My daughter was recently laid off from her lab job at her university; she applied for multiple jobs and did not receive any callbacks (restaurants, theme parks, stores, etc.) She came home to our town to catch-up on medical and dental appointments and to try to find employment here; no such luck as it was too late in the season. Then, she found an “interesting” job post on her university’s career website and applied, unbeknownst to us.
Yesterday, she received a “package” at our personal home address. Normally, she tells us about packages, letters, etc. This time she didn’t. In it was a $2300 check from a bank in Virginia. She called and found that the company and check were “legit”. But something didn’t sound “right”, so she finally “fessed” up to us late last night.
I read the “directions” from the email, that she received from the “job” coordinator, indicating that she needed to directly deposit this check into her “personal” ATM account. If no ATM was available, then she would have to go in to the teller.
She was directed to buy “reloadit” cards at a local grocery store, and spend $500 dollars per card, then email the numbers on the back of each card to the “employer” who is in Sweden. She was told to pay “herself” from the check provided.
This screams of scam to me. I told her not to go near her ATM with this. My pressing concern is that I’m afraid she’s already given out too much information and included her resume to this “company” when she “applied”. I’m extremely concerned about identity theft.
Anyone else familiar with this? I plan on informing her university about the job. What else can we do???
Definitely sounds like a scam. Seems to be a money laundering operation of some sort - I would call the police - actually USPS and FBI cover mail and wire fraud which is what it is…
Ou daughter is extremely disappointed in herself for being so gullible, and she’s hurt that she didn’t actually find a job to help with her expenses. So, she’s very upset because she thought she was doing the right thing in using her university’s career center.
We are trying to help her understand that she didn’t do anything wrong and that someone took advantage of her need to be employed.
Be glad the scam was caught in time, and consider it a learning experience. Lots of fake checks seem to get through the banking system for a day or two. Many people are conned into sending real money to a scammer from a fake check.
Also ask what information your daughter provided to this employer. I would close her current bank account and open a new one. You should meep an eye on all of her account transactions.
Sounds like the school career center may have been hacked.
On the phone with the university career services right now, they are investigating since another student just did this! They’ve had a “rash of these” and are trying to find out how it was entered into their system. They’ve asked me to report it to the local police and save the evidence: email, package and check.
Its an absolutely certain scam. Easily identifiable because someone else sends you “money” in some form, and then you send money to someplace else… and pocket the difference. At least that’s what you think.
Its not about laundering money at all. Its much more simple. The scam is that the “money” you’ve received is not real, even though it may look like a genuine bank check. It will be ultimately be returned as not cashable, and the net result is that you will have lost the real money that you sent to someone else. In this case, the reloadit cards are the real money that you will lose.
Stop everything instantly, and don’t send any money or anything of value anywhere.
PS: There was a magazine article about this written by someone who was scammed in a similar way, and the guy was so certain that he had “discovered” a great deal that the scammers got him to send even more money to them when he should have had doubts about it. Stop contact and stay away. They are experts at stealing.
There are variations of this scam. Some involve Craigs list. If you are selling something, they’ll contact you and offer to pay an exorbitant price for it, sending a large check, and you simply refund them a balance and take some commission for your trouble. Again, the problem is that your payment to them is legitimate, and their payment to you is fake. It appears that it takes some time for the banking system to recognize that their checks are not legitimate. I don’t know why, but its clear that the scam works in part because of this.
I get these requests at least three times a week because I own short-term rentals. Many or these scams are from the Ukraine. However, sometimes they will use “American sounding names” to try to throw you off…Mary Beth Miller or Mike Marshall…names that they think won’t arouse suspicion.
The ones from the Ukraine want to “send a cheque”, because “we don’t trust credit cards.” And then if I were to follow thru (which I’ve never done), they will send a “real looking but fake check” that will magically be larger than the rent, and then you’ll get an email saying “our accountant made a mistake and sent you too much. Please cash it, keep the amount for the rent, and send us back the difference”. And…of course the check is fake and you lose (if you fall for it).
My son was “prepaid” for tutoring a couple of years ago. They had agreed to $x on the phone, then inadvertently sent $x+1000. Told him to deposit the fake check and return the difference in another check. Yeah, I don’t think so.
Your daughter didn’t do anything wrong. The scammer was wrong. Good that she spoke to you when she realized this wasn’t a real deal.
The police might not do anything, but they will contact federal authorities, as this was done via USPS. This kind of thing usually gets the FBI involved.
You all responded well…contacted the school, and are going to the police.
Just keep a close eye on your daughter’s accounts. These scammers can be very insidious in how they use the info thy get.
There are a great many scams out there aimed at college students because they are inexperienced. D rented an apartment on Craig’s list for the summer. She knew the building well and the pictures on the website looked like apts. in that building. She received, signed and returned the lease and transferred the payment. Never heard from the ‘renter’ again. Her money was gone - so was the bank account to which she had transferred the funds. The apartment existed but belonged to someone else who was apparently unaware of the scheme. The scammer had just helped themselves to pictures of a unit in the building that must have been posted somewhere at some time. Craig List has no responsibility, of course, and the police couldn’t do anything. The only clues were that the rent was better than anything else she’d seen for comparable apartments and she never spoke to the renter - it was all done by email).
Next time, she’ll either go through a reputable intermediary or visit the place in person and get a copy of the key when she makes the payment.
Update:
Once you show a check to the bank, they have to confiscate it.
They made a copy for me and kept a copy of the emails. All charges will go through the bank to the FDIC. Since she didn’t lose any money, there’s no police involvement, but the USPS has to be involved in the attempted to defraud by mail.