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I gave some information over the internet (Possible Identity fraud?
I responded to an ad on craigslist where the person was seeking help for cleaning. The person emailed me with the job information and then asked for my name, address (to send money and key to,) and my number.
I sent that information over the internet and I never heard from the person again. I looked it up and saw that there was some type of scam going on where the person pretends to be out of state and is working for the environmental agency.....
I worry now what I just did. I did not realize it was a mistake.
Did I put myself in danger? What can they do with that information?
5 Answers
- 9 years agoFavorite Answer
100% scam.
There is no cleaning job.
There is only a scammer trying to steal your hard-earned money.
The next email will be from another of the scammer's fake names and free email addresses pretending to be the "secretary/assistant/accountant" and will demand you cash a large fake check sent on a stolen UPS/FedEx billing account number and send most of the "money" via Western Union or moneygram back to the scammer posing as the "supply company" while you "keep" a small portion. When your bank realizes the check is fake and it bounces, you get the real life job of paying back the bank for the bounced check fees and all the bank's money you sent to an overseas criminal.
Western Union and moneygram do not verify anything on the form the sender fills out, not the name, not the street address, not the country, not even the gender of the receiver, it all means absolutely nothing. The clerk will not bother to check ID and will simply hand off your cash to whomever walks in the door with the MTCN# and question/answer. Neither company will tell the sender who picked up the cash, at what store location or even in what country your money walked out the door. Neither company has any kind of refund policy, money sent is money gone forever.
When you refuse to send him your cash he will send increasingly nasty and rude emails trying to convince you to go through with his scam. The scammer could also create another fake name and email address like "FBI@ gmail.com", "police_person @hotmail.com" or "investigator @yahoo.com" and send emails telling you the job is legit and you must cash the fake check and send your money to the scammer or you will face legal action. Just ignore, delete and block those email addresses. Although, reading a scammer's attempt at impersonating a law enforcement official can be extremely funny.
Now that you have responded to a scammer, you are on his 'potential sucker' list, he will try again to separate you from your cash. He will send you more emails from his other free email addresses using another of his fake names with all kinds of stories of great jobs, lottery winnings, millions in the bank and desperate, lonely, sexy singles. He will sell your email address to all his scamming buddies who will also send you dozens of fake emails all with the exact same goal, you sending them your cash via Western Union or moneygram.
You could post up the email address and the emails themselves that the scammer is using, it will help make your post more googlable for other suspicious potential victims to find when looking for information.
Do you know how to check the header of a received email? If not, you could google for information. Being able to read the header to determine the geographic location an email originated from will help you weed out the most obvious scams and scammers. Then delete and block that scammer. Don't bother to tell him that you know he is a scammer, it isn't worth your effort. He has one job in life, convincing victims to send him their hard-earned cash.
Whenever suspicious or just plain curious, google everything, website addresses, names used, companies mentioned, phone numbers given, all email addresses, even sentences from the emails as you might be unpleasantly surprised at what you find already posted online. You can also post/ask here and every scam-warner-anti-fraud-busting site you can find before taking a chance and losing money to a scammer.
6 "Rules to follow" to avoid most fake jobs:
1) Job asks you to use your personal bank account and/or open a new one.
2) Job asks you to print/mail/cash a check or money order.
3) Job asks you to use Western Union or moneygram in any capacity.
4) Job asks you to accept packages and re-ship them on to anyone.
5) Job asks you to pay visas, travel fees via Western Union or moneygram.
6) Job asks you to sign up for a credit reporting or identity verification site.
Avoiding all jobs that mention any of the above listed 'red flags' and you will miss nearly all fake jobs. Only scammers ask you to do any of the above. No. Exceptions. Ever. For any reason.
If you google "fake check cashing job", "fraud Western Union scam", "check mule moneygram scam" or something similar you will find hundreds of posts from victims and near-victims of this type of scam.
Source(s): http://scam.com/ http://scamwarners.com/ - Anonymous5 years ago
Don't do that! I've recently put my Mac laptop on a local seller site. I got a few emails saying about extra payment, and sending it to West Africa. Don't. It's probably to Nigeria where they will scam you. They make it sound too good by saying they'll pay extra, and when they say PayPal, they'll probably send a fake paypal email saying they have paid you - when they haven't. Don't go ahead with the sale. Sell locally only, or through a website like ebay where you can see reviews about sellers/buyers and who to trust.
- KaeLv 49 years ago
Well I don't see what is wrong? Did you give him your bank number? did you send HIM money? You can notify your bank of the issue so they can keep a look on your account and also CHECK your credit score here and there to make sure nothing you don't know pops up. I check mine every year and my bank always notifies us of anything that seems.. fishy (which never happens) oh there's another scam going on to I should tell you about where this one company who says they work for citi bank sends you a message saying you are default on payments to them and they are lowering the amount you owe to so much.. turns out they don't even work for citi bank. We found out about it because the ONLY thing my hubby has citi bank with is his military travel card which he can't use and the military covers all charges on. They called citi bank and they told him it's a scam and they don't know who that suppose company is and to call our bank. Our bank said everything is clean (we never called to pay the amount.. but if you do they get free money from you).
Just monitor your accounts your credit score sheet will notify you of anything ALSO if you use freecreditscore.com after you get your "free score" call to cancel their membership they charge you money monthly for monitoring your score..
- William MLv 59 years ago
You're ok if that's all the info you gave. It's pretty easy to get, anyway. BUT it will probably lead to scammers and telemarketers contacting you. Didn't you post a similar question a few days ago?
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- Anonymous9 years ago
You are a idiot sorry but yeah your f'd craigslist... Come on you havent seen those tv shows?! they can steal your money heck they can be you. Go tell the police as soon as you see something suspicious but maybe your lucky but sorry to say your in a bad position..