Is this a job scam?

I replied to an "office help/assistant" position that was listed on my universities job bank. And this is the response I received,

"I received your resume regarding the job. As a consultant with a focus in international business, the majority of my clients are out of the country. I need help with my errands because I am constantly out of town. As a matter of fact, I am currently on a business trip to Stockholm, Sweden. I will prepay you in advance to do my shopping, Bill payments, placing and expediting orders, picking-up and delivering items to my PO box. I will pick the items up from the post office when I return from Sweden on the 18th of November. How soon can you start?

I will email you the list and pictures of what to shop for so you can do the shopping at Sears, Walmart, Best buy and other stores. I'll pay you $200 for your service for 10 hours every week. I'm prepared to pay for mileage/travel expense. I will provide clear set of instructions for each task I need done and sufficient funds to cover all errands. I'd love to meet with you upon my return from Sweden to discuss the possibility of making this job long term."

I discussed this position with them over email, and they eventually sent me an E-transfer for over $1000 to cover weekly pay, expenses, and cost for the errands. I noticed it odd that I received the E-transfer from someone else whom I was not in correspondence with. Along with the E-transfer, they gave me the following instructions:

"Payment for your services is included within the money. However, I would prefer to pay you upon satisfactory completion of the tasks. So I have decided to pay you half now and half at then end just so there are no discrepancies. Deduct $150 (Partial payment for your services for a week) and then go to a Western union office to do a bill payment. Send $800 to my suppliers details:

Receiver name: Jolene Manuelito
City: Tohatchi,
State: New Mexico,
Zip Code: 87325, USA.


Upon reading those instructions I became very skeptical, and I left the money sitting in my account. My bank is currently looking into the history of the money, and as to whether it is real or not. Has anyone had a similar incident like this, is this a scam or would it have me dealing with laundered criminal money. I really don't know what to do with the money I received.

Thanks.

Yes that is a job scam . The transfer would be from a phished account and when the bank discovered it you would end up having to repay the money .

I haven't withdrawed/transferred any of the money yet. What am I to do with it now ?
Also the individual keeps sending me emails stating that if they don't receive the funds back than they will go to the police

Notify your bank and your police about the situation and don't do anything with the money . Ignore their communications . Also alert your university about the fraud job listed in their system . Can you please post the scammers email address here .

[AlanJones]

You bank will be best placed to advise you on what to do with the money, but as it is definitely sourced from proceeds of crime - either a phished account or possibly a scam victim who have been told to send it to you as part of a scam, whatever you do, do not follow the scammer's instructions to send it on.

As well as letting your bank deal with the money, it would also be a very good idea to get in touch with law enforcement and discuss it with them, before they come looking for you. Local police forces are often not fully up to date on scams such as this, so it would be worth also reporting it on the FBI's IC3.gov website.

Also the individual keeps sending me emails stating that if they don't receive the funds back than they will go to the police

These scammers love to threaten to go to the police. I would just love to see one of them actually be so stupid as to complain to the police that their victim refused to launder their stolen money for them. Of course, they know full well that if they go to the police and admit they are stealing money, they are going to be the ones in handcuffs, so instead they send harassing emails, hoping that the victim will believe them.

At this point, if you have not withdrawn or forwarded the money, you have not committed a crime. If you follow their instructions, you WILL be committing a crime. So just ignore the idiotic threats and follow the advice already given in this thread.

The individual used the following emails:

[email protected]
[email protected]

The e-transfer I received came from the following:

[email protected]

No Legit Company, Employment agency, or Headhunting firm would use
a Free, Non-secure email service such as Gmail, or Yahoo. These companies
all have in house servers. Report this to the University IT Dept and Campus PD.
Best of luck in your job search, they have lists of legitimate companies you can
search at Student services, they also most likely have avail job postings listed in
the Student Union or Library.
-Bill Jack

Thanks for your help everyone. I informed my university of the job ad and they've since removed it. I also got the bank to do an investigation into the funds, and contacted local law enforcement.

The individual keeps sending me emails like this on a daily basis:

"You keep playing games with me. You can't go away with my Money. I have got your address with me. I promise to get the hold of you soon."

"Really you can check with your bank before sending the money if you think this might get you into trouble. You can check where the money was coming from with your bank. But this is simply a legitimate job and you have got nothing to worry about."

Should I just ignore messages like this, I'm uncomfortable with the "implied" threat of the first message.

The threat are false. Follow the advice given in this thread.

If you will stop replying and delete his messages eventually he will go away. Just ignore him.

Think about it for a minute. If you were writing someone a fake check, would you honestly report it to the cops that someone is "stealing" your "fake money"?? The answer is no, and always will be no. The scammer will not, and can not report you for doing the right thing. He'd be getting himself in trouble for doing something illegal.

Aside from that, if it were a real check, the person on the other end would not mind paying a $10 or so "stop payment" fee from the bank to have the assurance his / her cash wasn't stolen. They would have no reason to threaten you at all.

I was contacted by Daniel Hammond who said he worked for IKF Technologies and offered me a job working out of my home. He said the company paid for all the equipment that I would need to set up my office at home, and they would send me a check to pay for it. I was to deposit the check in my checking account by ATM and as soon as it was deposited I was to get back with him. The amount of the check was $2,300, well I took this check to my bank and showed it too them and they advised me that it looked fraudulent and would not accept it. Also this person had me download AOL messenger so I could communicate with him that way instead of on the website. When I told him that the bank would not take the check by ATM and thought it was fraud, he assured me it was not a scam. I also went on google and put in IKF scam and it came up that it was not a real company . Could you please check this out for me, this person is still contacting me about this job saying it is not a scam. I have a number for him 856-512-0743 and he is on aol messenger as Daniel Hammond

Welcome to Scamwarners jolleyds6676,

Yes, it is a scam. The scammer sent you a fake check as your bank has already stated. He was hoping that you and your bank would not notice for a few days or weeks. He would have had you deposit the fake check then withdraw it. Next he will tell you that you need to buy your supplies from a particular supplier. The supplier is the scammer himself or a member of the scam. He most likely will have you send money via Western Union or Moneygram.

If you would have done this. In a few days your bank would notify you of the fraudulent deposit and make you repay the monies. They may even close your account and report you to Law Enforcement for fraud.

No companies do interviews on Aol Messenger nor send checks to internet strangers.

Please post all email addresses they used and a couple of his emails to you. If he has a website, please post address and any emails from them.

Job Listing Here:


http://www.shiftgig.com/place/santa-cla ... -solutions


Scam / Fraud Complaints here :

http://mrnumber.com/1-856-512-0743