Job Offer from Kevin Miller - scam or not??

I applied for a job on Indeed.com and was sent the following response email:
From: Kevin Miller <[email protected]>
To: My email
Sent: Mon, May 28, 2012 2:26 am
Subject: RE: Indeed: My name applied to Receptionist/Building Administration

Hello ,

Thanks for applying for the post, unfortunately the position is filled, but their is another position which i think you could fit in

I'm looking for someone that can be trusted and reliable, someone with good understanding and working skills.

Kevin Miller is my name. I am a Senior Project Manager and my responsibilities include the day-to-day oversight for the planning, design, pre-construction and construction process through project completion. My responsibilities also includes preparing responses for proposal requests from various outside sources.

Kevin Miller Specialties:

I have experience in office building construction including government projects (both Tenant Improvement and Base Building design and construction), and commercial clients (Starbucks, Lockheed Martin, SiloSmashers, Starbucks). In addition I have been the Project Manager for third party parking garages located at the University of Maryland and St. Joseph Medical Center. I also have little knowledge about photography and i often hold lectures on construction as a subject as it is the rudiment of civil engineering and it's an aspect that is of great importance to civil engineering which is my profession. I have been into civil engineering for over 30 years and at the moment, I am in a work-shop in the Great Britain. I will be here for a month after which I will fly down to phillipines for a series of lectures with some students. I bring a unique teaching style to students which will guarantee creative and fun learning by all civil engineering students while elevating them to new, exciting engineering heights that they have only dreamed of.

YOUR DUTIES AS MY ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT.

While I am out of the states, I need some one who can stand in the gap for me. His/her duties will be the following.

1.To receive letters and mails on my behalf.
2.Receive checks and money orders from clients who want to attend the forth coming workshops or Live shows.
3.Schedule appointments for me.
4.Book my flight tickets.
5.Send letters and mails from my clients.

This position is home-based and flexible part time job,you can be in any location to carry out any of the activities. All you need do is to check your emails twice daily and keep your phone on most times in case i might need to call you from anywhere i may be. I do have a number of things you could help me with Next Week if you will be available to start. This can act as a stable foundation to our working relationship. Let me know if you have any of the office equipment (If not,I will make arrangements to send them to your address).

Printer:
Personal Laptop/Desktop:
Internet Access:
Scanner:
Fax machine:
Laminator:
Paper Cutter:

For proper review(since i am not available now to set up a face-to-face interview) supply out correctly the information below:

FIRST NAME ...................... SURNAME...................
ADDRESS.................
CITY ............STATE............................
ZIP CODE............COUNTRY..................
PHONE NUMBER (S) ........................
PRESENT OCCUPATION..............................
Email....................
Scanned copy of your ID:(You can provide that later when you are employed)
Note: It will be of added advantage if you can provide 2 references from your past employments.

Qualification:
1.Educational background is not a criteria.
2.You must be Organized and able to take instructions well Dependable, Reliable, Trustworthy a must
3.Must have excellent English language skills (both spoken and written)
4.Have great work ethic and attitude, as well as people skills, pay-attention to detail, capable of multi-tasking, and works well understress at times.

Benefits:
- Yearly performance bonus
- Paid vacation/sick/personal days
- Medical benefits
- Salary: $500 weekly($2,000 monthly)
Also,there will be compensation for efficiency and hard working.

Note: 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. This position is home base office work you can be in any location and work with me from your home. Let me know your interest if you are ready to work with me from your home Mon-Fri.

Thanks

Kevin Miller

I accepted the position as I could not find anything about a scam related to him in any way when doing research at the time. Here was my first "assignment":
From: Kevin Miller <[email protected]>
To: my email
Sent: Thu, May 31, 2012 5:53 am
Subject: POST OFFICE MAIL AND INSTRUCTION TO FOLLOW?

TTN: My name

How are you doing today, I hope you are doing great, I am very sorry I have not been able to be in touch with you before now, I have been extremely busy lately, I think I will be
free for the next couple of days, You are starting your first task today . One of my clients just sent payment. The Payment ( 2100$) was sent to you In form Of Money Orders
through ( USPS COURIER SERVICE) you can have the movement of the Package Tracked at ( http://www.usps.com) with this Tracking Number ( 9101969010386893610181 ) .The payment you will receive has been bought and issued in your Name as My Personal Assistant , all you have to do when you get the payment is to :

1.FILL IN, "MARY HILLER " AT THE FROM COLUMN

2.FILL IN " HOLLYWOOD, CA, 90024 " AT THE ADDRESS COLUMN UNDERNEATH THE FROM COLUMN

3.FILL IN YOUR NAME AT THE PAY TO COLUMN:

4.FILL IN YOUR ADDRESS AT THE ADDRESS COLUMN UNDERNEATH THE PAY COLUMN:

As soon as you get the payment have it deposited into your BANK ACCOUNT/ CARD and have the Equivalent Value withdrawn immediately, this will make the funds available to you on the Spot .You are to deduct $200 as Part of your Weekly Salary and send out the rest of the funds to my secretary In dubai(UAE) .We will be needing it to plan for our next photo exhibition and Organize our next teachings on photography coming up in San Diego California.This will be coming up in 2 weeks.So i will need you to send out the rest of the funds through western union money transfer.I would Have prefered you to wire the funds through Bank Account But since its urgent and using Western Union is
instant.

Below is the information you need to wire the funds to by Western Union.

Name - David Willy

address -12 king fasail road

state - dubai

country -UAE

Thats all you need to wire the funds through Western Union,You can find it nearby because they are everywhere in the world.I will like you to get it done immediately you receive this email and as soon as you are through with the transfer you will need to email me the following information.

SENDERS NAME (As used when sending funds at Western Union Office)?
SENDERS ADDRESS?
AMOUNT SENT?
MTCN ( Money Transfer Control Numbers)?


I will be waiting patiently to read back from you soonest i still have something i do want you to do for me later today,so get it done ASAP and get back to me.

Note: Deduct the western union transfer fee from the payment and make sure you use "Money in Minutes" option. Most Importantly You will get the Balance of your weekly
Salary and the cost of Equipment which we need from subsequent payment coming your way this week.

Thanks

Kevin Miller

This immediately sent up red flags for me and when I requested that he provide me with a web site, a short resume or some references, he stopped responding to me. I am pretty sure it is a scam and the original job that I applied for on Indeed.com was for Receptionist/Building Administration, Verengo Solar, Austin, TX

Interestingly enough, that application went to the same email address so the job posting itself might be a scam as well. Not sure but would hate for that to be the case. Can you help confirm??

[AlanJones]

The whole thing is a scam, including the original job advert.

The scammer has posted an advert or a receptionist in order to avoid it being deleted by the job site, who would recognise a job receiving cheques as a scam. The scammer never had any intention of employing a receptionist, everyone who applied will have got the same response that the job had been filled, but there is another position available.

As to the "job" that you actually got, this involves receiving and banking fake cheques and sending the money on by Western Union. The cheque would have eventually been discovered to be a fake by the banks (this can take weeks or even months) and the money deducted from your account, leaving you down the money that you forwarded on and possibly looking at legal charges.

The best thing to do is to refuse to accept delivery of the cheque that they are sending you.

100% scam.

This line in the first email actually puts it squarely in scam category.

Receive checks and money orders from clients who want to attend the forth coming workshops or Live shows.

It's a standard money mule "job" which involves you turning stolen money or fraudulent checks/money orders into cash for the scammers. It's also illegal.

You can also see from these search results that this is not an entirely new script.
https://www.google.com/search?q=%22I+ne ... =firefox-a

The original job posting was also a creation of the scammer, used only to draw people in. Sometimes scammers will actually use a bait and switch tactic--i.e. post a job that doesn't set off any alarms, then redirect applicants to the job that is their "real" goal.

Evidently, Kevin Miller is also Paul Jack!
Just got this from an inquiry into a job posted on Craigslist:
Paul Jack [email protected]
9:13 AM (4 hours ago)

to me
Attn :

Hope you're having a pleasant day today? Thanks for your interests in the position, i will deeply appreciate all genuine efforts to help me monitor and keep up to date with all my activities. I most very often get my hands occupied because am working with many companies both in the States and outside, so it is imperative for me to have a worthy assistant who can monitor and keep me up to date with my activities/schedules. You contacted me applying for the position which I advertised on CRAIGSLIST Please do take time to go through this introductory mail and feel free to pass any questions on.


Paul Jack is my name. I am a Senior Project Manager and my responsibilities include the day-to-day oversight for the planning, design, pre-construction and construction process through project completion. My responsibilities also includes preparing responses for proposal requests from various outside sources.


Paul Jack Specialties:

I have experience in office building construction including government projects (both Tenant Improvement and Base Building design and construction), and commercial clients (Starbucks, Lockheed Martin, SiloSmashers, Starbucks). In addition I have been the Project Manager for third party parking garages located at the University of Maryland and St. Joseph Medical Center. I also have little knowledge about photography and i often hold lectures on construction as a subject as it is the rudiment of civil engineering and it's an aspect that is of great importance to civil engineering which is my profession. I have been into civil engineering for over 30 years and at the moment, I am in a work-shop in the Great Britain. I will be here for a month after which I will fly down to MALAYSIA for a series of lectures with some students. I bring a unique teaching style to students which will guarantee creative and fun learning by all civil engineering students while elevating them to new,
exciting engineering heights that they have only dreamed of.


YOUR DUTIES AS MY ASSISTANT.

While I am out of the states, I need some one who can stand in the gap for me. His/her duties will be the following.

1.To receive letters and mails on my behalf.
2.Receive checks and money orders from clients who want to attend the forth coming workshops or Live shows.
3.Schedule appointments for me.
4.Book my flight tickets.
5.Send letters and mails from my clients.

This position is home-based and flexible part time job,you can be in any location to carry out any of the activities. All you need do is to check your emails twice daily and keep your phone on most times in case i might need to call you from anywhere i may be. I do have a number of things you could help me with Next Week if you will be available to start. This can act as a stable foundation to our working relationship. Let me know if you have any of the office equipment (If not,I will make arrangements to send them to your address).

Printer:

Personal Laptop/Desktop:

Internet Access:

Scanner:

Fax machine:

Laminator:

Paper Cutter:

For proper review(since i am not available now to set up a face-to-face interview) supply out correctly the information below:

FULL NAME :

Full Street Address(Not PO Box) :

City, State, Zip Code:

Age:

Present Occupation:

Cell Phone Number:


Home Phone Number:

Email:

Scanned copy of your ID:(You can provide that later when you are employed)
Note: It will be of added advantage if you can provide 2 references from your past employments.

Qualification:
1.Educational background is not a criteria.
2.You must be Organized and able to take instructions well Dependable, Reliable, Trustworthy a must
3.Must have excellent English language skills (both spoken and written)
4.Have great work ethic and attitude, as well as people skills, pay-attention to detail, capable of multi-tasking, and works well understress at times.

Benefits:
- Yearly performance bonus
- Paid vacation/sick/personal days
- Medical benefits
- $350 weekly($1,400 monthly)

Also,there will be compensation for efficiency and hard working.


Note: 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. This position is home base office work you can be in any location and work with me from your home. Let me know your interest if you are ready to work with me from your home Mon-Fri.

Thanks,

Paul Jack