Is this a new nanny scam?

I got this email in response to an ad I had answered for a nanny job on craigslist. Scam or legit?



Hello,



Thanks for getting back to me promptly concerning the nanny job, i'm Philip Jackson and my wife's name is Michelle.We are relocating to the city from Paris, France with our two sons (henry and mathew).I will be offering you $400 weekly ($30/hr) for 15hrs a week, will be needing your services for five hours from 10am-3pm or 4pm-9pm for three days in a week, probably (Thursday to Saturday).I would be needing the service of a caring nanny with positive personality to take good care of them for six months on a part time basis.Moreover, I will need someone who could be taking care of my children while i am off to work because we are expecting our third child soon and it will be very stressful for my wife to do this by herself.I want to be certain you are fit for this position, you will need to prove yourself to be a reliable, honest, and hard working person.Our arrival date would by mid of next month, you will start working on same day.It's okay if you prefer to be a live-out nanny as i can drop them at your home every time, i do not mind or a live-in nanny if you can take care of them in our home.I will instruct the landlord to mail the keys and description of the house to you so you can know the location.Also, you will be help us in purchasing groceries for our home complex before or on the day of our arrival.I will be spending about six months on an Oil spill research job, and you will be rendering us your services for that duration, if you meet up to our expectation with your services.We have a financier that is based in the states and he will be handling the payment and as well as our other expenses, so he will be the one that will be taking care of your payment, I will instruct him to pay for the first week before our arrival so as to secure your service.If you accept our offer, my financier would be needing the following

Information to make out the check



Name to be on Check :

Home Address or Office Address(where payment should be mailed to.Pls no P.O Box) :

City :

State :

Zip Code :

Home %26amp; Cell Phone Number(Best time to call Day/Night) :

Active Email Address:



Most importantly, i'll need your total honesty, organizational skill and ability to carry out the task with less or no supervision. I want to believe you will be committed to the work, you can be sure of a great time while watching over our kids.I will be waiting to read from you.

Regards,



Philip Jackson For The Family.Is this a new nanny scam?
100% scam.



There is no nanny job and NO such thing as a UK aupair visa.



There is only a scammer trying to steal your hard-earned money.



The next email will be from another of the scammer's fake names and free email addresses pretending to be the "government visa official" or "travel agent" and will demand you pay, in cash, via Western Union or moneygram.



Western Union and moneygram do not verify anything on the form the sender fills out, not the name, not the street address, not the country, not even the gender of the receiver, it all means absolutely nothing. The clerk will not bother to check ID and will simply hand off your cash to whomever walks in the door with the MTCN# and question/answer. Neither company will tell the sender who picked up the cash, at what store location or even in what country your money walked out the door. Neither company has any kind of refund policy, money sent is money gone forever.



Now that you have responded to a scammer, you are on his 'potential sucker' list, he will try again to separate you from your cash. He will send you more emails from his other free email addresses using another of his fake names with all kinds of stories of great jobs, lottery winnings, millions in the bank and desperate, lonely, sexy singles. He will sell your email address to all his scamming buddies who will also send you dozens of fake emails all with the exact same goal, you sending them your cash via Western Union or moneygram.



You could post up the email address and the emails themselves that the scammer is using, it will help make your post more googlable for other suspicious potential victims to find when looking for information.



Do you know how to check the header of a received email? If not, you could google for information. Being able to read the header to determine the geographic location an email originated from will help you weed out the most obvious scams and scammers. Then delete and block that scammer. Don't bother to tell him that you know he is a scammer, it isn't worth your effort. He has one job in life, convincing victims to send him their hard-earned cash.



Whenever suspicious or just plain curious, google everything, website addresses, names used, companies mentioned, phone numbers given, all email addresses, even sentences from the emails as you might be unpleasantly surprised at what you find already posted online. You can also post/ask here and every scam-warner-anti-fraud-busting site you can find before taking a chance and losing money to a scammer.



6 "Rules to follow" to avoid most fake jobs:

1) Job asks you to use your personal bank account and/or open a new one.

2) Job asks you to print/mail/cash a check or money order.

3) Job asks you to use Western Union or moneygram in any capacity.

4) Job asks you to accept packages and re-ship them on to anyone.

5) Job asks you to pay visas, travel fees via Western Union or moneygram.

6) Job asks you to sign up for a credit reporting or identity verification site.



Avoiding all jobs that mention any of the above listed 'red flags' and you will miss nearly all fake jobs. Only scammers ask you to do any of the above. No. Exceptions. Ever. For any reason.



If you google "fraud nanny job scam", "money order fake job Western Union" or something similar, you will find hundreds of posts from victims and near-victims of this type of scam.
If you have to ask this, you are too stupid to be using Craigslist. I don't know how anybody could still be falling for this junk, but...Is this a new nanny scam?
You have to have realized this is a scam. Anything with a check is a scam.Is this a new nanny scam?
100% SCAM



This is a Nigerian money laundering scam that can land you in prison



1 - NOBODY hires a nanny without ever interviewing them unless they are hiring through an agency that conducts full background checks

2 - NOBODY sends anyone a check before they start work and wants them to buy things for them

3 - You NEVER give your full name or home address on Craigslist to anyone you have not met in person for any reason



Not only are there scams like this that are using you to launder criminal money. But sex offenders post fake babysitting/nanny jobs online knowing they attract young women and by giving your full name and address you are putting yourself in danger of being abducted



DO NOT respond for any reason



Here are about 600,000 examples of Craigslist nanny scams - that's how common this is

http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy-ab%26amp;hl鈥?/a>
It looks like a scam to me. I looked for houses to rent on CL and got similar responses geared towards rental houses. The check and the fact that the dude is foreign sets off warning bells. Don't give him any information. Try a more reputable website to find nanny jobs like care.com or sittercity.com
It seems legit to me, they aren't asking you for money just for your name and address and phone number and email. Why don't you ask for a picture and when they call ask some questions just to put your mind at ease, but I would say its legit.
As of yet, no private personal info requested. So, as of yet?