Upwork-Part-time service assistant - Scam

[ScamInformation]

Hello xxxx,

Same like me!

As you might read on posts here before: Go to the police, before they come to you.
Give them everything you still have, including all conversations with the scammer and all the labels you used.

And don't worry.

[ScamInformation]

Hi guys,

I've also been scammed. Below you will find all the information about it. He thinks we are still working together. What should I do?

"Hello xxxxxxxxx and thank you for your quote, I work with the private clients in Europe and some other countries (buy orders according to their needs) and send them to the clients. The difference in prices and the % for my services is my income. I work in this field for more than 4 years and I would like to register a company in Austria by the end of the year or at the beginning of the next. I need a person or a group of persons to make some researches, work for a test period during several months and perform some other tasks related to the project. Please let me know if you are interested? I am ready to send more detailed information about my project, assistant's duties, payment etc. to your email address or email me at [email protected]

Kind regards,
Michael"

"Details

Needs to hire 3 Freelancers

An experienced freelancer that works in the field of sales and marketing is looking for the assistant in your area. Part time job position is related to administrative support and real tasks performing.
The job can be combined with your other occupation and can be done from home.

The requirements are as follows:

- 2 hours of free time within normal business hours Monday – Saturday;
- Internet access ;
- The research of the market in your area;
- Ability to communicate with online stores, receive and process orders, deal with correspondence;
- Email checking and answering;
- Ability to be online regularly and make regular reports on the tasks completed;
- Word and excel basic knowledge

This is a part time job position with a base salary. But the future plans are to expand the project and its business idea and open a company in your area with more financial opportunities for the candidate.

More detailed information is available on request and will be provided to the candidates interested in this offer

Other Skills: Customer service"

"Dear xxxxxxxxx,

My name is Michael and I talked to you on Upwork

Here is the description of my project

I discovered the difference in prices in UK, Austria and some European and East European countries and decided to make money on it. Some goods are much more expensive there in comparison with the UK and European online stores. I have a lot of private stores and customers interested in receiving goods from UK and Austria and I fulfill their orders regularly. But the main problem is that most of UK and especially Austria stores ship nationally. I have a growing demand in Austria goods but I am located in the UK and need a person to coordinate business there. We are talking about electronics, clothes, baby clothes, toys, music instruments, etc. That is why, I am looking for a person who will help me processing orders and help opening a growing business in future. I, personally, can't handle all order and need assistants. Besides, I have a seriously ill relative in Poland and will be forced to go there regularly. Your main job will be receiving and processing packages from most known Austria online stores. I PAY FOR GOODS AND SHIPPING IN ADVANCE (PREPARE A SHIPPING LABEL FOR YOU) AND I COVER ALL OTHER EXPENSES. You do not have to pay fees, hidden charges, I'll only need your full name and address in order to prepare the contract for you and to know where to send the packages.

You will receive a monthly payment in the amount of 1200 EUR + bonuses (1-2 hours a day Monday - Friday and sometimes Saturday). Besides, you need to combine some orders to save on shipping and communicate with the couriers.

Please let me know if you are interested and I will send you the list of information I need to start as well as the details on the process itself.

Kind regards,
Michael Ferg
22 Fraser Court, Aberdeen
Scotland, UK, AB25 3UG
02032893584

P.S. Then we can either continue working on a part time scheme or reconsider Your working conditions (3-4 hours a day and then full-time job position with growing up payment for each 30 days of work)."

"Hello xxxxxxxx,

I am glad you are interested and sure we will cooperate for a long time.

Please acquaint with the detailed information about assistant's duties at the beginning of our cooperation.

Here is the description of the process: I receive an order from my customer and buy goods online paying my money for them (I use my bank account, paypal or credit card to pay for goods in advance). Then I ship the goods and receive funds after the customers has received the goods. Sometimes my interest is more than 100% on some products. Today I receive a lot of orders and can't handle all of them. I will receive orders, buy them online at Austrian stores and they will ship them to you as my Austrian representative. It will save my private ebusiness. More over, some of the orders are splint by the stores or there are many items ordered by my client and I have to ship each parcel to the client and pay extra shipping because I can't combine them staying in Poland.
You will normally receive 5-10 packages a week. Most of them will be small and medium size and less than 10 kg (electronics, clothes, baby clothes, toys, concert tickets, etc). I will buy shipping labels online at DHL or UPS and send them attached to the email. I will book the courier to collect heavy items the items from your location for the time that best suits you, and you will drop off the light and medium packages at DHL station. So, your job will be: printing the labels and process the packages through the local post office, hand off the heavy parcels to the courier, combine some orders and ship to my clients. Sometimes, I will give you other tasks related to this project and hope we can work together for years.

I would also like you to send the information in the following format if you are interested in the position:

First Name:
Last Name:
Date of Birth:
Address:
City:
Country:
Post Code:
Phone:
email address:

We can start once you send me the information and receive your first packages next week. You will be instructed on how to process the orders once you receive the packages. You will receive your payment + bonuses through PayPal or as a bank transfer each 30 days starting from the day your information received. Also, I will create your profile at my web site for you to work there and to make the calculation of the orders.

Regarding the bonuses... I will pay extra 10-25 EUR for each processed parcel.
I look forward to your reply and hope you will become a part of my team!

Regards,

Michael"

If you have any packages, do not forward them. If any more packages arrive, do not accept them.

Print out all emails to and from Michael, with complete headers, take them to the police, and explain that you are a victim of a reshipping scam.

Do not tell Michael you quit. Do not tell him anything at all. If he tries to contact you by any means, ignore him.

If he's using a website to tell you when a package is coming and where to resend it to, post the email where he tells you to log into the website here, with complete headers.

[ScamInformation]

Hi,

He is using a email address to communicate with me : Michael Fer <[email protected]>
Thanks for the tip. I will go today to the police, I hope it will be ok for me .

Regards
xxxx

[ScamInformation]

So Yeah looks like I met a scammer today! but by the end of the interview I notice he pretty much said the same thing as everyone is saying. I did give him my name, cell number and address, but nothing els I told him or her or it that I wanted my payment through the website that Im looking for work at home which is UPwork.com here is the link for the "FAKE" job offering https://www.upwork.com/applications/314782416! he is going by the name of Anderson Freeman and his email address is [email protected]! he did the interview as everyone said which through yahoo messenger! So I talked to him, her or it for an hour of mt time! So he says that someone else will contact me with some papers that I need to sign which now I know to stay very far from! the company he says he is in is called "The Illies Group"! I knew something was wrong when I read that! But I still did THE fake interview and gave him only my name, cell phone, and address he told me to send it to [email protected] so I did and he wanted to confirm it with me on yahoo messenger so I did! I hope he can't do anything with that!! Hell I have no bank account so jokes on them hehe! But if I do or do not need to worry please reply back to me, it will make me feel so relieved!

Big-Ben, welcome to scamwarners and thanks for posting the info.

Chances are good your scammer is not sophisticated enough to steal your ID, they only wanted your money. They can now impersonate you, though.

You should create some "Google alerts" for all of the personal information given to these scammers. Go to www.google.com/alerts and set up one each for “complete address" , ”bldg # street name" "Drivers license #" "SSN" "FirstName LastName" and "LastName FirstName", “email address”, and what ever other data you have given. be sure to use only one alert per quotation query.

use the quotes " " as above for each one of the alerts they set up with Google. It is not likely the ID will be compromised, but I think its better to err on the side of safe, rather than sorry in this case. If the alerts ever show results, address them at that time.

If it is a passport # then contact homeland security (USA) ( Department of State) and report it compromised to be issued a new passport #. If a different country then contact the issuing authority of that country, and be sure to report it as compromised so you can be issued a new PP #. If they do try anything stupid, you do not want it coming back to haunt you in any way.

You should try to report the scam to your local police, if you are in the USA then also the IC3, and if you are in the UK then actionFraud. If you are not in the US or UK try going to http://econsumer.gov/ and see if yours is a member country.

[ScamInformation]

Hi,

I've ignored him, but this is what he sent me :

"Good morning,

I have to give your details to my attorney Mr.James Kennett.
It is not the way of doing business. My clients are waitining for the deliveries and i guess you want to do a crime.
We had an agreement as i thought but please think twice before Mr.Kennett will give all the details to the aothorities in xxx.

I will wait until the end of this day.

Regards,
Michael"

"Dear ,

I called you twice today but you didn't pick up the phone.
So, i've made a decision that you want to make something illegal.
Just want to warn you that i had such cases before and one of my ex assistants is in prison now.
I am not a beginner in this business.
For all items i have serial numbers and also i will give your details to on-line shops i cooperate and ask them to put you in a black list.
Tomorrow i will contact to Mr. Kennett and provide your details.
I do not want you to have problems and those items you are keeping at the moment are not worth of your restful life.

I hope you will take a wise decision.

Regards,
Michael
From: [email protected]"

Continue to ignore him. Do not reply to anything he sends. Block his phone number or do not answer. If you do not recognize the number let it roll into voice mail.

[ScamInformation]

Hello fellow people who were scammed by this asshole. I received a letter the other day demanding a payment for 600 euro for an item he had me ship. Once he didn't pay me I just decided to let it go because in my mind, I didnt really lose anything, little did I know. So now I've done some further research and I'm not sure how I didn't find this site beforehand because I googled him several times. I am going to the police later, I'm just nervous about what will happen to me. I'm a USA citizen and he was the first person I freelanced for and I was planning to get my freelance visa once I had two job offers (his offer was my first) but then I went to the US over Thanksgiving for over two weeks and I had my roommate and my boyfriend handle the packages for me while I was overseas. When I returned I realized it was a scam and just kind of let it go and searched for other freelance jobs to get my visa. I am now incredibly nervous about what will happen when I go to the police. I've reached out to another guy I found on UpWork who was scammed by him and I've messaged another girl and I'm waiting for her reply. Can you please all share with me what happened when you went to the police and what they're doing now. I'm so sorry this has happened to all of us.

[ScamInformation]

Hi guys,

i have a new email from his "lawyer".
Should I be worried or should I ignore both of them?

"James Kennett <[email protected]>



Dear Mr. ,

My name is James Kennett I am attorney in Uk Postmasters Ltd.
My client Mr. Ferg gave me Your details and made a complaint.
You have two items at the moment payed by Mr. Ferg.
I recommend You to contact me or Mr. Ferg today and to discharge Your duties.
Else I will contact to Police station Lange Allee and provide Your details, names of the articles and serial numbers to Herr. Albert Koch.

Best regards,
James Kennett
39 Hall Cliffe Crescent, Horbury,
Wakefield, West Yorkshire WF4 6DG"

[AlanJones]

It is yet more bluster from a dumb scammer who has never set foot in the UK or Austria and has no idea how the legal system in either country works. A quick look at the register of solicitors in the UK confirms that there is no one in the UK by the name of "James Kennett" registered as a solicitor.

Uk Postmasters Ltd. is a company set up in August 2015 and gives no indication of being the type of business that would have an attorney working for them.

Continue to ignore him. Do not reply to anything he sends. Block his phone number or do not answer. If you do not recognize the number let it roll into voice mail.

[ScamInformation]

It is yet more bluster from a dumb scammer who has never set foot in the UK or Austria and has no idea how the legal system in either country works. A quick look at the register of solicitors in the UK confirms that there is no one in the UK by the name of "James Kennett" registered as a solicitor.

Uk Postmasters Ltd. is a company set up in August 2015 and gives no indication of being the type of business that would have an attorney working for them.

Hi Alan,

thank you for your support. I will definitely not answer him and I will keep ignoring him.

Regards,
xxxx

[ScamInformation]

Hi guys.
Unfortunately I0ve just found out about this scam as well. I'm living in xxxxxxxx and fell for it as well. I received a letter to pay for nearly 500€ regarding one of the items I was responsible for shipping and I'm afraid there might me more problems in the future. I was hoping I could join the people who have also been scammed in xxxxxxx. Have you been to the police and how was it? I'm going to the police with everything I have as soon as possible, but I'm still pretty concerned with this letter I've received from a client's lawyer with a deadline to pay up what is missing.
Regards
Helena

The scammer is playing all roles in this scam.

The lawyer is fake he is being played by the scammer himself.

Just ignore and stop all contact with the scammer.

Criminals not contact the legal system. If so he would go to jail.