Tolbert Risner, Personal Assistant/Special Needs, Care.com

Yesterday I was sent a text from 636 412 8957 stating,

Hello,my name is Mr Tolbert Risner and currently in canada on business a trip. I am urgently in need of a personal assistant/special needs in your zip area to take charge of my Private mails pick up and drop off as well as running errand, return phone calls and earn $325.00 per week.I saw your profile on care.com think you would be fit for this.If interested,send me a note now to my email([email protected]) for more details.

It felt very scam-y, but I have had good luck with care.com so far and decided to email him on the off chance that I was simply being cynical. His response today was this,

Hello there,

I received your email with interest in the position regarding to my text i sent.I usually would not hire anyone this way but I urgently need the services of a Personal Assistant/special need due to my very busy schedules and to take care of business and running errand since i am not around and always busy due to my work.

My name is Mr Tolbert Risner presently in Canada on a business trip and convention, am an Interior Designers, Decorators & Art collector with a large client base and due to my kind of job I'm constantly out of the State. My former Personal Assistant just got married and moved to mexico permanently. If you accept my offer, I will need you to take charge of my mail pick ups and drop off's as well as errand running for me. The job is flexible so you can do it wherever you are as long as there is a post office in the area. What i really need most in this offer is your total Honesty and Trust.I will pay for the first week in advance to run any errands,and will also have my mails/packages forwarded to a nearby post office where you can pick them from at your convenience.

All errands will be in your city so it is not a must you have a car, but if you do,it will be a plus. When you get my mails/packages, you will be required to mail them to where I want them mailed too. The content of the packages will be business and personal mails. All expenses and taxes will be covered by me and you are to work for just 3 days per week (4 hours daily). You will be doing this for 3 weeks until I get back to town so we can formally meet and discuss about the possibility of making this arrangement long term if I'm satisfied with your performance.

I am willing to pay $325.00 weekly including gas and others expenses. That is not a bad offer is it? If you accept this offer please reply with the following details:

Your Full Name:
Home Address(where mails should be sent to(Pls no P.O Box) :
City:
State:
Zip Code:
Age:
Cell Phone Number :
Current Occupation:
Available hours :

I will be needing your service immediately, so once the information above is received, I have a financial in the state which will handle your payment.I will request your first week payment be mailed to you along with the pay to run errands for me for the first week and also will let you know what your first task will be later. Most importantly, what i really need from you is your total honesty, organizational skill and ability to carry out the task with less or no supervision on time. I want to believe you will be committed to assist me and i assure you enjoy working for me.Kindly get back immediately if you accept accept this offer,have a nice day ahead.

Regards,
Mr Tolbert Risner

I've googled the number, the email address, and the name but not much has come up as a whole but after looking up personal assistant scams it seems to fit very well with the typical scams and the list of information he requested mirrored that of other postings. Honestly, I'm sure it's a scam but I wanted confirmation from others and feedback?

yes, its a scam. your gut instincts are right, follow them.

Doesn't care.com send you emails in Private mesage form, or at least the first email comes from the website itself telling you someone wants to contact you?? It seems strange if not an outright violation of someone's privacy to allow anyone to access your phone # / email address just out of the clear blue sky... But I don't have a care.com account, either.

I've done some research, and you can have that information removed, so care.com must contact you first.
https://www.care.com/privacy-policy-pop ... rsonalInfo

If you are a Care Provider, your phone number will be visible to certain Registered Users if you elect to share it in your profile. In addition, your approximate residential location (through Google map plotting) is made available to certain Registered Users unless you elect to keep that information confidential.

The writer is West African. What he wants to do is send you a fake check (there are other scam victims who send fake checks, thinking they have a payroll job) and either forward the money to him or buy things and ship them to him.

Hii, after I applied one job I received this and I am not sure wheter it is a scam or not:
thanks for your help

Dear J****,

I am R***** S***, I just deleted my post on care.com and asked them to email you about that should in case you see the message from the Admin later. I'm 62 years old, married with two beautiful children of 21 years and 15 years old respectively. My kids have grown up. I am in need of a serious, dynamic, experience on field of cleaning to take care of our home if i am around or not. The person must be trustworthy and good at his or her job because I'm not there all the time. You will be responsible house cleaner in all ways of life, accompanying persons, cleaning of house,keeping the grasses green, remove bad grasses from the garden in and around the house and all that dusting in and outside the house. You will also be making purchases and send letters on my behalf if need to. The letters from the post office near you if am too tired for this and any thing you can handle for us at your time.


I had love to meet with you personally to talk about this job but I am currently away on business trip. We will do the interview later but soon.

I will pre-pay you to do my shopping,salary or anything you need to use money for and all you need to do before I am around or not. I always provide the money to you for any expenses. You don't have to worry about money for the gas in the car to move around to complete task or bus to travel or phone calls also if need be. Basically,you will be acting like my personal assistant by handling my activities till i return from my trip.

I will also have my mails and letter sent to a post office near you before i return to Denmark. If you are unable to stay at home to get my emails for now so you can pick it up at your convenience. if you have, when you get my emails;
you needed to send them where I want them sent to. You do not have use any money from your pocket, all you have to do is to have mail sent by mail to your house and do my shopping. You are allowed to open the letters at any time.

All fees and taxes will be covered by me. You will work between 25-30 hours per week
How much will you charge per week?

I will pay € 350 per week for this position for the time spent and it does not disturb your other job you may have elsewhere and it may go up within 2 to 3 months.It will increase up to 400 euros or more depends on how you handle the job for me.

This is a contract employment
This is not a bad offer is it? I need your service because I am constantly out of town.

I work in the oil and gas, I am mainly involved in projects surrounding gas stations conversions handling gas with more than 10% ethanol. Something that fascinates me is good for the environment and of course anyone paying attention to the price of gas now days it's very lucrative as well.

I will return to Denmark by ending of next month, but your work could start anytime soon before end of this month if needs be. , I will meet with you when I come back and we can talk about the possibility of making this a long term job. 18 month contract is what I'm looking for and we can renew it after that,


Well let me know if you are able to handle the position and I will get back to you.

Please complete the short form below and send it back to me.

First Name and Last name
Full address;
Postal code;
City;
Country;
Age:
Mobile Phone number


Get back to me with the details requested above so i know who i am dealing with. Also i will send all my contract back to you for you to know also. I will appreciate quick response from you.

Thank you and please reply me as soon as possible to confirm this message.

Regards.
R. S****

And next email:

Hello J*****,


Thanks for the quick response and the information provided, i really appreciate it. I would arrange for us to meet as soon as we return to Denmark from our trip but for the meantime, I believe you can work with me since you applied for my job post on the website and you don't need to have a car to perform each task,i will provide money for transportation too and also clear set of instructions for each task. You will be cleaning and taken care of my house when i'm around and you will also be my personal assistant at the moment till i will return by taken care of my activities while i'm away,then we can see face to face and talk more about the job with the possibility of making it a longer term.

The payment will not be tax,it's just a private cheque payment that you will take to the bank and you will get the cash same day or within few days. DO YOU HAVE A DANISH BANK ACCOUNT?

I will let you know as soon as my associate over there has mail out the said payment to you in the coming weeks so we can proceed with the first assignment and see how you will be able to carry it out.

Thank you.

R*****

It is a scam - very common. Follow the advice Hillbilly has given above:

I've done some research, and you can have that information removed, so care.com must contact you first.
https://www.care.com/privacy-policy-pop ... rsonalInfo
If you are a Care Provider, your phone number will be visible to certain Registered Users if you elect to share it in your profile. In addition, your approximate residential location (through Google map plotting) is made available to certain Registered Users unless you elect to keep that information confidential.

Thanks!

I just wrote to admin and they deleted that account.