9 News in Colorado

9 News in Colorado did a story on a victim of an employment scam. Thought I would share it here.

http://www.9news.com/rss/article.aspx?storyid=133617

KUSA - In this bad economy, 9Wants to Know has found online bogus job offers are preying on unemployed Coloradans and scamming them out of millions of dollars.
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"It breaks your heart. You want to do something, but there's nothing you can do," Chief Deputy Denver District Attorney Joe Morales said. "We can't get your money back, we can't locate these people, we can't go after them."

Colorado law enforcement are frustrated that they cannot stop the schemes which originate overseas and out of their jurisdiction. The bad guys are virtually untraceable because they use bogus names, made-up e-mail accounts and run the schemes in foreign Internet cafes.

Chris Christensen, 19, of Littleton responded to one of the job ads on Craigslist to chauffer a man's grandmother when she was purportedly coming to Denver. Even though the job paid $500, the man who called himself "Brian West," mailed Christensen a check for $1,850.

First part of the news item added - Michelle

Thank you for posting the story Reno and for the comments that you (?) made following it.

(You can always count one someone making the "victim was stupid" comment) - nice retort

What's up with all the, "If you're stupid enough" comments? That's like saying, "If you're stupid enough to be murdered you deserve to die." These scams don't just target uneducated people, these scammers steal money from anyone they can, even highly educated people. It's not a matter of smarts, it's a matter of trust. The scammers earn your trust and then exploit it.

Yup, that was me. I saw the story and thought I would check it online. Saw those idiotic comments and just couldn't let them slide. I've seen too many people stolen from by these thieves and it pisses me off. I can't bait (just don't have that story line skill set) so I'm going to do all I can to prevent people from falling victim. I plan on being more active here to help out.

Welcome Reno419, thanks for posting this. I'll echo Michelle's thank you as well, for your comment after the article. Well done.