Is this a scam or legit?

I mean that's where she was arrested the guy from the tx company told me. Thank god i reported it cause im sure i'd be in the same boat

ok so i need your help i just received a check for 3800.00 form tax free shopping ltd, with al the information that has been provided is that this is not legit. what should i do?

Firstly, ignore the scammer from now on. Block his email addresses and hang up the phone if he calls.

The rest depends on whether or not you've deposited the cheque yet.
If you haven't, then all is good. You can hand the cheque in to your bank or post master, keep it as a reminder (be sure to write FAKE on it in big letters), or destroy it. You can also report the attempted scam. There's not much that can be done, but it helps the government get accurate figures about scams.

If you have cashed the cheque, do not withdraw the money. Notify your bank straight away and get written proof of your actions. They will find out about the bad cheque and reverse the payment at some point, they may also charge for depositing a bad cheque. It may be possible for you to get the charges revoked if you have a nice bank manager.

Hi Bella,

Please follow the advice given above by Dan

Please also be aware that these scammers are likely to presure you in a variety of ways including by impersonating law enforcement or threatening you to encourage you to send them money.

If it does get to you, one reply and one only, tell them the bank have notified you that the check is fake and that you have reported it to police, nothing more than that and never reply again.

You should also be on the lookout for other scams in your inbox now that your email address is in the hands of scammers, please do ask us if you ever have the slightest doubt

so i started doing this job for this for this guy on craigslist a day ago. he was having me post job offers in finance and accounting in different states. he told me he would pay me 200 dollars a week through paypal or westernunion me the money. today he gave me a shitload of things to post and i was doing it from nine till four!...i didnt mind cause i mess around on the computer all day n e ways and the worse that would happen would i would waste my time posting crap and not get paid which in any case i would just shrug it off and say oh well. well today after i finished posting he told me he had a different sort of job for me. he said he basicly wanted me to be in charge of payroll or sumthin like that and he said that hes going to send me a printer and the equiptment to do it....i gave him my home address and phone number. he said he would pay me a salary of 1300 a month....i was googling all kinds of stuff like this and i could find cases similar but not exactly the same. he basicly told me he wants me to print out electronic checks and mail them....im not to sure....im smellin fishy here.....as far as he knows im still verry interested and i have two of his current emails....what should i do.....he said hes in ny, he said were working for a company called nielsen outsourcing firm, he says his name is cole smith his two emails are [email protected] and [email protected]........these are still his current emails. i know this for sure. i was wanting to know if since i still have his active emails and he thinks im totaly blind to everything is there n e way i can for sure know if hes legit or if he full of crap and if he is full of crap if theres n e way i can stop this from happening to n e one else?.....i dunno im going to talk to a friend of mine and see if he can hack it to obtain his ip address and see where exactly hes located and get his real name....if it works and i find out for sure hes a scam i will reveal it here.....in the meantime tho does anyone know anything about any of this?

It sounds like a check scammer who is running job scams and wanting you to be his mule. The checks will be fraudulent. The victims will receive them, cash/deposit them and wire the money to him via Western Union. When the checks come back as fraudulent, the victims will have lost their money and the trail of where these checks came from will lead you to.
Steer clear.
He's using gmail so we can't check out email headers to get his location (gmail strips originating IP info from headers) but it's very doubtful he's in NY. Do you have other contact info for him?
Also, can you give an example of a job ad that he had you post?

I suggest that you stop all contact with him. Please do not alert him to our website or information or let him know the scam indicators as that will help him learn to be a better scammer.

so i started doing this job for this for this guy on craigslist a day ago. he was having me post job offers in finance and accounting in different states. he told me he would pay me 200 dollars a week through paypal or westernunion me the money. today he gave me a shitload of things to post and i was doing it from nine till four!...i didnt mind cause i mess around on the computer all day n e ways and the worse that would happen would i would waste my time posting crap and not get paid which in any case i would just shrug it off and say oh well. well today after i finished posting he told me he had a different sort of job for me. he said he basicly wanted me to be in charge of payroll or sumthin like that and he said that hes going to send me a printer and the equiptment to do it....i gave him my home address and phone number. he said he would pay me a salary of 1300 a month....i was googling all kinds of stuff like this and i could find cases similar but not exactly the same. he basicly told me he wants me to print out electronic checks and mail them....im not to sure....im smellin fishy here.....as far as he knows im still verry interested and i have two of his current emails....what should i do.....he said hes in ny, he said were working for a company called nielsen outsourcing firm, he says his name is cole smith his two emails are [email protected] and [email protected]........these are still his current emails. i know this for sure. i was wanting to know if since i still have his active emails and he thinks im totaly blind to everything is there n e way i can for sure know if hes legit or if he full of crap and if he is full of crap if theres n e way i can stop this from happening to n e one else?.....i dunno im going to talk to a friend of mine and see if he can hack it to obtain his ip address and see where exactly hes located and get his real name....if it works and i find out for sure hes a scam i will reveal it here.....in the meantime tho does anyone know anything about any of this?

It is not legit. It is a typical fake check scam. There is absolutely no doubt about this. The checks you print will be fraudulent, using stolen or faked account details, and eventually, when the fraud is discovered, the police will be knocking on your door--the scammer, who is in Africa or Malaysia, whose real name is not Cole Smith, will be untraceable, and even if he can be located, he is out of reach of your police department. You, however, can end up in jail.

The ads you were posting are also scams--basically you were posting ads aimed at recruiting more victims to scam.

oh....well i feel like crap now..(altho i do have the ability to delete them and thats just what ill do)...but n e how. i gave my buddy nich the email addresses. he is empolyed by the apple/macentosh company as a chief programmer. he didnt get to in depth with it at the time (his fiance and kids were harassing him lol) but from looking at his ip address he said it definatly was overseas and that he had many alias that most of you here have posted...so he said its most likely the same guy. he said hes going to hack into it sometime this week and get his real name, address, country, phone number, private email addresses and so on (all the possible personal information you could get from a computer). ill post them here as soon as i get them............im not saying anything in specific, but maby this information would be usefull to someone else? if ya catch my drift?....(hey, hes not getting persicuted cause hes overseas....i was thinkin reverse his game? n e how ill post (his real info) as soon as i get it.....unless you all think it would be immoral. but then again someone definatly needs to get the point through some way right?

oh and i almost forgot....i didnt start printing any checks or anything like that...i only sent out those craigslist postings......can i get in trouble for those? cause im twenty and in colledge and i dont need anything like this ****ing up my life and credit. like i said before i gave him my cell number and home address....should i be worried about that? also too i sent him an email saying that i was moving out of state and i wouldnt have availibility to internet or a computer so he wouldnt be harassing me. is that fine or did i just mess up again?

this is what he told me to post today...basicly the same as yesterday...and oh yes i posted it in every city of every state he wanted me too.....thats a lot of craigslist postings to delete.(im so stupid)...i gave my hacker friend the email addresses and he says definatly from looking at the ip address that hes overseas but he told me to give him more time to fiddle and he can get his real name, email address, home address, personal phone numbers, social security number,....everything...if he gets them should i post it here? cause since hes overseas the police couldnt do anything right?

HERE IS WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO POST/ SEND ME ALL THE CONFIRMATIONS
From: Smith Cole <[email protected]>View Contact
To: sydney ******** <******************@yahoo.com>


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: payroll asst/payment processor
REPLY TO : [email protected]



Looking for a part time payroll asst. to handle accounts for a small
home base business. Principal responsibilities; Preparation of A/P,
issue checks, enter payments (check/wire transfers) from overseas
customers in quickbooks
Pay bills / write checks/ send wire transfers
Export invoices fron QuoteWorks to quickbooks
process payroll through ADP
Secondary responsibilties;
Assist other employees with Customer service, Assist employees with
inside sales activities
Must have experience & shill requirements:
more than 2 + years experience with quickbooks
Thorough knowledge of Microsoft Excel and Word and computers in
general,Be computer hardware/software savvy- be able to learn new
software applications;
like Goldmine, QuoteWorks
Be detailed- oriented, organized,quick learner- positive" can do"
attitude-- a must!!
Job duties include:
Making and dropping of paychecks to clients/shareholders
Process payments:
Line of Duty;
To co-ordinate payment to the customers and helps us with the payment process
Making and Mailing out of checks payments to companies'
clients/shareholders. More so you must have experience about
versacheck software and if you don't know anything about the software
then no problem...we can put youthrough and give you tutoring lesson
before you startwork full.
Must have the following supplies;
A computer system at home with internet connection
A versa check gold 2012 software
A versa ink Nano' 4x life micro ink- 94x black
A versa jette m400 print, copy, scan ink jet printer
A versa paper checks
Pay is determined by the length and complexity of the job, either as a
contract or salary. Full-time posistion with benefits, includes
vacation time, health insurance with dental
Flexable schedule. Part-time initially- poosibility of full-time position
Recent bookkeeping grads welcome
SEND RESUME TO : [email protected]
Thank you.
Hiring mgr

Smith Cole.





Compensation: 1300




POST TO ALL THIS STATE CITY'S BELOW:

Tennessee
Texas
Virginia
North Carolina
New Mexico

AND MAKE SURE YOU SEND ME THE CONFIRMATION THANKS.

Hello Syd - Please discourage your friend from attempting to hack into the scammer's email account. It is illegal, and is extremely unlikely to reveal any genuine information. Scammers usually have dozens of email addresses which they use solely for scamming. They do not use those email accounts to write personal emails or to store personal information.

Furthermore, even if it were possible for find real information on a scammer, the scammer would likely claim that he is the victim of identity theft, or that someone else had been using his email account.

Please drop all contact with the scammer. He is likely to continue to try to contact you for a while, but if you ignore his emails and do not answer his phone calls, he will go away in the end. Or you can cut him off immediately by changing your email address and your phone number.