Pet Sitter Scam? [email protected]

Hello, I received a series of messages regarding a pet sitting job, and it sounds like a scam, but with an odd twist...

First, I received a text message, from someone saying their friend needed pet sitting help, and they saw my profile on care.com. I sent a message to the email they gave me, and the following string of messages occurred;

Me: Hello! I received a text message from someone with the number [first persons number], and they asked me to contact you regarding dog care services. Are you still in need of pet care? Feel free to contact me here, or through text at [my number]

Thank you!

"Mellisa" : Hello,
How are you doing? You are so right about your service been needed . I am relocating to your neighborhood from Kenya. I recently got a contract with a company on a private research job. However, i need someone that will help in running some few errands and pet sitting.

I need someone to work 3 days per week 4 hours per day, someone that is mature whether young or older, loves pets, reliable and punctual. You will take care of a yr old Australian Terrier for three days a week and will have to take him on a walk, give him a bath, meals while we are away.

Responsibilities for him will be to look after him, feed him meals, bath, keep him clean and safe. My pet is my life so i entrust you to give him the best care..

I will be offering you $480 weekly, i will be needing your services for 4 hours at any suitable time of yours between Monday, Wednesday and Friday. If you believe you are fit for this position in as much you will prove yourself to be a reliable and good person, I will instruct my financial to pay for the first week before our arrival so as to secure your service in advance.

I will be waiting to hear from you.

Me: Hello,

Okay then, my services are available. Let me know how you wish to proceed.

"Mellisa": No problem about working for us and, we will be living close to your neighborhood. I and my family would be coming into town on the 24th of February so let me know when its most convenient for you to start and also my financial Clerk will make out a check to you before our arrival. You will receive a Certified Check which you will deduct your wages of $480 for the first week and the remaining funds will be used to buy foodstuffs and other things needed in the house. You will be getting the foodstuffs and some other items which you believe might be needed on or before the day of our arrival which will be the 24th of Feruary. Actually our flights from Kenya will arrive at night so you will be getting the foodstuffs in the morning and making all other preparations.

I will also instruct my estate agent to mail the keys of the apartment to you so as to do all other necessary preparations before we arrive. You have to get all this shopping before our arrival so that we wont have to start running around when we arrive, So my financial Clerk would be needing the following information to make out the check payment.

Full Name:
Full address with zip-code & Apt Number:
Age:
Gender:
Phone number:
Acceptance of offer:

All i need from you is total honesty and sincerity. I know you will be committed to the work, You will also have a nice period of time working with us.

I have not said anything to them since, though this all happened within the last 24 hours. What do you guys think? Seems super sketchy, but what would they gain from this if it is a scam?

In this scam the scammer is wanting to steal your money. There is no job, pet, family, financial or real estate agent.

You can see how generic he is about the location.

In this scam the scammer wants to send you a fake check. He will ask you to deposit the fake check and withdraw money. He will ask you to send money via Western Union or Moneygram to a third party. That third person will be the scammer himself or an unknowingly/knowing accomplice.

Your bank will believe the check is real but days or weeks later they will contact you about the fake check. You will have to repay any money withdrawn, your bank may close your account and your bank may report you to Law Enforcement for a financial crime.

Please post the text number and email address the scammer used. This will help others avoid him.

I'll be moving to "your neighborhood", but send me your complete mailing address information now...... its a scam.

see this site : http://www.fakechecks.org/videos.html click on the overpayment video to see what Byron is describing. The rest of the site has a lot of useful information as well.

They have as much to gain as you are willing to send them. The fake check costs them nearly nothing, a "money mule" of theirs sends it to you. You take the money hit at the bank when the check is found to be fraudulent, and also can face criminal charges for passing a fake check. They have zero to lose and everything to gain. You are the one at risk here.

The pay is out of range for pet (or baby) sitting. The writing is certainly African, but it looks more like somewhere in the Ghana-Cameroon area to me.

Ignore all further messages from the scammer. When the check comes, do not attempt to cash or deposit it. If it comes by mail, bring it unopened to the Postal Inspection Service. If it comes by UPS, FedEx, or the like, bring it to the office of the carrier. Also bring printouts of the emails with complete headers.

Please post the headers of the email.

Fantastic help, thanks all! The number that initially texted me was 3569551993, and the email is [email protected]

For the bots.
[email protected]
3569551993
+1-356-955-1993
(356) 955-1993

I received exactly this same email, from someone claiming to be a woman from Australia. When they wanted to send me a check, they stated that their "store manager" would take care of buying the things for their home, so to just send the rest of the money to him. The email I received this scam from was "Jennifer Lou" [email protected]. the name of the person I'm supposed to send the money to is
Rick L Durrant
City : Chicago
State : Illinois
Zip Code : 60602

It really sucks that there are sick dishonest people out there! I'm a very aware and intelligent person and I almost fell for it. If the English the person wrote was a little better (the emails were written as though the person writing them did not speak it as a primary language) and they were more specific in using information for my town as the reference for where they are supposedly moving, they might have really screwed me over. What really sucks is that people who do pet sitting don't usually have a lot of money to begin with! Something like this could financially ruin someone that is already struggling to make ends meet.

I received the following text today from:
1-914-268-4255
Hello, saw your care.com profile. I have a friend who need a dog care service. Please email her at (suepalme022 at gmail.com) for more info about this position. Thanks, Daniela.

The following is our email conversation that has been going on today:

Hello,

I received a text message from Daniela stating that you need someone to care for your dog. She saw my profile on Care.com.

I was wondering what city you're located in? I'm in Waconia and have transportation.
What is the duration of care needed? Is there a date range or do you need more permanent care while you are at work or something similar?
What type of care do you require for your pet, walking, sitting, medications, playing?

I understand that pets are a member of the family for most and it's much like inviting a stranger to come in and care for your child so I'm willing to stop by or meet you somewhere so you can judge me for yourself before you make a decision

Thank you,

Michael McLaughlin

Hello,
How are you doing? You are so right about your service been needed . I am relocating to your neighborhood from Kenya. I recently got a contract with a company on a private research job. However, i need someone that will help in running some few errands and pet sitting.

I need someone to work 3 days per week 4 hours per day, someone that is mature whether young or older, loves pets, reliable and punctual. You will take care of a yr old Australian Terrier for three days a week and will have to take him on a walk, give him a bath, meals while we are away.

Responsibilities for him will be to look after him, feed him meals, bath, keep him clean and safe. My pet is my life so i entrust you to give him the best care..

I will be offering you $480 weekly, i will be needing your services for 4 hours at any suitable time of yours between Monday, Wednesday and Friday. If you believe you are fit for this position in as much you will prove yourself to be a reliable and good person, I will instruct my financial to pay for the first week before our arrival so as to secure your service in advance.

I will be waiting to hear from you.

Hello Susan,
I'm certainly interested but you didn't answer many of the questions on my previous email that I was curious about. I have several friends from Kenya and have spent some time there myself. What area are you from? I know quite a few people from there and there is a pretty good chance that we know someone in common. What city are you moving to? I'd like to make sure that it isn't a long distance for transportation to and from your home.

Thank you,
Mike

No problem about working for us and, we will be living close to your neighbourhood and im here in a city called Kisumu. I and my family would be coming into town on the 29th of June so let me know when its most convenient for you to start and also my financial Clerk will make out a check to you before our arrival. You will receive a Certified Check which you will deduct your wages of $480 for the first week and the remaining funds will be used to buy foodstuffs and other things needed in the house. You will be getting the foodstuffs and some other items which you believe might be needed on or before the day of our arrival which will be the 29th of June. Actually our flights from Kenya will arrive at night so you will be getting the foodstuffs in the morning and making all other preparations.

I will also instruct my estate agent to mail the keys of the apartment to you so as to do all other necessary preparations before we arrive. You have to get all this shopping before our arrival so that we wont have to start running around when we arrive, So my financial Clerk would be needing the following information to make out the check payment.

Full Name:
Full address with zip-code & Apt Number:
Age:
Gender:
Phone number:
Acceptance of offer:

All i need from you is total honesty and sincerity. I know you will be committed to the work, You will also have a nice period of time working with us.

Dear Thomas,

Thank you for your consideration but upon review of this offer there is more involved than just pet sitting. I usually work for cash and for the pay you suggested I had expected to be taking care of 1 pet. With the addition of needing to deal with a bank and waiting for a check to clear as well as shopping and preparation of your house for your arrival I would require an initial payment of no less than $600. I am also accustomed to meeting my clients before an actual job is taken but I would be satisfied in this case with simply a photograph of you and your dog so that I may have some image in my head when I daydream about how my life will improve upon accepting this job.

Thank you,
Rudy

Thanks for accepting to be taking care of our dog and the amount is okay with me, a little about my family. I have been married for 35 years now after knowing my husband since school days and i am from Boston MA, while he is from Australia and we are good Christians, we have a son name Josh and he is 17 yrs old. I expect you to work for us for as long as you want. I promise to let you know as soon as payment is mailed out for your assignment to start,you should provide the information required and also regarding the needed item's, i would let you know as soon as i get a confirmation of that






Got some pictures and a raise! Calling her Thomas and my name being changed to Rudy has apparently gone unnoticed.

Thanks for posting! Please mark the pictures as fake so that the next scammer who comes by can't reuse them.

He's from Kenya, he writes like an African, check. But even when you told him where you are, he just says he's moving to your area. Scammer. (Most likely the woman named Thomas is played by a man.) He's talking with lots of possible victims at once.

I keep receiving these same types of messages. First one I received is already listed here however I just received another one today.
This time I got the message from the number (848)228-4617 and they were posing as care.com team members. This is what the message I got said:
Automated Message : Your Petcare Service is needed by Stark's Family. You can contact them at [email protected]
Care Team : Michelle
Curious, I emailed and received the exact same message as before when this happened to me minus a few changes. The they added in they had lived in DC and then moved to Australia and the price dropped down to 300 weekly.

Hello MorbidAngelx07,
Thank you for posting the updated information on this scam.