help! girlfriend embroiled in scam.

[John DeLaney]

Hi Kirsty, follow the advice given above, and send a brief email to your scammer saying you on't want the position. Keep it brief, then block his email address. Or just delete any further emails. He will soon give up

If the cheques arrive, take them to your local police with a printout of the emails you have recieved.

DO NOT try to cash the cheques

[Kirsty]

Thank you for replying and i have sent the scammer an email saying i dont want the position and do want any further contact so i will follow the information given if the cheques come!!!
Thanks again
Kirsty

[liz07]

I have a problem
I was stupid enough to send my CV when I applied so I got an e-mail saying just to confirm my adress
I replied said I didn't wanted the job anymore and thankyou
and yesterday I got an e-mails the checks must be on the way
and I answered I already contacted them saying I wasn't interested on the job anymore
he shortly answered he would send me and adress to send the hole thing back

What should I do?
I'm planning on send it back as they have my adress and contact details and I do not want anything bad to happen
I wont even open it....

I'm just too scared to even go to the police

[Ralph]

Hi Liz, welcome to Scamwarners.

I find it very unlikely that the scammer would go to the trouble and expense to track you down and harm you because you didn't send his fake cheque back, dont be concerned, he will not harm you.

Ignore him, change your email address if you need to, once he realises you will not be sending him any money he will simply move along to the next person to try and scam.

You do need to be aware however that scammers are known to threaten their victims to encourage them to send money, please, no matter what they tell you, do not reply and definately do not send money or cash the cheque.

If you do recieve a cheque, you can do any one of a number of things with it;

Take it to the local police station and explain the circumstances, chances are they will do nothing about it (unless you have been threatened then they may look into a bit more)
Completely destroy it and throw it in the bin
Write fake clearly on both sides in big letters and keep it as a reminder
If you live in the US, take it to your local post office (postal service I think they call it)

For the members of our support team, we take our anonymimity very seriously, we have cost scammers huge amounts of money in many cases and we continue to, remembering these people are criminals who have the capacity to track us down if so provoked, which is why we do not give out details that will identify us.

In your case however, he has wasted maybe a few dollars on you and he lives on the other side of the world, even if he only lived on the other side of town he wouldn't bother with you.

Just ignore him, if you would like us to tell you where the emails were sent from we may be able to find out by looking at the email headers

[liz07]

thankyou
If I do recive a check I'll do that
I will not send them money or anything

the e-mail I got is from this adress: Mark Mark ([email protected])


thankyou for your quick answer

[Ralph]

That's good news,

If you do receive any emails, please feel free to post them here or if you prefer you can email them to me.

[Will K]

If you do recieve a cheque, you can do any one of a number of things with it;

Take it to the local police station and explain the circumstances, chances are they will do nothing about it (unless you have been threatened then they may look into a bit more)
Completely destroy it and throw it in the bin
Write fake clearly on both sides in big letters and keep it as a reminder
If you live in the US, take it to your local post office (postal service I think they call it)

Just ignore him, if you would like us to tell you where the emails were sent from we may be able to find out by looking at the email headers

All of what Ralph said is good - I just wanted to add a few points:
In the US - you can take it to the local police who will likely do nothing. A better solution is to take it to the closest US Secret Service office (yes, they do more than just protect the President ). Or you can take it and report it to the USPIS (US Postal Inspection Service - these guys can be relentless).

Also you can keep the check as a trophy or reminder - at least in the US, the only trouble will come if you try to pass or deposit the check. Or you can certainly burn it or shred it.

I recognize some of the email addresses this scammer is using and I know the IP resolves to Lagos, Nigeria. Being in Nigeria puts the scammer out of the reach of law enforcement in the US or UK. Nigeria has laws against 419 scams but the enforcement is almost totally lacking.


Will K

[john.c.s]

28/03/09 t5his scam is still on going i spent time in police station to today and theres more to come 4 x $500 usd travellers checks advert on gumtree bradford get rid to police of all checks and KEEP all emailsyou WILL need them

[Will K]

Hi john.c.s,

Its wide spread and everyone should be very suspicious of ads that promise a work at home job involving receiving payments.

john, I'm sorry to hear that you got involved in this scam. If the police are still going to prosecute you for this send me a PM and we can discuss options. I'm not an attorney (and I don't charge anything). I'm presently helping a victim of this scam who was recently arrested.

You are right about one thing keeping all the emails may help although you may still be liable for the money the banks lost.

Will K

[Ralph]

You are right about one thing keeping all the emails may help although you may still be liable for the money the banks lost.

Unfortunate but very true, keeping the email correspondance may be enough to keep you from going to jail but the onus on paying the money back will not change

[Clair]

The Solid Foundation Micro Finance job scam is still very active.

Using these two email addresses.
solo20 [email protected] (Mark Mark)
[email protected] (Mark Brown)

claiming to be from:
Solid Foundation Micro Finance LTD
20 Mulberry Court, Lovelace Gardens
Surbiton, Surrey, KT6 6SP
UK

[Jack Smith]

Just thought I should add one little comment:

In the US, I think it is illegal to hold a fraudulent instrument (the bad check they send you) with the intent to defraud someone. That means, even if you don't deposit it somewhere, the police could conceivably charge you with something just for hanging onto the check. So, if you want to keep a bad check as a souvenir, that's OK, but to avoid any possible thought that you might be intending to deposit it somewhere, you should write "FAKE" or something similar on it with a big bold marker. Doing so will erase any possibility of anybody thinking you have fraudulent intent.

[Will K]

Just thought I should add one little comment:

In the US, I think it is illegal to hold a fraudulent instrument (the bad check they send you) with the intent to defraud someone. So, if you want to keep a bad check as a souvenir, that's OK, but to avoid any possible thought that you might be intending to deposit it somewhere, you should write "FAKE" or something similar on it with a big bold marker.

Good point Jack and one I should have expanded on. I will expand further in this area - if anyone receives a fake Postal Money Order (in the US) immediately turn it over to the US Secret Service or the US Postal Inspection Service. A money order is considered US currency and therefore having a counterfeit/fake M.O. in your possession is considered the same as having counterfeit currency in your possession - it's illegal.



Will K

[sarahlou]

He is also using Costa Coffee to employ people and is using the names Solomon Brown and Francis Jefferson among others.

[The Enchantress]

Thank you for that information and welcome sarahlou.

I have noted this earlier Scamwarners thread about Costa Coffee;

http://scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=210