Help Needed Now!!! Is this a fraud!?!?!?

Okay, long story short, an ad was listed on my college's part-time job page (which lists local jobs in the area), and one of the jobs had to deal with this. I'll save the job description for later, but, through talking by email, I found out what I was intended to do:

We need a representative in the United States, because we make sales to the United States where we have lots of customers who patronize our products in which most of them make payments via different methods,Like,Credit Card Transfers,Paypal and mostly their payments come inform of Check which takes about 3-4 weeks to clear our banks here in the United Kingdom,due to currency exchange and time to verify the checks,which delay most of our sales.So we just figured out that we need people in the state who can stand for us by receiving the payments deducting 12 % and the remaining funds will be wired via either Western Union Money Transfer or Money Gram to our financial secretary in Illinois in USA.this would definitely speeding up our sales and make our business transactions much faster, reliable and excellent.So can you be one of the representatives needed?

from: one of the emails

So basically he needed me to deposit checks into my account for him and then, after deducting 12% commission, send them over to someone in Illinois (through a money transfer website). In additional to getting commission, I would be paid $2,000 every two weeks. Doesn't this seem shady!? I asked why the person in Illinois couldn't do it, and he said because she was busy!? How the hell could he ask a stranger to handle such a task!? I thought it was a bit shady, but the plan made some sense because, supposedly, if he were to deposit the checks, they would take a while to clear.

Based on this alone, would you say this is illegal? I asked and, of course, he responded in the negative.

Also, one time today he called me (I gave him my address and contact information, I know I shouldn't have), and he had a strong African accent, and the company was supposed to be based in the UK. I could barely understand him and I told him I would talk through email.

Well, thanks to the skepticism of my mother and girlfriend I did some digging, and I found that there are lots of job descriptions just like the one on my college's page. Let me not forget to say that today the ad on my college's page just disappeared! Now, I don't know if the school takes adds off, or if the guy did that, but usually adds stay on there for a while. Take a look at this link here. All the job descriptions are the same, just like the one on my school's page, but the companies and contact information are different!?

What should I do now? Is this a fraud? Please help!

I would love to think this is safe (because the money is good), but they're probably looking for some idiot college kid to do some illegal stuff. If any of you can do additionally searching, thanks!

I have all the emails saved, so if he tries anything stupid (as he has my address) I can sue him, I guess. Can I sue if this turns out to be a con? Thanks again!

EDIT:

Links.

[edit on 27-4-2009 by they see ALL]

I guarantee you it is a 100% scam. If you don't believe me, go ahead and give them your bank account number.

Originally posted by ben91069
I guarantee you it is a 100% scam. If you don't believe me, go ahead and give them your bank account number.

Thanks! And thanks for being sarcastic. Anyway, is there a way to sue for attempted fraud?

I just sent an email out to my college, informing them of the situation. If any others here have advice, please share!

reply to post by they see ALL


Hi tsA,

There is the FBI reporting website.

Also Hoax-Slayer to research the latest scams.

Originally posted by schrodingers dog
Hi tsA,

There is the FBI reporting website.

Also Hoax-Slayer to research the latest scams.

Thanks! I will check those out!

reply to post by they see ALL


I'd say if you have to ask someone else if it's a fraud, there is a 95 percent chance that it is. If making money were really that easy we would all be doing it.

Originally posted by AcesInTheHole
I'd say if you have to ask someone else if it's a fraud, there is a 95 percent chance that it is. If making money were really that easy we would all be doing it.

That's all true. Thanks!

quatloos is another good scam site.

what they are asking you to do is receive money, take a commission for doing nothing and then wire it to someone else. They are avoiding taxes here by having you receive the gross income and then you are paying them their fee and they figure you won't report anything to them. They aren't subject to sales tax in various states, you are.

You are, basically, laundering their money for them. It isn't necessarily ill gotten but can you be so sure of that?

Just saw the other postings on the web page - scams. all of them.

I just got the checks today!? He called me and asked if I received them, and I wasn't at home, but I checked upon arrival and they are here. I didn't even open it up, as I don't want anything to do with this. They are sent via FedEx, and I must send them back ASAP. Can I send them back for free?

reply to post by they see ALL


here's how this will work. you deposit those checks, you wire the money, less your fee, then, after like a month, maybe longer, the checks bounce.

think about it. someone sent you money without meeting you, relying on your honesty and integrity.

you can throw those checks in the trash and you'd never hear from them again.

Turn the checks over to the FBI along with your scam/fraud report. Let them send the checks back if it turns out to be legit.

Originally posted by Crakeur
here's how this will work. you deposit those checks, you wire the money, less your fee, then, after like a month, maybe longer, the checks bounce.

think about it. someone sent you money without meeting you, relying on your honesty and integrity.

Oh, damn! That's how it will work!?!? That's ingenious!

you can throw those checks in the trash and you'd never hear from them again.

Thanks! I just want to make sure that he doesn't want them back. I'm talking to him through email now. I just want to make sure we are all cool, as he is a stranger to me.

Thanks for all the help everyone!

reply to post by they see ALL


I'd stop talking to them and just send them along to the feds.

Originally posted by Crakeur
I'd stop talking to them and just send them along to the feds.

Okay! Should I use this? Thanks!

reply to post by they see ALL


no crime has been committed so I'm not sure what they will actually do but you can contact them via that link and ask them about it. They'll tell you if it's a scam or not. you can also tell the guy, since the checks are made out to you, you don't feel safe throwing them out, you'd rather destroy them yourself.

then hold them so that, in the event something pops up, you can show that you never deposited the money.

did you give these guys your social security number?

Originally posted by Crakeur
no crime has been committed so I'm not sure what they will actually do but you can contact them via that link and ask them about it. They'll tell you if it's a scam or not. you can also tell the guy, since the checks are made out to you, you don't feel safe throwing them out, you'd rather destroy them yourself.

My school is actually working on this, so hopefully the person gets in trouble.

then hold them so that, in the event something pops up, you can show that you never deposited the money.

Yeah, in an email the guy told me that I was scamming him! He said he was contacting the police, but I told him good luck with that.

did you give these guys your social security number?

No way! I feel badly enough I gave him my contact information.

reply to post by Crakeur

It's a 419 scam. The cheques are all fake. The victim simply wires the contents of his own bank account via money transfer to some grinning fraudster.

OP, I hope you haven't been making any transfers. If you have, you can kiss those bucks goodbye.

Crakeur, this should be on ATS. It's a genuine, real-world conspiracy and it's going on all the time. Care to relocate the thread for us?

Originally posted by Astyanax
It's a 419 scam. The cheques are all fake. The victim simply wires the contents of his own bank account via money transfer to some grinning fraudster.

That sucks!

OP, I hope you haven't been making any transfers. If you have, you can kiss those bucks goodbye.

Hell no I haven't! Like I said, I feel badly enough that I gave him my contact information. My school is handling it, and so I hope we get this guy.

Crakeur, this should be on ATS. It's a genuine, real-world conspiracy and it's going on all the time. Care to relocate the thread for us?

I could always make a new thread somewhere on ATS. I was actually going to put this on ATS because I wanted more people to see it, but I didn't really find an appropriate forum. I guess I could make a thread in General Conspiracies.

Definalty a scam IMO. You can tell from the terrible punctiation. that's usually a sure fire way of telling a scam or not

maybe you can set up another bank account with nothing in it, then try and scam the scammer