Is the usaf US architectural foundation from Deanna Sweeney email a scam?

I responded to an ad on atlantabackpage.com which was requesting a personal driver. In response, I received an email from Deanna Sweeney who claims to be coming to the US for lectures and such. The response seemed weird, so I started an internet search and found a similar ad from 2008 that used the same wording but was asking to rent houses instead of personal drivers.

The wording is exactly the same as previous years, so I believe that it must be a scam.



Here is the email.................

Hello,



Hope this message finds you well,My Name is Deanna Sweeney,Thanks for

your response concerning the DRIVING JOB position..I am the present

Manager of Don Construction Products Limted,We are specialized in

taking exhibitions,holding lectures and special events for both adult

and youth education activities in architectural development.I would be

coming over to the United State for a private research on educational

architectural and construction design and would be working with The

United State Architecture Foundation (USAF) and i am glad to read from

you as regards the driving job.I have good preparation concerning my

pick up and for other purposes which i might need you for,which

everything is okay with me.I will be arriving on jan 28 2011.I will

prefer you have your car IF NOT i can make arrangements to get you a

car ASAP.



I am offering you $500 weekly and you will make yourself available

3 times a week to my schedule and this is going to last for quite a

While..You will be working on Monday,Thursday and Friday.You will be

picking me up in the morning by 10:00 AM and dropping me off at my

Destination then picking me up again by 5:00 PM and driving me back to

my Hotel.You will be picking me up from the airport to the hotel on my

first arrival and i will be arriving in the morning around 9:00AM to

10:00AM.I will Instruct my Secretary in the State to send you a check

that will cover your first week payment which is $500 and $100 for

gas,so you will deduct a total of $600 and my travelling expenses will

be included in the payment you will receive.All details regarding my

travelling will be provided to you as soon as you receive the

payment.Get back to me as soon as possible with the following details

to prepare the payment by my Secretary so that the payment can be

mailed out to you ASAP.



NEEDED INFORMATION





FULL NAME

FULL MAILING ADDRESS

CITY,STATE ZIP CODE

HOME PHONE NUMBER

MOBILE NUMBER

PRESENT JOB

AGE

SEX









ALL YOUR INFORMATION SHOULD BE SENT TO: deannasweeneyc175@hotmail.com



Once you get back with the requested information,the payment will be

prepared and sent to you as soon as possible I

await the details soonest for payment,so i can start my travelling plans ASAP.



................Is the usaf US architectural foundation from Deanna Sweeney email a scam?
100% scam.



There is no driving job.



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 "secretary" and will demand you cash a large fake check sent on a stolen UPS/FedEx billing account number and sent the "traveling expense" money, in cash, via Western Union or moneygram back to the scammer. When you bank realizes the check if fake, it bounces and you get the real life job of paying back the bank for all their cash you sent to the overseas scammer.



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.Is the usaf US architectural foundation from Deanna Sweeney email a scam?
SCAM - do not send ANY information to this person.

There is NO job - it's a scam to steal your money and identity



"I will Instruct my Secretary in the State to send you a check

that will cover your first week payment which is $500 and $100 for

gas,so you will deduct a total of $600 and my travelling expenses will

be included in the payment you will receive." -- is a long way of saying they are using you to commit felony money laundering



Honestly, if this person were a professor would they ever write such poor English and capitalize words in the middle of a sentence? This is not written by an educated person



Oh, and there's NO such thing as a "United State Architectural Foundation"