Money transfer schemes: Rob's story

Here's a story sent to FIDO about scams that pose as job offers.

My name is Rob, and I'm currently starting my own business in Melbourne.

It's very difficult starting out these days, and having exhausted all my funds thus far on advertising etc, I decided to look for a secondary and temporary means of income until business picks up. I've checked out many 'work from home' schemes etc, but so far to no avail.

Recently I received email regarding a 'Job Offer' which entailed using one of my bank accounts to move large sums of money, and keep 8% for myself.

I carefully read through it, as it sounded like a solution to my situation. However, I was also scared that it may really be a scam to defraud me of any funds already in my account.

I have an old bank account, which I was going to close down since I opened my business account, and figured I might give this so called 'Job Offer' a shot, since there's no funds in there worth stealing anyway (about $15).

I very nearly took part in this today but something about it just didn't quite ring true. So I decided to do some homework on this so-called job offer. I typed their web address into several search engines. I found a site that listed several scams of a similar nature including one with the exact same email content I'd received, only using a different business name. I then found your site to contact you regarding this situation.

It's very hard for some of us who are genuinely seeking a legitimate income, and in desperation may innocently jump at such an apparent opportunity, not realizing what's really going on! I could have very easily, yet unintentionally ended up on the wrong end of the law.

I'm extremely angry about this, and wish to help in anyway possible towards putting a stop to such fraudulent activities as these. They very nearly convinced me into being a 'pawn' in their scam, thinking it to be a 'Genuine' and 'Legitimate' way out of my problems.

What to do

Rob was smart enough to check up on this scam before getting sucked in. With so many of these bogus job offers being sent as spam every day, the most practical thing is simply deleting them.

If you get caught up in the scheme or have evidence about Australians being involved, then contact your local police. (These scams are not usually ASIC matters.)