Cheque scam on gumtree!! Help!!

Hi. I think I am a victim of a cheque fraud!!! I applied for a house assistant job on gumtree and got this reply:

" Hi ,
Thanks for responding to my job ad, you'll be working for wife who's 3 months pregnant and this is her first baby. she is relocating to London from Australia, she will be coming there to work on contract basis with the a local Company on a private research work So i need someone who could help her take care of the house by doing some house work while she is off to work.. as the doctor advised her that she doesn't need to stress her self, Someone that will also help in running some errands for her. I will be offering you £250 weekly, the working days will only be Monday, Wednesday and Saturday for 3 hours each day from 3pm to 6pm.
I believe you are fit for this position in as much you will prove yourself to be a reliable and good person. I'll be paying you in advance with a check which will also be including the funds to pay for her travel agent. Once you receive the cheque, you'll get it cashed, deduct your pay for the first week and forward the rest balance to the travel agent for all her travelling expenses. so we can have a good and comfortable preparation before her arrival schedule.
I will also instruct the Landlord of the house to mail the keys of the apartment to you so that you can do all other necessary preparations before my wife arrive on the 10th of September 2010,Kindly get back to me with your contact address,
Full Name.
Address.
Post code
Phone No.

All i need from you is total honesty and sincerity. I know you will be committed to the work, You will also have a nice period of working with my wife as she is very friendly and honest.
I will be waiting to hear from you.

Regards

Derik. "

..Silly me thought it was genuine and replied with my detals. He sent me a check for £1900 a week later which was from a barclays chequebook, I believed it was real (Im a naive 18 year old and never dealt with a cheque before! even my mum believed it), but being a little suspicious I opened a new barclays account to put the cheque in(as I thought, if the cheque was fake then if I had a barclays account they would notice whether it was real or not because it is coming from another barclays account). I did some research afterwards and have found that he has another ad on gumtree so I believe it is fake.

I haven't received my account details yet of my barclays account so I cant call them up to let them know, but the cheque hasn't cleared yet either. I don't know what to do now. Any suggestions?

First of all, don't worry too much. You haven't sent money, so you can minimize the damage.

Second, there is no doubt this is a scammer, and no doubt that the check will be fraudulent (most likely written off a real phished account but of course the account owner did not authorize it). Any time someone wants to send you a check or money order and wants you to send part or all of it to them or another person, it is a scam. A real person would simply write 2 checks.

You can call Barclays, since the account was opened under your name. Simply tell them what happened--that you opened an account and deposited a check that you thought was a pre-payment for employment, and you later learned that the employment is a scam. It also does not hurt to report the attempted scam to the police--they won't do a whole lot, since the scammer is most likely sitting in Africa or Malaysia, well out of their reach--but the more cases logged, the better the chance government will start to take a greater interest--plus, it does help to cover your bases if barclays gives you any problems.

In the meantime, the scammer may start harassing you about sending the money. They will most likely stay in their fake character, and ultimately may claim that the contacted the police/FBI/interpol or some other authority, and that you are going to be arrested for not sending the money. You may even receive emails supposedly from the authorities threatening you. Ignore them all. The scammers can't and won't approach the authorities to complain that you didn't help them in their criminal activities!

Just drop them completely (don't point them here or they'll just change their name and email), and eventually they will go away.

Hi, thanks for the reply. Do you think the check was from a real persons chequebook? or was it most likely made up somehow? Do you think the bank just take the money back or will they take it further like close my account or give me a bad record? This is so confusing! all I wanted was a job.

Welcome inspectorgadget

I am sure that Dotti meant to say 'You must contact Barclays' and tell them your version of events before they ask you.

Look at it from their point of view; you open a brand new account and the first deposit that you make is with (what will turn out to be) a fake cheque.

Having worked in the UK Banking Industry for quite a number of years I can tell you that the first thing the automated fraud systems will be flagging is 'Possible Money Launderer"

Please contact them before they contact you.

Hi, I tried calling them before but it was an automated service that want to know the card details (which haven't been sent to me yet) and the banks not open till tuesday I think, so it might already be in my account. What will they say if they contact me, im getting worried now! I dont fancy prison.

They won't throw you in prison yet! Not before you had the chance of explaining what happend. Yes, it's weekend now, so you can just relax and whait for the bank to open again. You could however write an email to the Barclays bank explaining what happend, who send you that cheque, and why the scammer did that. The bank personel will know you were a victim of a fake cheque scam, and will consider you as a victim, not a fraudster. Take your time to write the email carefully. Send that email first, and when the banks open again, you can try to call them. Doesn't matter if you don't have your card details yet. If it's an automated system, then there should be an option for getting a life person on the line.

I called barclays and they said they cant do anything about it until It clears! They're very helpful!

Hello, another scam example:
Gumtree Ad ref 104651352
Hello
How are you doing and thanks for getting back to me about my wants for a housekeeper/cleaner.I will want you to know that currently I'm in the United states for now due to my work.

I will be coming back by End of Next month and i want my house to be clean before my arrival because I'v been away for the past 6months and i hope you know how dirty it would be now.I do have a Guardian who normally come around to cheque the safety of the place..

So Now lets get to business about what type of cleaning you should do and your payments,Your duties would include: Cleaning the interior,Making Beds,Kitchen Maintenance,Laundry,Vacuum etc.I would like to offer you £10.50 per Hour which i have in mind but I'm willing to increase once I'm satisifed with your sevice and decide to make the position permanent.At the moment,I expect you to work for 20hrs in a week.

Lastly about the Payment ,I am paying you with my Paycheque which i want you to know that the amount on my pay cheque is always higher than your cleaning fees.I am paying you out of the Paycheque and the rest money would be to the Guardian.

The Guardian is making some other arrangement for my arrival and tools you would use for the cleaning ,all this would need some funds .I want you to know that i will let my client send you a cheque for the Payment for cleaning of the house and you send the remaining balance back to the Guardian after you deduct your fees.

Please bear with me and kindly help me out on this and I want you to know that the Guardian is a foreigner and she only get in touch with me via email because that is the only way of contact for now,she is new and dont have an account to get cheque cashed .I am just helping her to live on earth thats why am using her.

So as soon as you get the cheque deposited/cash you will deduct cost of cleaning the house and send the remaining balance to the Guardian. Please get back to me with your location so that i can give you directions on how to locate my apartment.

Kindly send your full information to receive the cheque so that payment can be able to made out on-time. So hope i can trust you that you clean the house and i hope i can count on you for the cleaning and the money to be sent to the Guardian.

Thanks and waiting to read from you. I don't want any delay at all.

1.YOUR CHARGE FOR AN HOUR....
2.TOTAL CHARGES FOR ..TOTAL OF 20HRS IN 2WEEKS
3.FULL NAME AND ADDRESS......
4.YOUR PHONE NUMBER...
5.WHERE ARE YOU LOCATED ?



Best Regards

Rick.

Hello bricteo,

Thanks for posting on Scamwarners.

It would help a lot of possible victims if you would post the email address of the scammer. Hopefully, a possible victim will search the email address and name of the scammer.