It’s all about job scams

As the economy continues to spiral downward, more people are looking for ways to make a little extra money in their off hours. Many turn to the Internet and sites like craigslist.com for quick projects that they can do from home, like stuffing envelopes or phone survey work.

Sometimes this can work out well. A grad student in Boston we’ll call Stacy says she has been about to make $200 to $300 a week doing survey work for companies she found through craigslist. And sometimes it can all spin hideously out of control.

I met Stacy after our Business Report Daily ran a simple notice from the Better Business Bureau about an Internet scam that had hijacked the real address and phone number of a local company, the better to deceive anyone trying to check into its background. But it seems that we were the only ones to do so, since when Stacy wanted to find out more about her alleged potential employer, Range Creative Inc., ours was the only article she could find. (Score one for us in the Google-whacking tournament.)

Stacy’s correspondence with Desiree Molly, the representative of Range, had all the classic signs of a scam: a vague “job” as a mystery shopper for financial services — something the financial services industry doesn’t do — offered by a faraway employer whose command of English seems tenuous at best with payment upfront via a ridiculously large cashier’s check. All Stacy had to do was cash the check, keep $500 for herself, and wire the remaining $4,500 to someone who was not Ms. Molly at an address in San Francisco.

Let us count the ways this deal smells like a fraud. Actually, the World Privacy Forum spent a great deal of research time breaking down just such a payment-forwarding scam way back in 2003; craigslist also posts tips on how to avoid scams and fraud.

A variation on this deal that went around Fort Collins a few years ago — and may still be circulating as semesters change — was all about the foreign student in need of housing who sends way too much money to a would-be roommate.

But here’s the bottom line, for Stacy or anyone thinking about making a quick buck from somebody who just wants you to send him the change the very same day you cash that check: The moment you transfer the money, you have committed theft because you have taken possession of money most usually stolen from a chain of previous victims defrauded through some other scam. Yes, you are also a victim, but you can be further victimized if you are arrested for theft, which has happened.

And here’s the real bite: As Stacy discovered, according to her local police department, the FBI, the FTC and the other agencies she contacted as well as me, until the check is cashed, technically, no prosecutable crime has been committed. Good luck finding the “employer” — it takes the resources of a major network infotainment department to track down just one of the myriad fraudsters working hard for your money. And who’s to say that Stacy isn’t part of the gang of scammers, once she has forwarded the ill-gotten gains?

Back in 2003, the WPF researchers found that the novelty of the Internet had everyone a bit bamboozled, including financial institutions that should have known better. The WPF job scam report said: “Multiple victims who fell prey to this scam say they asked bank tellers for help and information before they signed an employment contract. The victims who went to their banks have told the World Privacy Forum that bank personnel told them that nothing was wrong. Preliminary findings indicate that if true this appears to be an emerging pattern among the victims. One victim worked at a bank, and even this individual did not understand how the scam worked in enough time to stop his own victimization.”

After five years of inbox-clogging offers to become a transfer agent for an overseas company responding to resumes we never posted, we’re all a little bit wiser – we hope. The fastest growing segment of these types of scams: Baby boomers and senior citizens who are coming to the wide world of the Internets a little late in the game (start at 4:30 on the podcast). But remember, the old advice is still the best: If it sounds too good to be true, it is.

If you doubt that online scammers are all about pushing our buttons, here’s part of the reply from Desiree Molly when Stacy asked for more information on her company:

Have this survey done cause you really causing delay on this. and i will be the person fired on this cause i personally employed you for this position so please try and understand that am a family woman and stop playing with people business Get back to me once you completed the survey

As far as I know, Stacy still has the check and is just waiting to see who shows up on the next Dateline “To Catch a Thief” special.

THIS JUST IN: More reports from the UK and San Francisco of Desiree Molly soliciting mystery shoppers. Stacy says her research shows that Western Union is already onto this scam. She hasn’t heard back since she e-mailed the ubiquitous Ms. Molly that she can pick up her check from the FBI anytime she wants it.

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