Is this a scam or not?

I posted in craigslist that I was 15 and looking for a summer job and got a few emails, one was this guy that said I could be his business assistant, I asked him the details of the job and got this:



Hello (My Name),

This job is flexible so you can do it wherever you are provided that there is a post office in the area. In addition to that, I don't mind you doing all of the tasks during your spare time outside of work or school... I wish I could meet up with you to talk about this job in person but I am currently away on business. I am in Bahrain so there will be no interview. I will prepay you in advance to do my shopping and have my mails/packages forwarded to your address. If you will be unable to stay at home to get the mails, I can have them shipped to a post office near you and then you can pick them up at your convenience.

All errands will be in your city/town so It is not a must that you have a car for the job, you can go places by bus or taxi.. When you get my mails/packages; you are required to mail them to where I want them mailed to. You won't have to put money out of your pocket, all you have to do is have packages shipped to your house and do my shopping. You are allowed to open the packages to reveal the content.The content of the packages will be business and personal mails. All expenses and taxes will be covered by me. You will work between 15 and 20hrs a per week..

How much will you charge in a weekly? I will pay $400.00.Remember like i`ve said that your weekly wages is $400.That is not a bad offer is it? I need your service because I am constantly out of town... I am an Architect.I will return to America in Jul 27 so this process will be on going till then. If you don't mind, I will meet up with you when I return and then we can talk about the possibility of making this long term. Well, Please email me if you are interested.

i will like you to get back to me with:

Your Full name

Full address

your state

your city

zip code

Mobile number

where to send the money order OR Check

Thanks for your time and God bless you.



-----Do you think this guy is legit or not?Is this a scam or not?
100% scam.



There is no job.



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



The next email will be from another of the scammer's fake names and free email addresses pretending to be the "assistant" and will demand you accept packages purchased with stolen credit cards, hi-jacked paypal accounts and spoofed bank transfers, at YOUR home address. Then you are suppose to use a stolen UPS/FedEx billing account number to send the electronics, clothing and jewelry overseas. When the websites, credit card/paypal/bank account owners and UPS/FedEx discover the fraud, you get the real life job of paying back ALL of them. Then the local law enforcement comes knocking asking why are you fencing stolen merchandise for someone you never met, don't know their real life name and have no idea in what country they really live.



Another email will be from the scammer and will demand you cash a large fake check sent on a stolen UPS/FedEx billing account number and send most of the money via Western Union or moneygram back to the scammer posing as the "supply company" while you "keep" a portion as your "paycheck". When your bank realizes the check is fake and it bounces, you get the real life job of paying back the bank for the bounced check fees and all the bank's money you sent to an overseas criminal.



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 being the perfect buyer, 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 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 "fake re-shipping job", "fraud money mule scam", or something similar you will find hundreds of posts from victims and near victims of this type of scam.
big time scam.Is this a scam or not?
http://www.scam.com/blog.php?b=7698Is this a scam or not?
100% SCAM - google reshipping scam



You are being used by criminal gangs to fence stolen goods. The scammers buy things on Craigslist, Ebay and other online retailers using stolen credit card numbers, counterfeit checks and money orders and hacked paypal accounts then ship to YOUR address



A friend's credit card number was stolen and someone charged over $3000 worth of electronic goods on it through an online retailer. When the credit card company investigated they told the police the address where the items had been shipped. The police arrested the guy even though he claimed he didn't order anything, did not know the card was stolen and was just doing a "job" for his employer and even showed emails exactly the same as what you got. Turns out he had received several packages from different companies and had sent them all overseas and he's now serving 18 months in prison for dealing in stolen property. The jury could not believe anyone would ever agree to work for a person or accept packages for anyone they had never met and that he didn't know that what he was doing was something illegal



Think about it - why would anyone have to send things to you when they would just have them shipped directly to their own address. OR they would set up an account with Mail Boxes Etc, a legitimate company who offers this service for A LOT less than $400/month, if it wasn't something illegal



You need to print out a copy of this email with full headers and file a police report with your local police. Also forward that email to the FBIs IC3 division http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx for investigation before some poor sucker actually falls for it
I greatly doubt any activity or funds you receive will actually be "legitimate".



I wouldn't be surprised if the police came knocking on your door shortly after "working" for this person.



Run away, far away.
100% a scam, what will happen is you will receive a check from him and deposit it into your bank account, buy stuff and send it to him, then a month later you bank will tell you that the check bounced and they are debiting your account for the full amount. Organized crime often operates this way.