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 "Tracy" working with "Tina Bruno" in Lagos, Nigeria (or ANYWHERE else) offering you a job as a "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.
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See the actual scam email below.
hello dear,how are you doing today and how has ur day been?am so glad to hear from you and its really nice to see you saying i can trust you cos i already trusted you like you said their is nothing in you that i cant trust and i will be hoping to meet you and also hear your voice as well for the very first time you know what Dear, i have been having problems with the banks here in West Africa you know when i was comin down to Africa i didnt want to come with much cash so i decided to buy money orders so that when i get down to africa i will easily cash them but unfortunately the banks here wouldnt cash my money orders cos they dont deal with international cheques and money orders i even spoke with the bank manager personally and he said there was nothing he could do about it so i took them to the US embassy down here and i was told that i should look for someone in the states i feel i can trust to help me cash these money orders and i feel i can trust u on this so i want u to pls help me cash these money orders in order for u to cash these money orders ,it has to be issued to u so im gonna need ur full name and adderess where the money orders will be sent to via fedex express .
Secondly,im gonna need some money like $300 cos right about now im kinda broke and i need some money to send the money orders to u and when u get the money orders and must have cashed them u can deduct ur $300 from it if u want okay..i hope u understand my situation here.u will be sending the $300 via western union to this name and adderess below.. okay hope u understand..here is the name and adderss below..
name....TINA BRUNO
adderess....30 ALLEN AVE
city..... IKEJA
state........ LAGOS
zip code..... 23401
country....... NIGERIA
text question... WHO DO UCARE FOR?
text answer......... Tracy
i know you must be wondering who Tina is well i think we already talk about her before she is a lady i know at the hotel here working as their secetary who take me to church here so she will be helping me to pick up the money as soon as you send it..
Pls note that after u must have sent the $300 via western union,u will now get back to me with the MTCN NUMBERS located on the receipt im counting on u and dont forget to give me ur full name and adderess okay have a great day and i will be expecting ur
call back.Thanks...
Tracy
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