Another Work from Home Scam

I was eager to find work I could do from home. I received an email offering me a position with an overseas company. It seemed simple enough and almost to good to be true, but I was in a vulnerable state of mind so I let my guard down and in the end it cost me.

I have been a nursing assistant for years and it was all I knew, but I had recently lost yet another job due to an attendance issues. I have a disease called Mollaret's Meningitis which causes me to get aseptic meningitis (viral infections of the brain and spinal column) on a pretty regular basis. I started to get flair ups almost every four weeks causing me to miss four to six days every month. After I got fired from my job I applied for unemployment and disability. I knew this was only going to keep happening because this was the second job I lost. I thought if I could find maybe a phone job I could do at home, or some type of work on the Internet that could be done from home that would solve my current dilemma. It was a lot harder then I thought. Everyone wanted to sell you a get rich quick home business. Key word there is sell. I did not have a job so I did not have extra cash to throw away on a get rich quick scheme.

Then one day I received an email offering me a position with an overseas company (J.M. Integrations ltd). They stated that they needed a representative here in the United States, because at the present time they do not have an office here. They claimed to be a supplier of clothing materials and that they had clients in the United States. They stated that it was hard to break into a new market so this was why they had decided to deliver the products up front which they believed would help them hold onto their customers base here in the U.S.A. My task was to receive payment from the customers, cash the payment at my bank, deduct 10% ( which would be my commission/pay on each payment processed), and then forward the balance to any of the offices that I would be contacted to send payment through Western Union. Sounded easy enough and yes a bit to good to be true but as I said due to my recent situation I was vulnerable and desperate to find a steady income. So I applied and got the "job".

We keep in touch through emails. The CEO of the company would inform me as to when the first package would be arriving to my home. I was expecting the fist package through UPS a few days before Christmas, I had the tracking number and was on the phone for two days with UPS trying to figure out why this package with $3,000.00 in it was stuck somewhere in Ohio. UPS finally said it would be up to the sender to call because they had sent the package and had all the pertinent information. Then the CEO called me and told me the next week a package would be sent to my home. On Dec. 29th UPS dropped the package off. In the package was $3,000.00 in American Express Gift Cheques. I took them to my bank as instructed and cashed them putting my 10% into my savings and then went to the Western Union office and forwarded the balance to two parties in West Africa again all as I instructed. I then emailed the MTCN # (money transfer control number) to the CEO. He was very pleased and told me we were going to have a long business relationship. A few days later he emailed me and told me that $30,000.00 was soon to be on it's way but in order for it to arrive I would have to send $199.00 to the buyer. This raised some questions for me and I relayed my concerns to the CEO, but like any good con man he had a smooth way of reasoning that $200.00 out of me. I let all my fears and concerns get stuffed into some dark recess of my brain and allowed the fear of no income to take control. The next day instead of emailing that the package was on it way the CEO stated I would have to send another $450.00 in order for that large of an amount to be sent. Well, at this point I knew something was fishy here. I went back and forth with him for a few hours on the Internet and let him know that there was no way I was sending any more money ever !! I then filed a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). I informed the CEO that I had contacted the authorities. He became upset and I did not hear anything more for a day of so. I then received an email from the accountant who told me not to have any more dealings with that man. I had at that point assumed he had done wrong by the company and was given the boot. I now was dealing with the account who was well spoken and very business like. He told me that in about a week a package would come with $13,0000.00 in it. My instructions were to cash $4,000.00 of it in and take out not only my 10% but also recover the $199.00 I had sent. This last Monday Fed-X dropped off a package with $13,000.00 of American Express Gift Cheques. I went to the back thinking this whole time thank God this all worked out because I had no other income and had been scared to death. As I was signing the cheques and speaking to the teller another bank representative came over and said " Darla I was just going to call you. You recently passed $3,000.00 in American Express Gift Cheques and they were counterfeit". My heart sank. I was so scared I couldn't even cry. Here I was about to pass thousands more. I didn't know what to do. She offered to run a check on the ones I had but at the time that seemed futile since they had come from the same place. I now owed my bank $3,000.00. I went home shaking. I talked to my son about it all and at first he just kept saying "I told you so mom". Once we got past that he said maybe I should let the bank run through and see if they are real or not. So we went back to the bank and they called American Express to check on the Cheques I had. You guessed it they too were counterfeit. The bank was pretty kind about it all. I explained how it all came about and that I have no income. They said they could wait for the $3,000.00. They told me to call the local police. I did, but I also called the FBI. Neither of which was overly shocked or concerned. I guess this scam is called the West Nigeria scam. They have seen tons of this. I felt so stupid. I was ashamed of myself. I was not looking to recover that $3,000.00, but I did want to get the word out there. I called all the local T.V. stations, but no one called back. I then called American Express and explained the whole story to them. They instructed me to write void on all the Cheques, send everything I had concerning the case, and enclose a letter explaining how this all happened and even though they could not promise they thought maybe they could help me out by replacing the $3,000.00 I now owe the bank. I will keep my fingers crossed.

The lesson here for one and all. Do not reply to emails that you do not request information from first. If you do end up doing business over the Internet save everything. That was one good thing I did, I had saved every email that had come my way concerning this "job". If you do get paid in the form of Gift Cheques or Traveler Cheques have them checked before you cash them. The Cheques that came to me were in 500 dollar denominations. American Express does not make gift Cheques in any amount over 100 dollars. They looked so real that the first time my bank passed them through with no problem. I have learned a painful lesson and I hope that I can help stop someone else from making the same painful mistake.