Is this a SCAM

PERSONAL ASSISTANCE NEEDED...
From:
Mr Carson <[email protected]>
Add to Contacts
To:
Hello,

How are you doing today ? The Executive/Office Assistant position is available. I will like to know if you will be interested in working as a personal assistant. I'm looking for
someone that can be trusted, reliable, efficient, self motivated, organized, a good communicator, and IT literate.

My Name is Jamie Carson, Married with 2 Wonderful children. I run my family's farm mainly; I also have a lot of investments and businesses of my own particularly in the real estate
market and as a private lender. I'm also a Certified Payroll Specialist working for a number of companies within and outside the US as a private eye / analyst in their payroll
activities. I travel very frequently trying to expand my business and sometimes there is a work overload for me, this is the more reason I'm looking to find someone back home who is
efficient, self-motivated, organized, a good communicator with an ability to multi-task under pressure and who can help me keep up to date with all of my activities amidst my ever
busy schedule.

It is important for you to note that you are being hired by me personally not by my family or any other businesses that I represent, although most of your duties will be related to
these businesses, I will be personally responsible for your wage and all correspondences, findings and queries would be made and promptly reported to me personally no matter the
circumstance. The position is part-time you will need to set up a home-office if you don't have one; we will discuss the costs of setting this up as we move along. Most importantly,
you need to have Internet and telephone access, Your activities as amongst other things will include;


* Invoicing, managing accounts receivable and/or customer account collections;
* Purchasing needs;
* Handling and monitoring financial activities;
* Acting as an alternative telephone correspondence;
* Running personal errands, supervisions and monitoring;
* Organizing and maintaining diaries, memos and making appointments;
* Dealing with incoming email, faxes and post;
* A personal reminder for Schedules, programs, flights and keeping me up to date with them as they come up;
* General clerical activities.


Your Wage is $699.50 a week after tax. Note: you work twice a week, pay will always be regular, and any extra personal expenses (transport, gas, phone bills... etc) incurred by
you while on an errand or otherwise will also be reimbursed by me at the end of each working week.

I'm currently in Ukriane now attending a seminar but next week in Engish land, in the mean time we will begin unofficially with my PA and on trial pending my arrival because I have a
number of important things you could begin work on immediately. Your wage remains intact even during this trial period. I hope you can be available immediately. we will arrange a
meeting and set up a proper interview as soon as I return to the state.

Due to the excessive number of responses to this job Ad on Kijiji, Craigslist, etc. I will require the following details about you to filter applicants and for a personal record
update;

First Name:
Last Name:
Street Address (P O Box Not Acceptable) :
City :
State/Province :
Zip Code/Postal Code :
Cell Phone Number/Home Phone Number :
Age :
Current Occupation :
Alternate Email Address:


Hope to hear from you soon.

Regards
Jamie Carson.

First Assignment...
From:
Jamie Carson <[email protected]>
View Contact
To: [email protected]
Hello,

Am very sorry for not sending you your payment on time as my personal
assistant. I just got a notification from my Payroll Officer that the
payment has been sent to you. I want you to know that I do trust you
that's why am sending you the money. The Payment is being sent to you
via FedEx Express and here is the shipment tracking number for it (
796765461461 ) you can check the delivery status at www.fedex.com/us
to know the status of the payment and know the time it will be
delivered to your house...

I want you to know that some funds are included to the payment when
sending it to you. Its meant as a gift donation to an orphanage home
in ILLINOIS.. but due to the stress in running around, going to stores
to get the gifts, also to mail them. that's so much stressful. However
the orphanage home said they have receive more than enough gift for
the month and that they need money get some other necessary
physiologically needs for the home therefore they just requested you
to get their payment sent to them on Monday after you received the
Check Payment today, deduct your own wage which is $549.50. you are to
then locate a western union outlet and get the remaining funds sent to
them in cash via western union money transfer to the orphanage home
information below, so that they can pick up the funds and then easily
meet their needs. Note: This assignment stand as your task to get done
this Morning as soon as you receive it...


Here is the Orphanage Home Information to send the Western Union Money
Transfer to ...


Name : Dean Utley
Address: 700 W Adams St,
City : Chicago
State: Illinois
Zip Code : 60661

I want you to get this taken care of this morning when you get the
Check and after you have transfer the funds to the orphanage home
information I want you to email me the western union transfer details
below ..

Sender's Full Name as filled on the Western Union receipt :
Sender's Address : as filled on the Western Union receipt :
Total amount sent after Western Union charges has been deducted :
And the 10 Digit Money Transfer Control Number (MTCN) :

I want you to know that the western union charges will be deducted
from the remaining orphanage home funds after you have deduct your own
salary of $549.50 and also you are to send the money in minutes...
after you get this done email me so as to plan on the next task and
your next payment.

Hope to get a good news soon.

Thanks

Dean Utley is a lawyer at Dean & Associates and the address is that of a churches. I was FedExed a check from an address in SC but the address isn't real per-say. I haven't checked the check but it seems bad and whats more I don't have a bank account and they know this. what would they have to gain by doing this to me.

By law, banks have to issue you the cash for a check within 5 working days, unless they have confirmed the check is fake. What many people don't realize is that this doesn't mean that the check has fully cleared. If they give you the cash, and later determine the check is fraudulent, they can take it back.

What the scammer is hoping is that the fake check will make it through the early verification and you will get the cash and send it to the (fake) charity, which is really himself or an accomplice. He will pick the money up right away and disappear.

A few weeks later, when the bank does confirm the check is fraudulent, they will come after you for the money, plus any feees for the fraudulent checks (and others that bounce as a result of the balance drop.) They may even call the police and have you arrested for fraud. The scammer and the money you sent will be long gone.

wow this is upsetting and yet I had a feeling this was wrong...but i have tracked at least one person down to a name and place of residence. Is there any legal action I could take against this person?


Mod Note: I deleted the full quote of Dotti's post above. ~Bubbles

As far as the law goes, ironically that law exists to protect us, by keeping banks from sitting on or holding back our money for too long. Can you imagine what would happen if you everyone had to wait weeks for their paycheck to clear before they could take out any money?

There is a good chance that the person you have tracked down is another victim or an innocent third party. The scammer behind this is African, and very likely has never left Africa.

This posted "job" is one of several scammers use to recruit victims. In another variant, the victims will respond to a job that involves printing checks for the "company." They are told that they are acting as accounts payable or payroll. Instead of cashing the checks, these victims are given the account information to print the check, and are instructed to send them out to various "clients" or "employees." In this case, the person sending the check may be completely unaware of the fraud.

At other times, scammers (or their accomplices or victims) will put names and addresses of completely unrelated people on the packages. In some cases, these are just pulled from whitepages or somewhere similar. In others, scammers will use names and addresses of former victims.

Sometimes, the senders of these checks are victims of romance scams. The victim has fallen in love with the scammer's character, and believes he/she is helping his/her love to pay off some debts, handle some situation. The victim typically believes that what he/she is doing it legitimate.

The same scenarios apply to the people whose names you are given for western union. Some are innocent parties who think they are doing something legitimate (e.g. receiving payments for an overseas company), while others are simply copied names (it is not difficult to pick up cash by WU without ID).


The truth is, those who are willing participants in this kind of scam generally hide behind fake details. It is extremely rare that someone who is knowingly involved in this type of criminal activity will use his or her real information, so whenever you see real information, you are probably seeing the information of a victim or a third party whose name and info were used because they were available.

^^Oh wow, well thank you very much for checking all of this out for me.


Mod Note: I deleted the full quote of Dotti's post above, it is not necessary. I also deleted a double post. ~Bubbles