Question:
Is this craigslist job a scam!?
2012-06-28 09:16:41 UTC
This was the email she sent me today, tell me what i should do continue or stay the hell away??!

Hello Stephanie,
How are you doing today? I just received a message from one of my client in United States that a Payment has been sent to you on my behalf, a check of $4990 has been sent to your residential Address through UPS. Here is the tracking number for you to confirm it. 1Z686F4V0195125918 Log on to www.ups.com/us for you to know the status, the payment is scheduled to get deliver today.
When you get it have it deposited into your bank account, when it clears, deduct ($500) as your first week pay and have the remaining balance send out to my event planner, she currently in Florida. We will be needing it to plan for our next Photo exhibition and Organize our next teachings on Photography coming up in San Diego, California. The show will be coming up in two weeks, i will need you to send out the funds through western union money transfer. I would have prefer you wire the funds through bank account but since its urgent and using Western Union is instant which he can get as soon as you send it. I will be sending you the funds for the office equipment with the balance of your salary soon after you have done with this task.
Below is the information you need to wire the funds to by Western Union...

RECEIVER'S NAME: Leticia Clark
ADDRESS: 47, Memuna Ave.
STATE: Florida
CITY: Lake City
COUNTRY: USA
ZIP CODE: 32025

That is all you need to wire the funds through Western Union, You can find it nearby because they are everywhere in the world. I will like you to get it done immediately you receive the funds and as soon as you are through with the transfer you will need to email me the following information.

SENDERS NAME (As used when sending funds at Western Union Office)
SENDERS ADDRESS
AMOUNT SENT
MTCN ( Money Transfer Control Numbers)

Note: Deduct the western union transfer fee from the payment and make sure you use "Money in Minutes" option.
Regards,
Alana C Aston.
Five answers:
?
2012-06-28 20:33:24 UTC
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 most of the "money" via Western Union or moneygram back to the scammer posing as the "supply company" while you "keep" a small portion. 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.



When you refuse to send him your cash he will send increasingly nasty and rude emails trying to convince you to go through with his scam. The scammer could also create another fake name and email address like "FBI@ gmail.com", "police_person @hotmail.com" or "investigator @yahoo.com" and send emails telling you the job is legit and you must cash the fake check and send your money to the scammer or you will face legal action. Just ignore, delete and block those email addresses. Although, reading a scammer's attempt at impersonating a law enforcement official can be extremely funny.



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.



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 Western Union scam", "check mule moneygram scam" or something similar you will find hundreds of posts from victims and near-victims of this type of scam.
Kittysue
2012-06-28 13:53:56 UTC
Scam



What you are being asked to do is called money laundering which is a felony which will land you on prison for 5-10 years. You are being used to launder criminal funds earned through drug dealing, prostitution and illegal gambling thru your personal bank account then "clean" the dirty money by wiring thru Western Union.



Turn the check, the envelope and copies of all emails over to your local police and cut off ALL contact with these people. Otherwise YOU will get arrested as YOU accepted the dirty money and YOU wired money thru Western Union. And the criminals don't get caught as you committed the actual crime
Michelle
2012-06-28 09:38:23 UTC
If you get responses like this one from the jobs you applied for on Craigslist.org, Oh, NO DOUBT! DEFINITELY A SCAM!



You could also get an email saying that, The employer (himself) is currently out of the country, but he's planning to put up a small business, and he'd be needing you to assist him whatsoever.. Then he'd also say that he'd send you a check for the office expenses dadada.. Then ask for your personal information at the end of the email.



SCAM!



If sending check/money is stated in the email itself, thats a scam.
John
2012-06-28 09:32:06 UTC
A scam that will cost you lots of money and could land you in jail.
?
2012-06-28 09:17:45 UTC
Yes. Omg yes that's a scam!


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