Craigslist Office Assistant / Personal Assistant Scam

I know this isn't a new scam, but had received a recent email and wanted the community to know about it. Read about similar scams in the forum, but the emails are written differently. I was responding to an Office Assistant position and received the following email response back. Watch out and really appreciated the postings warning me of this type of scam.
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I am replying back to your message concerning the job posted on Craigslist in which you're interested in,your application was received, unfortunately the position already been filled, but there's another position to be filled, if you will be interested.
I have gone through your email and am quite impressed, i think you are the right person for this job. I have had a previous Personal assistant who has been very commendable in her activities and who has been part of my life for the past 6 months, she has since moved on with her personal life and it has affected me in a way. I found her previously on the Craigslist website and I sincerely hope I will be able to find someone again who will be as efficient as she has been. I need your service because I am constantly out of town. I will return back to the state real soon so this process will be on going till then. If you don't mind, I will meet up with you when I return and then we can talk about the possibility of making this long term.

JOB DESCRIPTION
You will be a Personal Assistant,you will walk in to any warehouse which we will be disclosed to you soon and you would be expected to inspect,test, sample, and sorting of products or goods being Purchased. The Purchased products can include a large range of items, including food, Art-Materials, machinery, equipment or pharmaceuticals. Depending the type of manufacturing environment, When you get my mails / packages; you are required to mail them to where ever i want them mailed to. You don't have to put money out of your pocket, all you have to do is have packages shipped to your house and do my shopping. You are allowed to open the packages to reveal its content. All expenses and taxes will be paid by me including your weekly salaries.
No heavy packages is involved! You can do the shopping at any nearest stores. You will be shopping for Art Materials and clothing sorting out my delivers and packages. I will provide you my personal UPS account number for Shipping. All you have to do is provide my account number to UPS and shipping charges will be applied into the account. I will provide clear set of instructions for each task I need done as well the funds to cover them.You will be working 3 days in a week and you're to choose any 3 days of the week from Monday to Saturday that will be preferable to you and you will be working 4 hrs in these 3 days and that will be from 9 am-1 pm and we will be offering you $400.00 per week.

Type: Full-Time
Hours: 15 Hours per week
Days: 3 days per week
Weekly Pay: $400.00

BENEFITS:
• AD & D Insurance
• 401(k)

If you're interested please provide contact details. Full Name Full Physical Address Apt# And Cell or Home phone number to get started. i will be looking forward hearing from you and then proceed on the next step forward.
Regards.
Morgan Hannon.
Tell:(863)226-5076.

Thanks for posting! What email address was it sent from? Is the Reply-to different?

Its also helpful if you can post the wording of the actual Craigslist post .

I just came across this post today on the Springfield, MO Craigslist board. The ad was a generic posting for a receptionist, to which I replied. A few hours later, I got this message in my inbox:

Hello,

I am replying back to your message concerning the job posted on Craigslist in which you're interested in,your application was received, unfortunately the position already been filled, but there's another position to be filled, if you will be interested.
I have gone through your email and am quite impressed, i think you are the right person for this job. I have had a previous Personal assistant who has been very commendable in her activities and who has been part of my life for the past 6 months, she has since moved on with her personal life and it has affected me in a way. I found her previously on the Craigslist website and I sincerely hope I will be able to find someone again who will be as efficient as she has been. I need your service because I am constantly out of town. I will return back to the state real soon so this process will be on going till then. If you don't mind, I will meet up with you when I return and then we can talk about the possibility of making this long term.

JOB DESCRIPTION
You will be a Personal Assistant,you will walk in to any warehouse which we will be disclosed to you soon and you would be expected to inspect,test, sample, and sorting of products or goods being Purchased. The Purchased products can include a large range of items, including food, Art-Materials, machinery, equipment or pharmaceuticals. Depending the type of manufacturing environment, When you get my mails / packages; you are required to mail them to where ever i want them mailed to. You don't have to put money out of your pocket, all you have to do is have packages shipped to your house and do my shopping. You are allowed to open the packages to reveal its content. All expenses and taxes will be paid by me including your weekly salaries.
No heavy packages is involved! You can do the shopping at any nearest stores. You will be shopping for Art Materials and clothing sorting out my delivers and packages. I will provide you my personal UPS account number for Shipping. All you have to do is provide my account number to UPS and shipping charges will be applied into the account. I will provide clear set of instructions for each task I need done as well the funds to cover them.You will be working 3 days in a week and you're to choose any 3 days of the week from Monday to Saturday that will be preferable to you and you will be working 4 hrs in these 3 days and that will be from 9 am-1 pm and we will be offering you $300.00 per week.

Type: Full-Time
Hours: 15 Hours per week
Days: 3 days per week
Weekly Pay: $300.00

BENEFITS:
• AD & D Insurance
• 401(k)

If you're interested please provide contact details. Full Name Full Physical Address Apt# And Cell or Home phone number to get started. i will be looking forward hearing from you and then proceed on the next step forward.
Regards.
Morgan Hannon.
Tell:(863)606-8340.

I went back to copy the job ad to post here, but it was of course gone.

I replied to a receptionist job and received this e-mail early this morning, it didn't look right so I did some research and found this website. I almost fell for a job scam yesterday, I spent all day interviewing for a job to find out it was a sales job that required I sell insurance and recruit others to do so, then asking I invest $250 of my own money since they are investing $34,000 on me, it was just a little jesture to show them I was committed. Im so sick of this crap and it was such a waste of time and gas. I'm older I realized right away it was shady, but some young kids sat through the presentation, checkbooks in hand. SAD!!

***Do Not Reply****SCAM
Morgan Hannon <[email protected]>
4:42 AM (1 hour ago)

to me
Hello,

I am replying back to your message concerning the job posted on Craigslist in which you're interested in,your application was received, unfortunately the position already been filled, but there's another position to be filled, if you will be interested.
I have gone through your email and am quite impressed, i think you are the right person for this job. I have had a previous Personal assistant who has been very commendable in her activities and who has been part of my life for the past 6 months, she has since moved on with her personal life and it has affected me in a way. I found her previously on the Craigslist website and I sincerely hope I will be able to find someone again who will be as efficient as she has been. I need your service because I am constantly out of town. I will return back to the state real soon so this process will be on going till then. If you don't mind, I will meet up with you when I return and then we can talk about the possibility of making this long term.

JOB DESCRIPTION
You will be a Personal Assistant,you will walk in to any warehouse which we will be disclosed to you soon and you would be expected to inspect,test, sample, and sorting of products or goods being Purchased. The Purchased products can include a large range of items, including food, Art-Materials, machinery, equipment or pharmaceuticals. Depending the type of manufacturing environment, When you get my mails / packages; you are required to mail them to where ever i want them mailed to. You don't have to put money out of your pocket, all you have to do is have packages shipped to your house and do my shopping. You are allowed to open the packages to reveal its content. All expenses and taxes will be paid by me including your weekly salaries.
No heavy packages is involved! You can do the shopping at any nearest stores. You will be shopping for Art Materials and clothing sorting out my delivers and packages. I will provide you my personal UPS account number for Shipping. All you have to do is provide my account number to UPS and shipping charges will be applied into the account. I will provide clear set of instructions for each task I need done as well the funds to cover them.You will be working 3 days in a week and you're to choose any 3 days of the week from Monday to Saturday that will be preferable to you and you will be working 4 hrs in these 3 days and that will be from 9 am-1 pm and we will be offering you $400.00 per week.

Type: Full-Time
Hours: 15 Hours per week
Days: 3 days per week
Weekly Pay: $400.00

BENEFITS:
• AD & D Insurance
• 401(k)

If you're interested please provide contact details. Full Name Full Physical Address Apt# And Cell or Home phone number to get started. i will be looking forward hearing from you and then proceed on the next step forward.
Regards.
Morgan Hannon.
Tell: (863)606-8340.
Tell: (863) 606-8396.

I received 1 today with a different name same number.

Hello,
 
I am replying back to your message concerning the job posted on Craigslist in which you're interested in,your application was received, unfortunately the position already been filled, but there's another position to be filled, if you will be interested.
   I have gone through your email and am quite impressed, i think you are the right person for this job. I have had a previous Personal assistant who has been very commendable in her activities and who has been part of my life for the past 6 months, she has since moved on with her personal life and it has affected me in a way. I found her previously on the Craigslist website and I sincerely hope I will be able to find someone again who will be as efficient as she has been. I need your service because I am constantly out of town. I will return back to the state real soon so this process will be on going till then. If you don't mind, I will meet up with you when I return and then we can talk about the possibility of making this long term.
 
JOB DESCRIPTION
You will be a Personal Assistant,you will walk in to any warehouse which we will be disclosed to you soon and you would be expected to inspect,test, sample, and sorting of products or goods being Purchased. The Purchased products can include a large range of items, including food, Art-Materials, machinery, equipment or pharmaceuticals. Depending the type of manufacturing environment, When you get my mails / packages; you are required to mail them to where ever i want them mailed to. You don't have to put money out of your pocket, all you have to do is have packages shipped to your house and do my shopping. You are allowed to open the packages to reveal its content. All expenses and taxes will be paid by me including your weekly salaries.
No heavy packages is involved! You can do the shopping at any nearest stores. You will be shopping for Art Materials and clothing sorting out my delivers and packages. I will provide you my personal UPS account number for Shipping. All you have to do is provide my account number to UPS and shipping charges will be applied into the account. I will provide clear set of instructions for each task I need done as well the funds to cover them.You will be working 3 days in a week and you're to choose any 3 days of the week from Monday to Saturday that will be preferable to you and you will be working 4 hrs in these 3 days and that will be from 9 am-1 pm and we will be offering you $400.00 per week.
 
Type: Full-Time
Hours: 15 Hours per week
Days:  3 days per week
Weekly Pay: $400.00
 
BENEFITS:
• AD & D Insurance
• 401(k)
 
If you're interested please provide contact details. Full Name  Full Physical Address Apt#  And  Cell or Home phone number to get started. I will be looking forward hearing from you and then proceed on the next step forward.
Regards. 
Ryan William.
Tell: (863) 606-8396.

Its a reshipping scam . The phone numbers are Bandwidth.com VoIP registered in Lakeland, FL but the scammers are located in West Africa no doubt .

I got this email today BEWARE... Thanks for the posts

Ryan William < [email protected] >

Thanks for the Swift Response,i am more than happy to inform you that your position has been Confirmed after 5 to 6hers advanced background checks has been made ,i will get back to you with your first assignment within the next few 24hrs to 48hers and all the pay for shopping of items will be Including with your first salary for the week ...Please note that this job require you to be checking your Mail Box 2-3 times daily Your Total commitment is However Needed....I await your Response.
Regards.
Ryan William.
Tell: (863) 606-8396.

I am new to ScamWarners, but i am going to copy and paste the response that seems a lot like the rest. Is it truly a scam? So strange, he even includes benefits.

Hello,

I am replying back to your message concerning the job posted on Craigslist in which you're interested in,your application was received, unfortunately the position already been filled, but there's another position to be filled, if you will be interested.
I have gone through your email and am quite impressed, i think you are the right person for this job. I have had a previous Personal assistant who has been very commendable in her activities and who has been part of my life for the past 6 months, she has since moved on with her personal life and it has affected me in a way. I found her previously on the Craigslist website and I sincerely hope I will be able to find someone again who will be as efficient as she has been. I need your service because I am constantly out of town. I will return back to the state real soon so this process will be on going till then. If you don't mind, I will meet up with you when I return and then we can talk about the possibility of making this long term.

JOB DESCRIPTION
You will be a Personal Assistant,you will walk in to any warehouse which we will be disclosed to you soon and you would be expected to inspect,test, sample, and sorting of products or goods being Purchased. The Purchased products can include a large range of items, including food, Art-Materials, machinery, equipment or pharmaceuticals. Depending the type of manufacturing environment, When you get my mails / packages; you are required to mail them to where ever i want them mailed to. You don't have to put money out of your pocket, all you have to do is have packages shipped to your house and do my shopping. You are allowed to open the packages to reveal its content. All expenses and taxes will be paid by me including your weekly salaries.
No heavy packages is involved! You can do the shopping at any nearest stores. You will be shopping for Art Materials and clothing sorting out my delivers and packages. I will provide you my personal UPS account number for Shipping. All you have to do is provide my account number to UPS and shipping charges will be applied into the account. I will provide clear set of instructions for each task I need done as well the funds to cover them.You will be working 3 days in a week and you're to choose any 3 days of the week from Monday to Saturday that will be preferable to you and you will be working 4 hrs in these 3 days and that will be from 9 am-1 pm and we will be offering you $400.00 per week.

Type: Full-Time
Hours: 15 Hours per week
Days: 3 days per week
Weekly Pay: $400.00

BENEFITS:
• AD & D Insurance
• 401(k)

If you're interested please provide contact details. Full Name Full Physical Address Apt# And Cell or Home phone number to get started. i will be looking forward hearing from you and then proceed on the next step forward.
Regards.
Ryan William.
Tell: (863) 606-8396.

Welcome to ScamWarners lovealaska39, yes, it is still a scam. The scammer includes items that will cause you to believe it is a legitimate job posting and offer. It is NOT. The scammer would have you receive stolen items and forward them to another criminal. Any money you might receive would be money stolen from other victims and used to perpetuate the scam. You would be the person the legal system could find, and you likely would be prosecuted.

Drop communication with this person. Please DO post the email address this scammer is using, and include headers from an email, as it will help prove that this is a scam.

Best of luck on your quest for a job.

Thanks for posting and adding new information . That phone number is a bandwidth dot com VoIP telephone registered in Lakeland Forida and now probably located overseas .

I got this same email, the Craigslist post was removed but it was for a pet waste removal person offering a good pay. I figured there was more to it but I emailed out of curiosity. The email I sent was to [email protected]. All I said was I live nearby and have a valid DL. The response I got was from [email protected], so that was an immediate red flag. Here's what he wrote:

Hello,

I am replying back to your message concerning the job posted on Craigslist in which you're interested in, your application was received, unfortunately the position has already been filled, but there's another position to be filled, if you will be interested. I have gone through your email and i am quite impressed, i think you might be the right person for this job. I have had a previous Personal assistant who has been very commendable in her activities and who has been part of my life for the past 6 months, she has since moved on with her personal life and it has affected me in a way. I found her previously on the Craigslist website and I sincerely hope I will be able to find someone again who will be as efficient as she has been. I need your service because I am constantly out of town. I will return back to the state real soon so this process will be on going till then. If you don't mind, I will meet up with you when I return and then we can talk about the possibility of making this long term.

JOB DESCRIPTION
You will be a Personal Assistant,you will walk in to any warehouse which will be disclosed to you soon and you would be expected to inspect,test, sample, and sorting of products or goods being Purchased. The Purchased products can include a large range of items, including food, Art-Materials, machinery, equipment or pharmaceuticals. Depending on the type of manufacturing environment, When you get my mails / packages; you are required to mail them to where ever i want them mailed to. You don't have to put money out of your pocket, all you have to do is have packages shipped to your house and do my shopping. You are allowed to open the packages to reveal its content. All expenses and taxes will be paid by me including your weekly salaries.

No heavy packages is involved! You can do the shopping at any nearest stores. You will be shopping for Art Materials and clothing sorting out my delivers and packages. I will provide you my personal UPS account number for Shipping. All you have to do is provide my account number to UPS and shipping charges will be applied into the account. I will provide clear set of instructions for each task I need done as well the funds to cover them. You will be working 2 to 3 days in a week and you're to choose any 2 to 3 days days of the week from Monday to Saturday that will be preferable to you and you will be working 4-5 hrs in these 3 days and we will be offering you $380.00 per week.

Type: Full-Time/Part time
Hours: 10-20 Hours per week
Days: 3 days per week
Weekly Pay: $380.00

BENEFITS:
• AD & D Insurance
• 401(k)

If you're interested please provide information below:
Full name
Full Physical Address
Cell Phone Number:
Home Phone Number:

I will be looking forward to hearing from you and then proceed on the next step

Best Regards,
David Hilson
(478) 257-1680


The next red flag was he said my email was impressive...it was literally two lines. Glad I didn't fall for this! I assume it's shipping and recieving stolen goods? I almost wanna use a fake phone number and see what he has to say, for shits and giggles. I originally saw the ad on Tampa Craigslist.

Thanks for posting and updating the record . That is technically called a "Reshipping Scam " . Your post will help warn others .

Reverse Search Results :

(478) 257-1680
Bandwidth.com VoIP in Macon, GA

From [email protected] , 605-599-7626


Hello,



I am replying back to your message concerning the job posted on Craigslist in which you're interested in, your application was received, unfortunately the position has already been filled, but there's another position to be filled, if you will be interested. I have gone through your email and i am quite impressed, i think you might be the right person for this job. I have had a previous Personal assistant who has been very commendable in her activities and who has been part of my life for the past 6 months, she has since moved on with her personal life and it has affected me in a way. I found her previously on the Craigslist website and I sincerely hope I will be able to find someone again who will be as efficient as she has been. I need your service because I am constantly out of town. I will return back to the state real soon so this process will be on going till then. If you don't mind, I will meet up with you when I return and then we can talk about the possibility of making this long term.



JOB DESCRIPTION

You will be a Personal Assistant,you will walk in to any warehouse which will be disclosed to you soon and you would be expected to inspect,test, sample, and sorting of products or goods being Purchased. The Purchased products can include a large range of items, including food, Art-Materials, machinery, equipment or pharmaceuticals. Depending on the type of manufacturing environment, When you get my mails / packages; you are required to mail them to where ever i want them mailed to. You don't have to put money out of your pocket, all you have to do is have packages shipped to your house and do my shopping. You are allowed to open the packages to reveal its content. All expenses and taxes will be paid by me including your weekly salaries.




No heavy packages is involved! You can do the shopping at any nearest stores. You will be shopping for Art Materials and clothing sorting out my delivers and packages. I will provide you my personal UPS account number for Shipping. All you have to do is provide my account number to UPS and shipping charges will be applied into the account. I will provide clear set of instructions for each task I need done as well the funds to cover them. You will be working 2 to 3 days in a week and you're to choose any 2 to 3 days days of the week from Monday to Saturday that will be preferable to you and you will be working 4-5 hrs in these 3 days and we will be offering you $380.00 per week.



Type: Full-Time/Part time

Hours: 10-20 Hours per week

Days: 3 days per week

Weekly Pay: $380.00



BENEFITS:

• AD & D Insurance

• 401(k)



If you're interested please provide information below:

Full name

Full Physical Address

Cell Phone Number:

Home Phone Number:




I will be looking forward to hearing from you and then proceed on the next step




Best Regards,

James Brown

(605) 599-7626

I got the same one too.

Hello,
I am writing in response to your interest on my Craigslist post . You will work from home for only 3 hour per day for a basic wages of $500 per week.You need to go through my introductory message:

I am John Garza a Successful Entrepreneur, investor and a research journalist .I travel a lot, within and outside the US working on
various independent projects, this is why I need an PERSONAL ASSISTANT, to keep up with all of my activities especially when i travel
abroad.Please note that you are being hired only on a personal level. All correspondences would be made and promptly reported to me personally. The position is part time and home-based meaning you can work most times from your home as long as you have a regular internet access. You are also hired on a trial basis for now until we are able to see how well we fit in, this however does not affect your weekly wage.Most of your activities will be carried out locally and most official packages will be delivered via posts. You will be actively involved in my personal, business and financial life. In summary, your activities as my assistant among other things will include;

* A personal reminder for Schedules, programs, flights and keeping
me up to date with them as they come up;
* Carrying out specific projects and research;
* Making regular contacts and drop-offs on my behalf.
* Handling and monitoring financial activities.
* Processing and taking charge of weekly payments and purchases.
* General clerical activities.

Basic wage is $500 a week. Any extra personal expenses (transport,gas,etc) incurred by you while on an errand or otherwise
will also be reimbursed by me at the end of each working Month.This position is very flexible and it is difficult judging the exact number of hours you will be doing,just bear it in mind that there will be busier weeks than others with a steady pay. Working with me is basically about instructions and following them .There is also a very sensitive issue on trust, dedication and accountability which I believe will resolve itself as time goes on.This is only an introductory e-mail, as time goes on we should be able to arrange a
proper meeting to get things started officially. I am currently in Canada, for business .However, I do have a number of work you can get done, prior to my arrival.Due to the excessive number of responses to my Ad, do provide the following details about yourself for my personal record update and to filter applicant s;

Your Full Name:
Street Address:
Apartment Number:
City:
State:
Zip Code:
Cell/Home phone number:
Age:
Present working Status:
Email:
I hope you can be available for me immediately before I arrive, it certainly can act as a stable foundation to our impending working relationship.
Regards.
John Garza