This scam just got through my own Spam Assasin filters and then through the filters at Gmail when I checked a personal account remotely. For those of you not familiar with the check cashing job scams going around the internet, they work like this: A company pretends to hire you as a financial agent, cashing checks from their clients in your country (usuallu the U.S., U.K., Canada, or Australia) because they don't have a presence in your country. They send you checks, you cash them, take a commission, and then wire the rest through Western Union.
Here's the problem... the checks are only good enough to pass first inspection. As a courtesy, if you have an account there, most banks will cash checks under a certain amount without checking to see if they're good. Then a few days or a week later, once they've gone through the clearinghouse and come back as no good, the bank comes after you, demanding their money back. You've already wired it off and since you cashed the check, you're responsible for making restitution to the bank. Good luck getting your "employer" to cough up the money.
Foreign companies have been doing business in the United States since before there was a United States. Back in the '80s, when it seemed like the Japanese were buying up the country, they still had significantly less U.S.-based assets than the British and the Dutch. In short, this problem has already been solved. No legitimate foreign business needs average joes to cash checks for them and wire them the money. Period.
There's a reason the offer seems too good to be true. It's a scam. Here's the latest e-mail:
From: Mrs. Tina Hodges <candidateemail@site.careerbuilder.com> [editor: this is a faked address - it did not really come through CareerBuilder]
reply-to: britishhealthcaresupplies@gmail.com,
date: Mon, Apr 21, 2008 at 10:10 PM
subject: Careerbuilder.com: Are you interested?Dear Candidate,
This is Mrs. Tina Hodges, assistant staff manager from British Healthcare Supplies. We have analyzed your resume and have found one job available for you with GUARANTEED $5,500 every month INCOME.
British Healthcare Supplies company seeking dependable, enthusiastic representatives. If you have a desire to work at home, WITHOUT ANY SELLING INVOLVED, this is the job for you! No matter what you do for a living, whether you are a teacher, a doctor, a lawyer, a secretary, nurse, housewife or construction worker. Without any previous internet experience our company will provide a less complicated way, a smoother road to move ahead financially. We don't ask experience, just one hour is needed in one week. We are a company based in United Kingdom. First, you have to understand what our company is looking for and if you think that this kind of job is made for you to ask for our Representative Contract to be signed. If you have one free hour daily (not including weekends) you are welcome to join today. Our job is a flextime, flex-place opportunity designed to fit around your family's income and time needs. You can earn FROM $50,000 up to $200,000 a year (depends on our sales) and more after one year working with us. We receive orders from US and we need a representative to process the payments due to the delays in clearing checks here.
- Flexible program
- Work at home: checking e-mail and going to the bank
- Professional contact team with very good support and communication skills
- Commission: 10% of every check that clears, instantly cash in hand that you will deduct from the cashed amount. If you receive a check of $1,000.00 your net income is $100.00, our company supports any fees.More benefits:
No Selling
This is NOT Network Marketing
This is NOT a Distributorship
There is NO 'Kit' to Buy
There are NO Envelopes to Stuff
We DO NOT Charge You a Dime
We Pay Monthly a $1000.00 Salary + CommissionWe have stocks of medical products for US customers and we need US representative to intermediate the payments between our company and the end buyers. Your commission is 10% from each check, if you receive 2-3 checks one day you will make more than $200 every day.
What we ask:
- Two free hours daily not including weekends
- US citizen or permanent residence/green card
- You may have an existing bank account in US
- Internet access for sending and receiving e-mails
- Means for you to cash checks at your bank using your existing bank account. (nobody will ask for your personal bank information)If you are interested working with our company reply today. You can start within 2-3 days if you agree with our contract. Please contact us by replying at this e-mail address and ask for:
Representative Contract and detailed information about this job.
Tina Hodges
Administrative Director
British Healthcare Supplies
=========================================================================
This email was sent from Account ID C5B4TC752BWLDYYU768 and by this logged in User Y7T35R6ZZ2SD1ZBXRDC For your privacy and protection, when applying to a job online, never give out your social security number, credit card or bank account information, or perform any sort of monetary transaction. Learn More »You are currently subscribed to receive job alerts. You can modify your account info or unsubscribe from job alerts at any time.
Please do not reply to this message, contact customer service instead.
5550-A Peachtree Parkway, Suite 200, Norcross, GA 30092
Feedback • Privacy
What's fun here is the Careerbuilder.com warning they included to make this look legitimate. Notice how it says: "never give out your social security number, credit card or bank account information, or perform any sort of monetary transaction."
Even the crooks who are trying to scam you end the letter with a warning about their scam. I don't know if this is accidental or if it makes it look more legit (i.e. "I'm being warned not to do this, but if this is from CareerBuilder and this warning's there, then this must be something they checked out and approved as legit.")
Long story short... it's a scam. Don't even reply because you don't want to put yourself on these crooks' radar.
Good luck to you all.
Entries (RSS)
I just got through reading the same email. What's funny is that I'm registered with Careerbuilder.com, but under a different email address. The email was sent to my "personal" email address!!! LOL! I read the whole thing and I always look these things up and I came across this website. I just got through reading your story and I agree with you 100%. In my eyes, there's no such thing as a work at home job that requires only a couple hours per day and you can make a 6-figure account from it. The only way to make the big bucks is the old-fashioned way. Go to college, get some degrees, and some job contacts. The only way to make "legit" money nowadays. Only drug dealers can make a 6-figure income within an hour (if they don't get caught that is).
I just got this exact email in my Gmail yesterday. Down to the "logged in" numbers and everything.
Thanks for your help!!
What happens if you signed contract but have yet to recieve any other info. Are you stuck legally? I would think not.
@Gary,
Don't worry about them enforcing the contract. I'd be more worried about any personal information you put on the contract.
I got this email the other day and thought it sounded to good to be true. i asked them to email me back some more info on the company. This is what they sent me.
"Please download the company's contract attached to this message as a Microsoft Word Document and email it, signed, to us.®
Dear Candidate,
Here you have the description of this job in simple steps:
1. You agree and sign the contract, send us your full name and postal address.
2. In 4-5 days after you have agreed to work for us you will start to receive checks made in your name from our customers in U.S. Our customers use hospital funds and the checks are always covered. The payments are made for our products and services which have already been delivered.
3. You cash the checks at your bank using your pre-established account in less than 36 hours from the moment you receive them from our customer. The checks will vary from: $100.00 to $3,000.00.
4. You deduct the 10% commission from the total amount of the check that you receive and cash.
5. You send the remaining 90% minus transfer fees to our company as per our instructions to one of our offices. You will not make the transfer on our company name. One of our employees will be the receiver for the funds. We use several secure methods to transfer funds between our offices and employees. The methods are money transfer via Western Union (www.westernunion.com) . You can send the money with cash from the nearest Western Union office. Please use the website locator ("Find Agent Location") to show you a Western Union office near your location. Then you have to go there and send the funds to us.
6. After one month has passed since you signed the contract you will receive your first $1000.00 salary separate.
Today, BRITISH HEALTHCARE SUPPLIES is building on the company's strong tradition for product research and development and is developing into one of the UK's leading healthcare s. The company has developed and markets products in the growing areas of sports medicine, spinal surgery, heart bypass implant, wheelchairs and has an established international distribution base across Europe and America.
BRITISH HEALTHCARE SUPPLIES is a privately owned company. The business is based in London at the heart of the UK motorway network and has developed from its origins, producing surgical needles, into a major business servicing the global healthcare market. We sell a large variety of products ranging from state of the art wheelchairs and parts, service professional equipment that is used for people practicing sport that undergo physical recovery from injuries, hospital equipment and so on. Our catalogue of products is comprised of over two hundred items and professional services.
We care to explain to you thoroughly the entire process that will possibly be the best job you will ever have. This job is possible because our company BRITISH HEALTHCARE SUPPLIES has its headquarters in London, UK. As such we do not yet have stores or offices in the United States. Until we do we will always need representatives in the U.S. to take care of some financial matters. The problem we are facing is the time necessary for our company to clear the funds from checks paid by our customers from U.S. after they have received our products and/or services. It takes approximately 2 to 3 weeks including shipping to clear these checks in Europe. We need to clear the checks inside U.S. and then have the funds transferred to our company in U.K. by other means. This is where you can help us. It would speed up the process tenfold. We have already made a signed agreement with the U.S. officials and we are paying all the necessary taxes for our business. We will also send you a 1099 Form for tax deduction on your part. This job is official and legal according to the U.S. legislation as it is today. You are one step away from being part of our company. Our job is flexible in regards to work hours and place, an opportunity designed to fit around your family's income and time needs. You can earn from $24,000 up to $160,000 a year (depends on your performance) and more after one year working with us. Our company can guarantee $5,500 every month income in your first year of work.
The process itself involves answering e-mails a couple of times per day and going to a bank. This job does not require any kind of experience. It only requires access to the Internet and knowledge to send e-mails. First step in this job is for you to wait at home for checks sent by our American customers on your name as per our instructions. For this to be possible we need your basic personal info such as full name and full address." Following that was the contract that I was to copy into Microsoft Word and fill out.
NOT!!!! Sad is that some people will fall for this.
Thanks for the info.
I just answered this ad myself and agreeded to do this, I then decided to look it up on the internet and found that it is a scam, so I take it they can't hold me to the contract?
@andrea
The last thing they want to do is go into a court of law to try to enforce a contract that has the sole purpose of making you an accomplice to their check fraud scheme.
OTOH, they might try other methods of enforcing it. Very low likelihood that anyone will pay you a visit, but have the cops on speed dial on your cell phone just in case.
Hi ,
I got this same email because I had a resume on Carreer Builder.com I thought it was real, but had in the back of my mine knew it was false. I downloaded but i'm not worried about the contract. They dont want to get caught. I just wish I had looked up the information before hand, but we all learn form our mistakes.
I feel so stupid. I'm so desperate for a real home-based Internet job, that I fell for it as well. I guess I'll see what's next and turn it in to who? Better Business Bureau or who "patrols" these kind of scams?
@Dawn, this is international check fraud. It's well beyond the scope of the BBB. This is usually organized crime, not just some dishonest businessman.
Don't see what's next. Just blow these people off and don't answer further communications from them. You don't want to get in any deeper.
hey so now i feel stupid!! i did this and i even signed the contract and i just received my first check. what do i do?? should i just shred it up or what??
whats funny guys is that they are using a UK address for an established organisation to which THERE IS ENTIRELY NO CONNECTION TO, please note this as when they address things its noted as BRITISH HEALTHCARE SUPPLIES, New Loom House, 102 Back Church Lane, London, E1 1LU
THIS IS ENTIRELY A FAKE, A SCAM DO NOT PASS ON ANY PERSONAL INFO ABOUT YOURSELF, AND PLEASE DO NOT GET THIS CONFUSED WITH THE (BHTA) A WELL RESPECTED ORGANISTAION IN THE UK.
I did sign the contract and received the first check. I deposited the check on my account and the check bounced. Before this happen, I email Ms Tina saying that my bank will not clear the check before 7/10 business days. She said that it was up to me to wait but if I send the money faster I will receive another check. I did not use my account funds to send to them. I waited and finally the check bounced. I sent her an e-mail saying what happened but I did receive anything back from her yet.
What I'm going to do it is just forget about this. I don't believe they will force me to keep working with them. I do have all the e-mails (sent and received). Do you think that they can do anything against me? Thanks
I was scammed out of $2597.00 not to mention overdraft fees and beyond by this company. My bank released the funds and I wired them and a week and a half later they put a negative hold on my bank account to me. I was told through career builder to report them to several sources. If any of you have been scammed by them please report them to http://www.IC3.Gov that is the internet fraud for the FBI and they are handling my case for me. Save the checks the envelope and all emails for evidence. I hope we catch them.
TO ANGELIQUE
I have saves the envelope and scaned the check plus have all emails would be happy to send them to you or the web sight
I read somewhere that someone cashed the check.. and it actually cleared. There's a chance that the first one or two checks might actually clear before they send you the bogus ones. And what they did was just keep the money because they knew it was a scam. My question is.. what would happen to that person if he kept the money? Would the scammers go after him?
Here is a link to the person that said they kept the money: http://www.scam.com/showthread.php?p=506131