HouseKeeping Scam

I believe I fell for a scam. The ad on Craigslist said they needed a housekeeper and would pay $450 a week. The email given was [email protected]. I foolishly sent the email with my resume as requested....and got an email back stating the guy was moving to the area soon and needed someone to ready his 5 room apartment for him. He also stated he would mail keys and a check to get me started while proceeding to ask for a bunch of personal information. This scared me so I immediately googled Housekeeping scam and very similar accounts popped up.

I immediately responded to the email stating I was no longer interested and blocked the sender.

What I am nervous about is are they still going to send a check? What do I do with it if they do, contact the police? Are they going to get mad and come after me and my family (we have a 5 month old daughter...the part that scares me the most).....my resume had no extreme personal info such as birthdate or SSN but did have phone # and home address.

I feel very foolish and scared at the moment.

-- Matt

Hi Matt, rest your fears, it is extremely unlikely that you will suffer any repercussion from replying to this scammer. He probably received several hundred applications, yours included.

From those, hopefully everyone replied at some stage and stopped the deal, scammers are used to a high failure rate, so you wouldn't have caused any problems for him

In all probability, the scammer is in Nigeria or Malaysia, and has no way of ever contacting you in person.

The cheque will be fake, usually issued by someone thinking they are employed as a *work from home office assistant* using forged company details

If you do receive any cheque, DO NOT attempt to cash it, it will bounce, and as has happened more frequently lately, your bank will inform law enforcement, and your troubles will really start then.

Write *FAKE* in large type over the cheque, and either hand it into your bank, telling them how you received it, or if you think your local police are approachable, take it to them.

As above, you have nothing to worry about from the scammer, they target hundreds in the hope of getting one or two people hooked, their rejection rate is high, and this scammers rate of rejection will be increased if you could post his emails, with his name and address.

Take care

John