Suspicious Job Offer- Scam?

whodunit · #1 09/05/11, 10:59 PM

DW and I responded to an ad on Craigslist for a housekeeper position which offered $20 an hour. It posted about five days ago.

I sent a resume this morning and got a response back this evening essentially offering her the job.

It's a pretty detailed email. Basically he is transferring here and wife is pregnant with number two.

There are some things that really concern us:

The offer itself. No phone call to check us out or anything.

He signs his name with "Engr." at the beginning with his full-name then ends the email with his the same thing and his first name only.

He wants to send a cashier's check to secure employment then continue if she works out. The cashier's check would also include monies to set-up the household such as furniture and groceries.

He asks for information for the check and everything he asks for was already on the resume.

Some of the phraseology leads me to believe he is not a native English speaker.

We are pretty convinced it's a scam of some sort and will not be participating, but what is the angle here? Get us hooked then start asking us to cash checks and send the money to them?

**Tiempo** · #2 09/05/11, 11:03 PM

Scam.

I came across similar looking for a part time nanny job last spring.

When I pressed, the 'father' didn't have a clue about our local area where he supposedly lived with his family.

Tom in TN · #3 09/05/11, 11:09 PM

whodunit,

My wife is a retired high school English teacher. The first year of her retirement, she hooked up with a homeschooling organization offering either on-line or in person teaching/tutoring for A/P English. She received a number of responses that sounded like the one you received,

Supposedly, the families were moving to America, were home-schooling, wanted to send her Western Union money transfers, etc. She turned them all down and connected with established American families with references.

Good luck with your endeavor. Check them out well.

Tom in TN

Zephaniah · #4 09/05/11, 11:14 PM

IF this is a scam, What happens is they send you a cashiers check for X amount then say something like " This is the minimum amount I could get from the bank. Could you send the remainder from the agreed amount back to us?" This one seems to have the possibility that you buy Household items for them then they take them and scoot. When you cash the cashiers check it winds up being a fake or forged and you are out the amount you sent to them or bought for them. Notice what it says here about cashiers checks on craigslist itself. craigslist.org Be careful.

This is an excellent article on cashier check scams http://www.thewisdomjournal.com/Blog...s-check-scams/

Jenn · #5 09/05/11, 11:15 PM

It'll be the fake cashier's check. You deposit it, they will then ask you to send some of it as real money (a valid check) somewhere (or maybe just have you buy furniture and groceries for someone local in on the scam which would make you less suspicious), and then a few weeks later your bank tells you it was a bad check and subtracts $10,000 or whatever from your bank balance after you have spent a good portion of that. Ask them to mail you something via US mail so they are committing mail fraud... but maybe no use if they are not in country.

ETA Z said it better than me!

YuccaFlatsRanch · #6 09/05/11, 11:44 PM

Run for the hills. SCAM.

whodunit · #7 09/05/11, 11:48 PM

I was thinking about telling them DW is a convicted felon and asked for gas money to get to town, but I don't want to be killed by some Nigerian mobster.

Ed Norman · #8 09/05/11, 11:49 PM

Someone in Nigeria offered to buy two pups from me the same way. Run fast.

poppy · #9 09/06/11, 12:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ed Norman

Someone in Nigeria offered to buy two pups from me the same way. Run fast.

Yep, post anything on Craigslist and you will likely get scam emails and any offer on there that seems too good to be true probably is. As the OP noted, watch for bad English. I posted a truck on there and got an email that afternoon that started out "Good morning" and went downhill from there. Misspelled words and other words completely out of place.

**Tiempo** · #10 09/06/11, 12:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ed Norman

Someone in Nigeria offered to buy two pups from me the same way. Run fast.

I have a friend that was offered a $5000 cashiers check for a free barn cat

whodunit · #11 09/06/11, 12:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by poppy

Yep, post anything on Craigslist and you will likely get scam emails and any offer on there that seems too good to be true probably is. As the OP noted, watch for bad English. I posted a truck on there and got an email that afternoon that started out "Good morning" and went downhill from there. Misspelled words and other words completely out of place.

Here are some bits of the actual email:

"...because we are expecting our second child soon and it will be very stressful for her to do the cleaning and some other household works."

"I will be needing your services for 5 hours at any suitable time of yours."

"...my Company Headquarter will take care of all your payments..."

"...you will be sending the remaining monies to the Furniture company bringing in our furnitures."

I could go on...

tinknal · #12 09/06/11, 05:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by whodunit

Here are some bits of the actual email:

"...you will be sending the remaining monies to the Furniture company bringing in our furnitures."

I could go on...

This is the scam. The "furniture" company is a front and the conduit through which they will fleece you of your cash.

mountainwmn · #13 09/06/11, 08:24 AM

Sending the remaining monies proves it's a scam. I like to take their fake cashiers checks and keep 'em, I figure I can waste their time too. But some people have said they will call and harrass you...it never happened to me though.

7thswan · #14 09/06/11, 09:10 AM

I hope you didn't send too much info on that "resume".

JIL · #15 09/06/11, 10:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 7thswan

I hope you didn't send too much info on that "resume".

that was my thoughts

snoozy · #16 09/06/11, 11:03 AM

Of course it is a scam. Engineer, by the way, is an actual surname in the Indian subcontinent. Send the information to your state attorney general.

Ozarks Tom · #17 09/07/11, 02:26 PM

What's really sad is the fact that if people weren't sending them money they wouldn't be sending out these scam emails. P.T. Barnum underestimated.

My brother-in-law took me aside at Christmas to tell me not to tell his wife, but he was going to surprise her by getting rich investing in Iraqi dinars. I didn't tell him you have to go to Iraq to cash them in, and that they're basically worthless.