Mom2 - local station did a story of CL rental scams last year in nearby town. The renters were from OOS and actually got to the house to move in before realizing it was scam and the pictures were taken from a listing site. Makes we very wary of CL.
I’m VERY wary of Craigslist.
Before Washington Mutual folded, I had an account really messed up when they allowed someone to deposit a check into my account ( which bounced), and then withdraw money.
It really took longer than it should have to straighten it out.
This wasn’t an identity theft case, but it shows how you really have to stay on top of your accounts.I had set up an automatic yearly deduction for my internet, and they ran it through three or four times.
I didn’t know about that, until I received notification by snail mail, including the resulting overdraft & NSF charges!
I was able to get some of the NSF charges reversed, but wamu insisted on the overdraft charges, even when I proved to them that it was their fault!
I pulled all my money out soon after that.
Scammers make me so angry, because they prey on people who are vulnerable, like college students just figuring out things and the elderly, who are trusting.
I think CL is rampant with scammers and the people who really want to use it successfully have to wade through the scams.
My dd thought she was being safe by using the university career services website.
Undoing all of this has just been such a loss of time and trust! I sympathize with anyone having to undo scams.
You’d think so.
When I worked in the advising center at the community college, there didn’t seem to be much screening before jobs could be posted on the bulletin board, then again it was a real bulletin board, and if staff saw something that looked suspicious, it could be pulled.
I also think that because it felt like there was more transparency about where the positions originated( govt printouts were easily identifiable, and some had business cards attached, while others were scribbled on an index card with little information), perhaps it was easier to get a sense of sketchy/not sketchy.
The rental scams existed back when ads were in newspapers.
Aunt bea, best wishes to your D in looking for a job.
@lookingforward Thanks!
We’re giving her the time she needs. She feels foolish and embarrassed and has been intimidated about bringing up the subject with her Dad, since she’s closer to him, and feels she has disappointed him by falling for a scam. Time will heal.
She has been so frustrated by her job search.
The layoff at her university lab was immediate and unexpected by the research staff, (so, the five undergrads that lost their jobs at the same time, after the school year terminated, were thrust into the job search). My dd was using the job to help pay her school rent expenses. (I was laid off from full-time in March, so dd was trying to not be a burden to us). Dad is working overtime to compensate for my loss of income. Commuting is out of the question as she is 800 miles from home.
She has to return soon to school, for an unpaid internship, so her job options are now extremely limited.
Aunt Bea, remind your daughter that scams exist because people fall for them. She’s not a disappointment, she’s human.(And now, a savvier one.)
I wish both of you speedy finding of satisfying jobs. I left my job last October, went traveling for a few weeks, and when I returned home, found out that in my absence, my department was gutted from 8 people to 3! Dodged that bullet, but just barely.
I remember a job I had that I got from a posting at the university–employment office or bulletin board. It was in a small shop in Waikiki. I was young (18) and when I applied, I asked the owner to promise I would NOT work alone at night. He promised. I started and was working a few hours, several nights per week. It was minimum pay. I saw and heard him chastise an older female worker who accepted a bad check and had the cash drawer slightly short. He docked her pay for both things, equal to the amount of his loss. The next time I worked, the drawer was slightly over, but again she was scolded but didn’t get any credit for the overage. After working there a few weeks, he scheduled me to work alone. During my shift alone, a creepy guy from the U came to the shop–I felt stalked. I quit that night when the owner came to collect the cash drawer.
It wasn’t really a scam situation like OP’s D, but it stil felt like the employer treated its employees poorly and felt exploitive to me. I didn’t feel that the other older workers could easily get another job with better working conditions but no one at at the job seemed happy. (Parents were very relieved when I quit so they didn’t have to drive me to & from work, since there was no good transit to get to & from work & I had no parking.)
Even Microsoft just announced a big layoff. And she can just chalk the scam thing up to a life experience. In the long run, she;ll be more cautious and maybe even make a good story out of this.
I was scammed the summer before college- small potatoes, a $10 money flim flam at the shop were I worked. My boss was incredibly understanding, which made all the difference. Try to help her see this sort of thing happens and how right she was to smell a rat, how good her instincts ultimately were.
This spring break, while my son was on his way to Mexico with friends we got a phone call from someone claiming to be a Mexican authority trying to help son who “had been detained for trying to bring more than $10,000 into the country.” The caller had a lot of information on him and his flights and had also called his grandmother in Mexico, to whose house he was headed. It was pretty freaky. It was also pretty obviously a scam. What college student has more than $10,000 in cash? Certainly not mine. The caller was trying to get us to pay off his “fine.”
We were a bit nervous that someone was holding him and his friends in an extortion/kidnapping scam or that one of the kids had done something stupid like talking to someone they shouldn’t have at the Mexico City airport, but the airline was kind enough to confirm that the kids had all gotten on the flight. When the scammer called back we told him to take the fine out of the $10,000. 
10 minutes ago D got a phone call offering her a job for which a friend she hasn’t seen since middle school “had recommended her.” D would love a part time job but she’s pretty savvy and recognized it as a scam. No one offers a job out of the blue to someone they’ve never even talked to without some cost to the job recipient.
I got a phone call today from the IRS saying they were filing a lawsuit against us and that I should call a 917 area code for the details. I am extremely curious and was tempted to call just because I couldn’t figure out how they were going to get money from me. Of course, I didn’t call.
Well, 917 is the area code for all 5 buroughs of NYC. There are ways of scaring you & making you pay, more thought up every day, all the time! Personally, it’s not my idea of a good time to talk to scammers–it feels slimy and “unclean,” and amazing how they feel NOTHING about fleecing people who worked hard to acquire their money.
I think that one somehow captures your phone# and bills long distance calls to your phone.
Good for you, @lotsofquests. The IRS only works through snail mail.
I occasionally get “email” from one of my contacts, but it’s usually from someone I haven’t spoken to in a year or so, so it’s obvious it’s not real. But some of these scams are downright scary.
The IRS would never START by filing suit against you. As said above, IRS works primarily through snail mail and gives you an opportunity to let them know if you agree with whatever they are claiming. I always send my CPA whatever the IRS mails me and magically it gets fixed and goes away. It is why I pay a CPA and don’t want to deal with the IRS myself. The CPAs can barely keep up with all the changes–I’m totally baffled and prefer that they handle it.
Oh @HImom, I couldn’t agree more. I hate dealing with taxes. Hate, hate, hate! I will pay whatever I have to so someone else deals with them for me. (Don’t tell my accountant that I’ll pay anything, please!)
H and I agree that we let the professionals handle our taxes and our car and more and more as we find things we rather do with our time. I figure it’s how we contribute to the economy, by keeping good folks employed.
Going OT, but I think OP has had her issue addressed. A few years ago, I corresponded back and forth with the IRS, who thought that I owed ~$100. Over some months, it was a game of “I said, they said.” Finally, I did what my CPA advises: pay them if it’s a small amount and they go away. A month later, I got a check for the amount I had paid. My taxes, literally, at work :))
Lotsofquests, I posted about the IRS scam a month ago. I got the call, as well as a patient.