I got the following "job offer"

JOB RESPONSIBILITY

The position of Accounts Receivable officer entails the following duties:
1. Coordinate payments from our clients
2. Receive payments which come in the form of certified checks or United States postal money orders
3. Process payments at your local bank, and forward 90% of funds received to the proper branch office, as instructed.
4. The remaining 10% is your wage.
Since this position is need-based, you will have plenty of free time while enjoying a good income.


REMUNERATION

Every assignment is in form of payment received from clients, you are entitled to 10% which excludes the cost of processing Western Union to any regional office accountant.
Also you get a monthly salary of $1500 which comes at the end of every month, plus other incentives and benefits that accrue, which includes tax holidays.

Its obviously a scam. But can someone tell me how the sender of the email can benefit by sending out these emails?? I mean -- obviously you don't get paid for doing nothing. So how does the scam work?

Let's say you're gullible enough to take the job (some people are you know).

You receive said cheques and money orders you are then expected to cash these in your bank on your account and forward 90% on to the sender of the email (that's his profit).

A few days or weeks later your bank discovers the cheques or money orders were bogus and you're on the hook for all the monies.

Simple...no?

These scams work because it takes about 3 weeks for their cheque to "bounce" through the system.

BUT your bank credits you the money in 5-7 days.

You pay them, they like Money Orders (= cash).

They get their money and vanish.

20 -30 days later their cheque bounces from the non-excistant account, and guess who gets to pay . . . . . . . . . YES . .. ... ... YOU

I thought this was the case. My sister had a similar email. Hers was about someone with the same last name as her - he had died along with all his family in a car crash and the sender of the email thought that as the dead oil magnate had the same last name as her, she could "assist" the sender of the email who was the lawyer for the deceased, by opening the account, depositing the money and then taking 35% for herself and sending the rest back to the "lawyer".

I said I thought it had something to do with the time it took cheques to clear from Nigeria or wherever else the "lawyer" was located. So - same thing, slightly different story!

The Nigerian scam is a bit different because the amounts of money they talk about would send alarm bells ringing in your local branch and lead to a very rapid investigation by the spooks.

This scam works because the "lawyer" (or whatever) who is handling the transaction at the Nigerian end keeps running into problems that require money to resolve, and expects you to pay. They keeping running into more, and increasingly more expensive, problems until you go broke or give up.

A good rule to go by is that anything that involves sending money to someone you don't know by Western Union (because it is untraceable) is very, very likely to be a scam.

In addition to the above also consider money laundering. Once it has been through your account (i.e., the funds are there) it is now clean and the hit they take is well worth it.

One of our Lebanese neighbours has been suckered into a similar scheme where, she thinks, she is being paid as a "secret shopper" where they pay her to visit local stores and then complete a crib sheet online. They send her a cheque, which she deposits and then sends 90% to an organizations, ostensibly being paid for visiting the stores. I have expressed my doubts to her, but she thinks it is fantastic. She gets paid $250 per visit.

This is the one my sister got. She wonders how he makes the money? I changed her last name to Smith, obviously.



Subject: Eric Jordan sent you a message on Facebook...

Eric sent you a message.

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Subject: Good day ,Smith

Good day ,Smith

This is a personal email directed to you and I request that it be treated as such. I am Eric Jordan ,a solicitor at law.

I am the personal attorney/sole executor to the late B.Smith, hereinafter referred to as 'my client' who worked as an independent oil magnate in my country and who died in a car crash with his immediate family on the 4th of oct,2004. Since the death of my client in oct,2004, I have written several letters to the embassy with an intent to locate any of his extended relatives whom shall be claimants/beneficiaries of his abandoned personal estate and all such efforts have been to no avail.

Moreso,I have received official letters in the last few weeks suggesting a likely proceeding for confiscation of his abandoned personal assets in line with existing laws by the bank in which my client deposited the sum of 11.5 million U.S.D.On this note i decided to search for a credible person and finding that you bear a similar last name, I was urged to contact you, that I may,with your consent, present you to the "trustee" bank as my late client's surviving family member so as to enable you put up a claim to the bank in that capacity as a next of kin of my client.

I find this possible for the fuller reasons that you bear a similar last name with my client making it a lot easier for you to put up a claim in that capacity.I propose that 35% of the net sum will accrue to you at the conclusion of this deal in so far as I do not incure further expenses.

Therefore, to facilitate the immediate transfer of this fund, you need, first to contact me via signifying your interest and as soon as I obtain your confidence,I will immediately appraise you with the complete details as well as fax you the documents,with which you are to proceed and i shall direct on how to put up an application to the bank.

However, you will have to accent to an express agreement which I will forward to you in order to bind us in this transaction.

Upon the reciept of your reply,I will send you the next step to take.I will not fail to bring to your notice that this proposal is hitch-free and that you should not entertain any fears as the required arrangements have been made for the completion of this transfer. Like I said, I require only a solemn confidentiality on this mail.

Please kindly send me your direct cell phone number 00228-093-84-68 for easier communication .
For security reasons, Kindly reply this message to [email protected]

Best regards,

Barr Eric Jordan Esq
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I am not sure how Eric Jordan makes his money, but you can bet your bottom dollar its some kind of a scam. I assume its the one that you deposit the money. It looks like it clears your bank and so you pay out the millions -- and a month later - surprise surprise -- his cheque bounces!!!

If it looks like a snake and crawls like a snake -- its a snake!!

It is a version of the Nigerian scam.

There will be lots of expenses that you have to pay out of your 35%. Of course, the $11.5M does not existed in the first place so the "lawyer" just pockets all the money he persuades you to send.

Yes, its full of mistakes - I was surprised my sister had to ask if it was a scam!

In this day and age, there's no reason why cheques cannot clear immediately.... or at the very least, the next working day.
Problem is, the banks make so much interest on the money whilst it's being held, that they'll never do anything about it.

However, would certainly stamp out a lot of these bogus cheque schemes.

Damn...I thought this was going to tell me how to make a fortune working from home.

Send me a money order for $100 and I'll tell you the secret.

If I make the same offer to other people what percentage of what they send me do I have to send you?

I'm not greedy, how about 20% and I'll do the same for you.

It's all becoming clear, the 'P' in 'Steve_P' stands for 'Ponzi' right?