I was sent money through western union

I applied to a ton of jobs on craigslist a few weeks ago, i was contacted by a few people but only one panned out. He said he wanted me to pick up money from western union and then take it to money gram and send it to his boss. So i did what he asked and picked up $2500 from western union, he then gave me the address to ship it to and it was in nigeria, so i did some research and realized it was all a scam, but i cant figure out how its a scam. And if it is a scam what do i do with the money? Is it illigal for me to keep it, i really do need to pay bills here.

Welcome Stranger!
Good you found this forum. You are the victim of an especially nasty type of scam.

At the moment, you are receiving payments from scam victims and passing them on to the scammer for a percentage. The scammer is using you as a mule for money laundering. He remains anonymous and you are the only one the police can get hold of. Eventually the police will find you. Before that happens and you are suspected as an accomplice, please do the following immediately:

- Don't touch the money, keep it in your account.
- Print out the whole email correspondence and show it to your local police.
- The police might have little experience with this type of scam, so point them to our website.

Good luck!

What do i tell the scammer? I told him that moneygram wouldnt let me send it to nigeria. Also, what do i do with the money???

I will print everything out and take it to the police, will they want me to give up the money?

The whole reason i was looking for a job in the first place is because i dont have money and have bills far past due

Can i spend any of the money so i dont end up homeless? Or should i send all the money back to the person that sent it to me? Or will the police want the money?

IDK what to do

Don't tell the scammer anything. Just drop him.
This money has been stolen from victims, and the police will help you to get it back to them. Imagine yourself in their shoes: Wouldn't you be happy to get money back you had been scammed out of?

You might think that nobody will find out that you kept the money. But rest assured that sooner or later the money trail will point to you, and you will end up in prison. It has happened time and again, and for the law it will make no difference if you were a victim, too. You are responsible for making absolutely sure that those transactions are legitimate.
To put it bluntly: Now there is still time to save your behind, but soon it will be too late.

There is no such thing as a legitimate job receiving and forwarding payments. The money is stolen, period.

-It may have come from a check scam, in which another person was "hired" to cash a fake check and send the money on.
-It may have come from a secret shopper scam, which also involves fake checks.
-It may have come from a romance scam, in which case the victim was given a completely fake story and reason for sending money.
-It may be from a fake charity scam, in which the scammer is pretending to be a real charity and is using you to collect and forward the money (many people would catch on if they were told to send the money to Nigeria.
-It could come from another advance fee scam, in which the victim is paying fees/costs for something they will never receive.

In the end, no matter how you look at it, the money is the proceeds of a crime.

I'm not going to lie to you. It's possible that the victim will never realize they were scammed, or will not report the crime. In that case, though it would still be ethically and legally wrong, you could keep the money, go on with your life, and nothing will happen. But you are playing Russian roulette with your own future.

If/when the victim realizes they were scammed (fake check bounces, item never received, catches on to the romance scam or advance fees), even if it is weeks or months from now, there is a good chance that they will go the police. They will tell the police who they sent the money to, leading them straight to you. You can (and very likely will) be arrested for money laundering, a very serious charge, and possibly other charges too. If that happens, not only will you lose that money, but a whole lot more in fines and possibly attorney fees. You can end up in jail (and we aren't talking a couple of days here--you are talking about a crime that carries a stiff sentence). Even if you didn't know it was a scam, you can be arrested (and it has happened many times) as ultimately you are responsible for knowing the source of money you receive and forward. This can all happen even if you forwarded the money.

But if you keep the money, it gets worse. When the police realize you didn't forward the money, but kept it instead (when you can't provide a receipt for the forward), it will be even worse--at that point, no matter how you phrase it, it shows you intended to steal the money. They will have no sympathy at that point--they WILL go after you, possibly for additional charges, as there is absolutely no way to claim you are innocent.

In either case, you stand a good chance of ending up with a criminal record, very possibly a felony--and if you think it's hard to find a job or getting a loan now, try adding a felony record.

I will go to the police tomorrow.

Is there any chance i can get in trouble even after i make a police report?