The Saga of a Work at Home Scam

With today's economy comes a large group of scam artist. While trying to find work is exhausting, losing time to deal with scams is even more exhausting. Most of the scams have appeared on the "web" and "Craigs List" according to the Colorado Springs Police Department. Scam artist have now graduated to the newspaper. This is the scoop on one scam I found.

Recently there was an ad in the "Colorado Springs Gazette" The ad read:

Online Clerical/Virtual Assistant Needed

Seamark Auto-Shop is accepting applications of an Online Clerical/Virtual assistant to complete billing and full inventory of business activities routed through him/her, the pay is great and you work from home. Please contact us via this email address

(email address deleted) for more details of the job....

THANKS, Ryan Markson, President, Seamark Auto-shop. Tupelo, 38801 MS

Seamark Auto-Shop

Many people are now setting up offices in their home or hiring work at home employees. This helps cut the employers cost and offers more people the flexibility an office doesn't. These positions are great, but the scams outweigh the legitimate positions.

The above ad seems to be legitimate. Upon replying you receive a very nice letter and application. After submitting the application, you receive an immediate job hire. You are advised to notify the company 1 week out before quitting so that all assignments can be deleted. You receive an email that a customer is sending a payment to you. You at this point do not know what to do with the checks and how to process a sale that you knew nothing about. Upon writing the CEO - Ryan Markson for information, you wait and receive no reply. Several days later an email stating the transaction has been completed and your first assignment arrives by UPS today.

"Here's the cashing details and info on how you'll complete this transaction. I would like you to go over to your bank to complete the newly received transaction, I specifically had the buyers utilize these types cause I know they are easily cash able, they are everywhere plus they have been pre-bought with cash so you have nothing to worry about in the area of insufficient funds or other. I specifically requested all payments be in this form for all our sakes mine, yours and the buyer's, I asked the Money Order to be sent blank without cashing information on them. You'll fill in your cashing details, your names, signature and contact address in the right columns this is to avoid errors and ease cashing. Simply go over to your bank, tender it and have it cashed, It'll be cashed instantly. Once cashed, deduct your pay as agreed, you will be sending the balance via Money Gram to our vendor, she'll handle the remaining parts of the transaction. (vendor info was enclosed)"

Red flag goes up! I was to cash a money order, to which I had written in my name. The next step was to take 8% out for my fees and then send the funds to Canada by Western Union. Then I was to inform Mr. Markson :

"Once the money's sent please send me the following infos...

a. Your full names and address exactly how you wrote it on the Money Gram slip.
b. The receiver's name exactly how you penned it down on the Money Gram slip
c. The total amount sent. (Amount receivable by the receiver).
d. REF number(This is the 8 digit number for receiving funds, it is not the receipt number)
e. The Type of Money Order you received,

I will be waiting on your email, complete with the details, please get to it as soon as you can this morning. The transaction has to be fully completed as soon as possible. And please make sure you stay at home to receive the package"

The bank teller was quick to warn us about writing in our name and sending the monies to Canada. She called to check if the money orders were legitimate and found both money orders had been cashed in 2008 for a different amount. These 2 money orders were forgeries. Several tellers got involved and said it was an excellent forgery. Upon seeing a real MoneyGram, it was obvious that the print on ours was lighter.

Now comes the work. These scammers now have your address, phone number and social security number. If this happens to any of you, you must contact the Federal Trade Commission, Social Security, Credit Bureaus and local Police Department. Below are sites that will help you in case you have been scammed. Everyone should go through these sites just because they have a wealth of information that everyone can use.

Notify your credit bureau --- Notifying only one credit bureau, as the fraud departments work together to make sure fraud alerts are placed on all three bureaus' reports.

fraud.org --- Here you will find links to Fraud Center resources. You can visit links such as, scams against elderly, internet fraud, fraud news, frequently asked questions, etc. This organization works for the consumers to prevent fraud, deception and unfair business practices. They have many links that are useful, such as, ID theft, job scams, phone fraud, etc.

scambusters.org --- This is a free public service site that carries publications on internet fraud, credit card fraud, urban legends, etc.

By the way, Mr. Markson never contacted us to find out why we never processed his payment.