 pm

melyov wrote:

...what happens in the end is the original scammer gets peoples bank account information and is able to steal money from them

Just curious; how would that happen? I mean, with just an account name, number, and sort code? All of that information appears on a cheque.

Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2014 1:43 pm

^^^It doesn't - the cheques are sent to victims of other scams (mystery shopping or overpayment scams usually) and they then cash the cheque and send the money to the scammer by WU/MG.

Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2014 6:13 pm

this happens becouse these people get neive or unknowing participants to try to do the dirty work....i told this guy that i contacted the authorities he didn't blink...when i told him i could not trust him and i was not his employee he says i'll hire 5 more just like you... the police told me they are asked to accept a check with a amount of example....$1200.00 okay then they say just deposit $200.00 into your bank account and once that person does that they have been able to get access to the victims banking info. usually these checks are wire transfers or western union....everything about the scammer is a lie....conterfiting, names, photos, emails, bank accounts, id's, credit cards.....it is very hard to trace electronically becouse usaully these criminals are not alone

Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2014 6:17 pm

also from my research this happens becouse once they have your address phone number and name from like a resume....they try to become your friend and they try to get you to trust them but their only objective is money.....they do this on dating sites, employment sites and more

Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2014 6:19 pm

Unfortunately, your police are talking a load of crap - depositing a cheque does not give anyone access to your bank account.

Also, cheques, wire transfers and Western Union are three totally different things.

Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2014 6:24 pm

yes your right these are 3 types or forms of payment and by the time an unsuspected victim deposits them it's too late

Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2014 6:25 pm

and please enlighten me as to how all of these people are getting ripped off?

Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2014 6:29 pm

They pay in the cheque, wait for it to "clear" (which banks have to do in a short period of time) and then send the money they are asked to by Western Union to the scammer.

A few weeks (or months even) later, the cheque is noticed and rejected by the account holder as fraudulent and the amount is debited from the victim's bank account.

Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2014 1:40 pm

Police are often trained to recognize scams, but they often aren't familiar with the details.

You are getting several different types of scams and scenarios mixed up.

It's easy to print checks against someone else's account. All you need is the routing and account numbers on the face of any check they have ever written. That information is not hard to get. It is not highly confidential, and can easily be bought and/or stolen. Name and address info is even easier to get (though some scammers don't even bother with that.) That information is NOT enough to allow a scammer to actually withdraw money from the account.

But banks are not quite as clueless as people seem to think. While it may not happen immediately, they WILL eventually identify checks that were not written by the account owner. Their internal fraud controls may pick up suspicious activity, or if one check passes through them undetected, the account owner will likely flag a check that he/she did not write. Once that happens, they will reverse that check, and will flag and stop any others. In general, it's not that hard to sort out which checks are fake. It can cause the account owner some headaches while it is being sorted out, but his account is not going to be emptied. The scammer needs pin numbers, passwords, or very legitimate fake ID in the account owner's name for that.

The scam you were involved with was a textbook check fraud scam. That scammer never had access to the account.

This type of scam involves up to 4 different roles:

-The scammer. The scammer himself will buy, trade, or otherwise obtain an account number. He may get the name and address to go with it. Again, this is not difficult.
-The check printer. If he doesn't print the checks himself, he will get a printer. Often he uses fake ads for personal assistant or something like "accounts payable" or "payroll processor" to recruit printers. (This is where you came in.) Note that the printer may lose money for supplies, and could be arrested for printing and distributing fraudulent checks.
-The mailer. If he doesn't have the printer mail the checks to the final receivers, he will recruit a mailer through a personal assistant or some kind of shipping coordinator fake job.
-At the same time, the scammer will find mules to turn the fake checks into cash. He will most likely find them through fake job ads (mystery shopper, financial support agent, babysitting, modeling, etc.) or he will pose as a customer, pretending he is going to buy items on craigslist, or paying in advance for items or services (like restaurant reservations.) The mule is the real victim.

Once the scammer has all of his people in place, the scam is pretty straightforward.

1) Scammer gets account numbers.
2) Scammer instructs printer to create checks with the information he provides.
3) Scammer instructs printer to either (a) send all checks to a single address; or (b) send checks to a lot of different addresses.
4) If he sent the checks to a single address, mailer will be given a list of addresses, and instructed to send the checks to these individual mules. If the scammer or printer sent the checks to the mules, this step is skipped.
5) The mule receives the check. If he has fallen for a payment processor/financial agent/mystery shopper type of job, he will be instructed to cash the check and then send almost the entire amount (minus a small amount for salary) via Western Union, Moneygram, or another untraceable method (including prepaid card) to a different address (ultimately it will get to the scammer.) If it's an overpayment type of scam, the mule will be asked to deduct the cost of the item or services and send the rest via these same methods.
6) If the mule doesn't recognize the scam, he/she will deposit the check. The bank will begin processing, which initially may consist only of checking the account number and confirming there is money in the account. Processing may take several days to several weeks as the check is passed from one area and one bank to another.
7) If the bank determines the check is fraudulent in the first few days, they will notify the mule that the check is no good. The mule will have to pay fines for the bad check, the police may be called if the bank wants to charge the mule with fraud, and the mule will have to deal with overdrafts and overdraft fees if he already wrote checks against the deposit. The scammer doesn't get any money because his fake was found too soon, but the mule has to deal with a lot of headaches and still loses money.
8 ) If the bank does not determine the check is fraudulent in the first few days, they will have no choice but to release the money to the mule, as it is required by law. The mule takes the cash, and if he still believes in the scam, goes over to WU and sends the required money. But--then it gets worse.
9) After the bank releases the money, once they determine the check was fraudulent, the bank has every right to take the money back (and they will.) The mule is now responsible for fraudulent check charges and for overdraft charges, AND he has to pay back to the bank every penny he sent to the scammers. The scammers aren't going to pay it back, so the mule has to come up with that money on his own. And he still could face a visit from the police and fraud charges.

Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2014 1:52 pm

wow....thanks for the clarity....that pretty much summed it up...i still have all of the info....i have 51 different peoples names...and i thought the scammer might try to have someone else do his dirty work ...so i thought maybe i could reach out to the people on his list to give them a heads-up....this guy knows my real name and address and #, he is still in touch with me via yahoo chat...debating what to do next

Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2014 1:59 pm

fortunately i was able to stop all of the mail sent....when i talked to the sherriff he said they have tried to prosecute cases like this before but in my case they thought the only victim was possibly the usps becouse of the counterfit images..in my opinion every unsuspecting person which includes myself, the real person he was posing as, the guy in the photo, and all the people getting ready to receive those checks are victims

Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2014 2:12 pm

The reason the police don't take it very far is because they can't. The scammer himself is generally located overseas (this particular scam format is favored by scammers from Africa), and the police can't touch him. International investigations are handled by different agencies, and because they are extremely challenging and expensive, they will generally only be pursued when millions of dollars are involved.

If you forward that list of recipients to a mod or an admin, we can see if it is possible to get some warnings arranged.

Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2014 2:15 pm

okay ...due to the counterfit images that are included in them i'll create a new list with just the names and address ....would it be okay if i just forwarded them to you?

Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2014 2:16 pm

That will be fine.

Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2014 2:17 pm

thank you

Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2014 6:48 pm

i found 2 more of his postings on elance.com and turned him in on that site...they removed those 2 job ads...

his recent comments to me:
"you are beginning to become a pain in the a**" Smile

Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2014 10:31 am

i have 10 pages of conversation i saved just in case:

this is the very beginning posted below of the my conversations with the scammer...

keep in mind his yahoo email is [email protected] "J.F."

and i am "Me"

J.F. Confused

How are you doing Mel***
Me:? Great and yourself?
J.F. Confused

I am doing good
J.F. Confused

I received your Proposal on Elance and I will like to know that I am seeking a Home Assistant for Payroll and Data Entry duties
J.F. Confused

I am an Auctioneer and I bid for Antiques, cars, electronics and whatever could be sold
Me:? Okay, so you are seeking someone to perform duties via online?
Me:? Oh how interesting.
J.F. Confused

Yes, that is correct
J.F. Confused

Are you looking for an Office Position?
Me:? Are these different collectibles? Yes I am I just wanted to make sure that it was a virtual office assistant that you need as to someone working out of a home location.
Me:? Okay so i see that you would like someone to help with ap/ar and payroll is that correct?
J.F. Confused

Yes
Me:? okay, do you have a system in place already?
J.F. Confused

You will be working from your home office
Me:? right...okay
Me:? what type of information would i keep track of for the data entry portion of the job? is there a certain format that is would need to be saved to transfer to you?
J.F. Confused

I prepare my payments for bidders and sellers or product I have interests, so what you will be doing is print the payments I have prepared from your email, along with the shipping labels, sort them into shipping envelopes and drop them for shipping
Me:? ahh...i see..do you have your own site or do you use e-bay or amazon?

Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2014 10:48 am

From J.F. Thu Oct 2 14:24:06 2014
X-Apparently-To: melyov****@yahoo.com via 98.138.198.123; Thu, 02 Oct 2014 21:24:08 +0000
Return-Path: <[email protected]>
Received-SPF: pass (domain of yahoo.com designates 98.139.213.142 as permitted sender)
[color=green]Snipped blow out causing and unneeded code string - TS [/color]
X-Originating-IP: [98.139.213.142]
Authentication-Results: mta1084.mail.bf1.yahoo.com from=yahoo.com; domainkeys=pass (ok); from=yahoo.com; dkim=pass (ok)
Received: from 127.0.0.1 (EHLO nm7-vm1.bullet.mail.bf1.yahoo.com) (98.139.213.142)
by mta1084.mail.bf1.yahoo.com with SMTPS; Thu, 02 Oct 2014 21:24:08 +0000
Received:Received:Received:X-Yahoo-Newman-Property:X-Yahoo-Newman-Id:Date:From:Reply-To:To:Message-ID:In-Reply-To:References:Subject:MIME-Version:Content-Type:Content-Length:From:Subject;
DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=s2048; d=yahoo.com;
Received: from [98.139.212.153] by nm7.bullet.mail.bf1.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 02 Oct 2014 21:24:08 -0000
Received: from [98.139.212.242] by tm10.bullet.mail.bf1.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 02 Oct 2014 21:24:08 -0000
Received: from [127.0.0.1] by omp1051.mail.bf1.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 02 Oct 2014 21:24:08 -0000
X-Yahoo-Newman-Property: ymail-5
X-Yahoo-Newman-Id: [email protected]
Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2014 21:24:06 +0000 (UTC)
From: John Fisher <[email protected]>
Reply-To: J.F. <[email protected]>
To: ***** <melyov****@yahoo.com>
Message-ID: <2010831010.2181.1412285046659.JavaMail.yahoo@jws106135.mail.bf1.yahoo.com>
In-Reply-To: <[email protected]>
References: <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: a few things
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
boundary="----=_Part_2180_2026091006.1412285046659"
Content-Length: 23011

Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2014 10:51 am

above is the last known header from scammer

Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 10:43 am

still going by the same screenname on the same job hiring site....his latest 3 posts that have been removed

1.) Professional Ad Posters

2.) Payroll Assistant (Home Based)

3.) Office Administrative Assistant/
Data Entry Clerk

my last yahoo chat with the scammer

"ignoring me is not going to make me go away" Oct 4 at 2:26 pm