What is the scam here?

readytosnap

Can't think of the right section to post, a niece of mine has received the following in response to advertised job, she is not 100% sure which site it was but she is gonna try find out ( she has been looking at loads ) anyway here is the response ( I am convinced its a scam but I don't know what?):

I got your resume and your application for the job as my personal assistant as posted. Where are you located presently? I would love to meet up with you to talk about this job but I am currently away on business. I am presently in Spain, for a short business-trip so there will be no interview. I will pay you in advance to do my shopping. I will also have my mails and packages forwarded to your address. If you will be unable to stay at your residence to get my mails, I can have it shipped to a post office near you and then you can pick it up at your convenience. When you get my mails/packages; you are required to re-send to anywhere i want them to be delivered to. You don'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 contents.

The contents of the packages are computer and electronics, clothing's business and personal letters. All expenses and taxes will be covered by me. You will work between 15 and 20hrs a month.
How much will you charge per week? I will pay 400euros Weekly for this position. That is not a bad offer, is it? I need your service because I am constantly out of town. I work in Real Estate and I own an Art Gallery in London. I will return to UK by October, 2012 so this process will be going- on till i get back. 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, let me know if you are able to handle the position. Hope to hear I will email you the list and pics of what to shop when I am set. No heavy packages is involved! You can do the shopping at any nearest stores. You will be shopping for Electronic and Clothing. I will provide you my Post-office account number for Shipping. All you have to do is provide my account number at the post-office and shipping charges will be applied into the account. I will provide clear set of instructions for each task I need done as well the funds to cover them.

If I were to mail you Money to do my shopping plus upfront payment for your service, where would you want it mailed to? How should your name appear on the Cheque, Maybe you can provide me with the following details below:

Full Name ''to appear on payment'' ?
Full Contact Address ''to send payment'' ?
Phone Number ''to call you on'' ?
Age, Sex, Nationality ?

Get back to me with the required details above, So that the Cheque can be forward to you as soon as possible and I will appreciate quick response from you.

Thanks and please get back to me asap and confirm this mail asap.

Sincerely.

littlelulu

readytosnap wrote: »

Can't think of the right section to post, a niece of mine has received the following in response to advertised job, she is not 100% sure which site it was but she is gonna try find out ( she has been looking at loads ) anyway here is the response ( I am convinced its a scam but I don't know what?):

I got your resume and your application for the job as my personal assistant as posted. Where are you located presently? I would love to meet up with you to talk about this job but I am currently away on business. I am presently in Spain, for a short business-trip so there will be no interview. I will pay you in advance to do my shopping. I will also have my mails and packages forwarded to your address. If you will be unable to stay at your residence to get my mails, I can have it shipped to a post office near you and then you can pick it up at your convenience. When you get my mails/packages; you are required to re-send to anywhere i want them to be delivered to. You don'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 contents.

The contents of the packages are computer and electronics, clothing's business and personal letters. All expenses and taxes will be covered by me. You will work between 15 and 20hrs a month.
How much will you charge per week? I will pay 400euros Weekly for this position. That is not a bad offer, is it? I need your service because I am constantly out of town. I work in Real Estate and I own an Art Gallery in London. I will return to UK by October, 2012 so this process will be going- on till i get back. 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, let me know if you are able to handle the position. Hope to hear I will email you the list and pics of what to shop when I am set. No heavy packages is involved! You can do the shopping at any nearest stores. You will be shopping for Electronic and Clothing. I will provide you my Post-office account number for Shipping. All you have to do is provide my account number at the post-office and shipping charges will be applied into the account. I will provide clear set of instructions for each task I need done as well the funds to cover them.

If I were to mail you Money to do my shopping plus upfront payment for your service, where would you want it mailed to? How should your name appear on the Cheque, Maybe you can provide me with the following details below:

Full Name ''to appear on payment'' ?
Full Contact Address ''to send payment'' ?
Phone Number ''to call you on'' ?
Age, Sex, Nationality ?

Get back to me with the required details above, So that the Cheque can be forward to you as soon as possible and I will appreciate quick response from you.

Thanks and please get back to me asap and confirm this mail asap.

Sincerely.

Very very strange!

Compton

probably shipping drugs or bombs

readytosnap

that is the 2 things i thought of as well....

pontia

seriously,are you for real

ResearchWill

http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=8492


http://jobsearch.about.com/u/ua/jobsearchscams/jobscams.08.htm

It's amazing what google throws up.

KAGY

Could be an eloborate phishing scam, they could be working up to getting bank AC details. Or stolen goods distribution.
Edit - first link by research will above is a good one.

foggy_lad

They send you a cheque and you do shopping using your own money ad cheque has not cleared, you are buying electronics laptops etc which you send to them then their cheque bounces leaving you out of pocket.

A well known scam. Steer well clear!

Why would this person that owns art galaries etc be employing someone here to be their personal shopper and as a mail box? Your address then becomes known for frauds and don't be surprised if the guards cone knocking early some morning looking for cloned or stolen bank cards and credit cards.

readytosnap

that is what i was trying to explain to her, i mean who would give you a job without meeting you, i am raging she cant remember what site she got it of.

OU812

Initial thought is an over payment of cheque - €4,000 instead of €400 - totally honest mistake, was writing two different cheques at the time & mixed them up. Just lodge it & transfer the difference back to me...

You lodge & transfer back the difference & the cheque is either stolen or cancelled & all of a sudden you're down €3,600.

They've ten working days before they get caught by the system



Beaten to it

Humans eh!

Curious, they asked for Full name, address & contact info, age nationality and sex.
Surely that would have been on the resumé they supposedly read.

If genuine it sounds very much like a drugs / contraband (hidden in electronics/clothing) setup. An Art Gallery in London would be easy to trace and research too. It's an interesting one to be sure.

Probably best not to accept strange packages into your house.
Unless you are a fan of having your door busted in at dawn some morning.

readytosnap

Researchwill posted a link there with the same (practically) letter from a few years back,
as soon as she got the reply she sent it to me to ask my advice, i instantly smelled a scam, told her that, for all the reasons mentioned above, if it sounds too good to be true it usually is, anyway the reason i posted it here was i just hadn't heard of that scam before and was wondering what it was about, ive heard of the usual "need funds to release the 300 million i was left in a will" or heres 15k for your 10k car just give the bloke collecting the car the 5k extra for his trouble" and the over payment stuff like that. anyway thanks everyone for responding and i have forwarded the link from ResearchWill to my niece.

foggy_lad

Tell your niece it is a scam and just bin it because it is silly teens mad for easy money who are most at risk from this type of scam.

amtc

There is no way to pay by account at a Post Office - only at Mails Centres. Obviously a scam

Diddler1977

Scam alert.

1. A gallery owner would have staff who could do their shopping for them
2. If this was not a scam an employer would not send a cheque and then ask you to do their shopping for them - they would issue an employee with a company credit card or access to an online shopping account

Scam will work something like this:
They will send a cheque, it will be lodged. Shopping will be bought and sent on. Cheque will not clear. Bank will take money back from the account it was lodged to.

tatli_lokma

its a scam - two similar posts recently were put on boards. do search on scam in this forum and you should be able to find them.

Also some of the english phrasing suggests it is not a native english speaker, that with the request for bank details would have me saying 'scam' immediately.

Number one rule, as always, if it seems too good to be true it usually is.