Protect Yourself and Report the Latest Frauds, Scams, Spams, Fakes, Identify Theft Hacks and Hoaxes
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Have you received an email from Susan Harrison of "Susan Art World" in London, Britain (or ANYWHERE else) offering you a job as a "representative in America", "Payment Officer", "local agent" or "local representative" in which you "receive payments", deduct your "Processing fee", deposit the checks and then wire most of the money to an overseas "company"?
It is an AFF / Money transfer Scam. They'll send you counterfeit checks which you are supposed to deposit, take out some percentage (typically, 10%) for your work, and then MoneyGram or Western Union wire the remaining 90%. Notice that although you receive checks, they won't let you forward a check to them, only Western Union or Money Gram. There's a reason for this: Western Union and MoneyGrams are cashed immediately and are untraceable and irretrievable. Bank checks can take 1 or 2 weeks to clear!
Of course, since the check is fake, it will bounce a week or so later after you deposit it. But you have already moneygram'ed the scammers the 90% of the amount, and that is transacted almost instantly. So you now owe the bank for the full amount. You may also face criminal charges for passing counterfeit checks. See this page for a step-by-step explanation of how the scam unfolds.
In the email below, there are some many red flags, we can't imagine any way it could be legitimate. But you can try emailing "Susan Harrison" back and asking:
Try cutting and pasting those questions and emailing them back to the person offering the "job", "Susan Harrison" in this case and see how he responds. We'll bet it will be with hostility, like:
"Why are you asking me these questions? We are offering you a legitimate job, but you are treating us like we are scammers! If you are not interested we can find someone else; it is YOUR loss!"
Which, of course, is how a scammer caught with questions that expose his scam, will reply!
Do you have a resume posted online? We'd like to hear from you about your experiences recruiting emails that turned out to be scams or misleading - click here to write us.
Notice the passages we have highlighted in the actual scam email below. They illustrate some of the additional clues that it is a scam, such as the email comes from a free email account (such as Yahoo.com, Hotmail.com, Aim.com, Gmail, cox.net, etc.). Wouldn't you expect a company to have its own website and email address (after all, it only costs about $200/year; every reputable company has its own website these days!) And don't be surprised if the scammers do put the names of real companies, real websites and events in their scams; it doesn't mean anything at all!
From: Susan Harrison [ susu197777@yahoo.se ]
OFFICE
21 Landover road plum stead
SE18 3ST London
Reply e-mail for further correspondence
Hello,
Good day to you, my name is Susan Harrison, I am an artist , and the owner of Susan Art World .I live and work in London with my two kids, 2 cats, one dog and the love of my life my husband James Harrison. It is definitely a full house.
I have been into artwork since childhood. That gives me years of experience. I majored in Art in high school and took a few colleges Art courses. Most of my work is done in either pencil or airbrush mixed with color pencils. I have recently added designing, ancient antiquities and creative artworks on the computer. I have been selling my art for the last
3 years and I have had my work featured on trading cards, prints and in magazines. I have sold some of my art works to some private companies in United States of America.
But I do face some difficulties when it comes to Payment, because all my customers in America always offer to pay me with U.S POSTAL MONEY ORDERS, and I find it very difficult to cash the U.S POSTAL MONEY ORDERS in London, This is because the British Government does not permit the usage of U.S POSTAL MONEY ORDERS in Britain.
Right now, I'm searching for a representative in United States that will be able to cash the MONEY ORDERS in America and wire the available funds to me in Britain.
Who to trust are my problems. I֯e series of arrangements with the FBI in Washington, in attempt for anyone to make away with my funds; definitely the laws will catch-up with him, and he will definitely face the consequences.
You are entitled to 15% commission for any transaction (that is for any money order cashed).This transaction is risk free and legal from the American Government.
Please get back to me with all Information listed below
(1) Full Name
(2) Full Contact Address
(3) Phone Number
(4) Age
(5) Sex
Once again this transaction is 100% risk free and legal from the United States Government and the British Government, so feel free about this transaction and get back to me with the required information's to enable us proceed. Thanks for going through this proposal.
My warmest Regards and thanks for your anticipated assistant,
Susan Harrison-Justain.
Director of SUS ART WORLD INC,
London, United Kingdom .
OFFICE PHONE............ +447045768141
Susan Harrison
There are a variety of sleazy scams that look, at first glance, like legitimate job offers. Before you write back to them, pause a moment and read about the scams below!
Some of the more common job scams are