New Job (The Big Fraud)

[Greg]

I've been broke for going on two years now. I've been tinkering around trying to get other projects going to support myself but they never came to fruition.

I finally broke down and started looking for a regular job to get some cash flow while I prep the other projects. That was one of the main reasons to have the portfolio website.

One of the jobs was to photograph weddings. The company I applied to wanted to see some photos. After seeing the photos, they have said no but hope we can do something in the future.

I also applied for a remote video editing job. They have said yes. According to their email, I should be getting a contract tomorrow. They would like me to start ASAP. Here's hoping it's not a total scam.

[cranefly]

May this work out well for you.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

I also hope that it is not a scam. In fact, I hope it is lucrative and relatively simple.

[Drunk Monk]

Best of luck.


Umm is it porn?

Come on now. Someone here had to ask…

[Greg]

Totally porn.

[Greg]

It's seeming less scammy. I received their contract offer sheet.

[Greg]

Now even less scammy, maybe with a side dose of scam. I received a check to purchase a computer and other equipment for the home office. The side dose of scam is the check is drawn on some Valve Parts store.

[Drunk Monk]

typical porn company move...

...so I've been told.

[Greg]

Totally porn.

[Greg]

Bad portents came in hot and heavy.

The company sent me a check to buy the equipment I will need to do the job, ie video editing. The money was for a computer and a printer and a bunch of peripherals. When the check actually arrived, I was stunned. I figured this was the first opt out point. But no. Big check. The sent me the check via text so I could photograph it from my phone for a mobile deposit. And that worked. And the money posted this morning. 

Now that I have the money, I'm supposed to buy the equipment. I figured they would give the vendors where they wanted me to buy things and I would go buy things. Nope. There is one vendor. I just give him the money and delivers me the equipment. (He just texted. He said he was leaving SF at around 5 and would be here at 6:40. I told him that wasn't happening) My first thought was why didn't the company just send him all the money and skip the middleman? (I'm leaning towards money laundering)(Did I mention the check was drawn on a Valve Company in NJ? I checked out the Valve Company website. Not shaky at all)

The Vendor guy texts me to tell me how he wants me to get him the money. I'm to go to my bank and withdraw all the money in cash and then take it to his bank and deposit in his account. I offer just to go to his bank and deposit the money via personal check. Nope. Cash or cashier's check. Okay. He then says I could use Zelle to send the money. I've never used Zelle before, but I can figure it out. It will save me an hour drive and trips to two different banks. I wait while he finds someone that I can Zelle the money to. It's an odd name. It's in a southern state. I get a lot of fraud warnings when I send the money. And I'm doing it increments, because you can only send so much before it taps out. I send three chunks of money before Zelle says I've reached my limit for the day. Problem is, I still have a big chunk to send. And Vendor Guy wants the money before he ships. The next idea is to use PayPal. Fine. I can use PayPal. I just need to transfer the money from my bank to my PayPal and then send it to his PayPal. Fine. I do the transaction and PayPal says I will have the money in 3-5 days. Whoops. Please stop this transaction. PayPal informs me it cannot stop this transaction. Suck it.

All this time, I'm texting with VG. I'm looking like an idiot. But I didn't choose to play the idiot role. Anyway, my next step is to try CashApp to send the money. I have to download the App. I hope to get my request in for the money before PayPal gets in it's request for the money. For whatever reason, CashApp takes forever to download. I keep getting texts from VG asking me if I have the App yet. And I'm only using a little hyperbole when I say it took forever to download. Usually an app comes down in seconds, a minute at the most. This app took ten minutes to hit my phone. Whew. I want this to be done.

CashApp won't approve the transfer from my bank. Or the bank won't send the funds. Either way. CashApp is no go. Frustration has set in big time. VG suggests using Apple Pay. Again. I've heard of it. But never used it. I just need to find it on my phone. I google. It's pretty straight forward. It's already in my Apple Wallet. VG keeps texting. Best of all, my bank transfers my money into Apple Cash. VG gives me a phone number where I can text the money. It's really sketchy. It looks like I'm sending an image with $1000 on it. Apple Cash likes nothing about this transfer. Since the phone number I'm sending the money to isn't in my contacts, Apple Cash wants to be really sure I want to send the money. Really really sure. In all caps. I'm not sure, but I hit send anyway.

The transaction doesn't go through. I'm told the service is unavailable. I try again. And again. And again. Always the same result. Service unavailable. I don't know if it is on my end or if it is Apples fault. Either way, the money still isn't going through. VG gives me another number to try. Same result. It's like I'm begging for these people to steal my identity. I'm ready to punt. But the cash has to be transferred today.

I'm ready to go to the bank. VG says I can go to the iTunes store on my phone and buy iTunes cards and send them via email. And I'm to send them to, wait for it, my new boss. My head hurts. But I do it. It takes forever to find out where in the store you can purchase these cards. And there is a limit on the cards, so I'll have to buy a couple to make up the rest of the money. Shakier and shakier. I swear I'm laundering money. Eventually, I find out where to buy the cards. And I buy one. When it comes time to check out, they want my Apple Password. I give it. The computer rejects it. I give it again. Rejected again. I go into my Apple Keychain to make sure I am entering the right password. I am. Still rejected. I think I hit the rejection limit because I was now being told I need to go to the iTunes Support department and straighten this out. Guess what. There is no iTunes Support Department. There is just a helpful hints page which isn't all that helpful.

All this time, VG is texting me with helpful suggestions on where I can get these cards. He suggests grocery stores nearby. He suggests Walmarts nearby. VG doesn't have a good grasp on where I live. I finally get him to stop helping. I leave my phone and just use the desktop. I go to Apple's website and use my Apple Card to buy the iTunes cards. I send them to my boss. I send screenshots of the sales to VG. I am done. Done. Done. Done.

I received my first text from VG at 9:30. I sent my last text at 12:45. I sent a different text off to the boss saying I was done. I also very politely asked why they didn't just the money to the Vendor and skip my part in this mess. He said my name needs to appear on the invoices for accounting purposes. Plus, it's the way they do things. Same as it ever was.

The job is off to a great start.

Money Launderer.

[Greg]

And then there was much sadness as the fraud was discovered. I've retrieved some of the money, but there is still a bunch missing. Reports filed with the Federal Trade Commission. Next I'll be talking to the police.

I guess checks can clear and then unclear....

[thatguy]

Oh man...I don't know what your supposed to do at this point. change all your passwords. Back up your data! Maybe start using alternate accounts online. Notify all your financial institutions. Maybe do a credit lock...

Good luck!

--tg

[Drunk Monk]

Fuck

So sorry to hear. Hope you can recover it.

[cranefly]

Double fuck.

I suppose things looked shady.  But so does any difficult job full of obstacles.  Like building a movie set.  You're paid in large part to figure things out.  I certainly could have fallen for it.

Likewise hope you get most of the monies back.

Have you checked on Vimeo for possible jobs?  I was on their site earlier today and saw that they seem to have a healthy content-creation vibe (people marketing their video-editing expertise).  I know this is totally off the wall, but just trying to help.

[Greg]

Late yesterday, I was able to cancel the iTunes Gift cards and get that money. I'm in discussions to get back the Zelle payments but I don't have much hope, but you never know. I didn't think I could cancel the Apple Cards but I did. I filed a report with the FTC to their fraud department. I even sent a letter off to the real company asking if they wanted to know about the fraud. I went to bed sad. Very sad. It's no fun feeling like a complete dummy.

There were a million red flags. At least. But I rationalized everyone away by saying at least I had the money in my bank. How do I know I have money in the bank? The bank said I had money in the bank. Here's the thing, and you smarter people might know this, banks give conditional releases on money deposited by check so you can start using that money. The bank figures the check will clear, because that is what checks do, might as well start spending it while we verify. In this case the verify revealed no money so they took the money out of my account subsequently overdrawing every Zelle payment I had made. The people who do know about this window are the scam artists. Their plan was to get the money out of me before the bank said there was no money and sent me alerts. I guess it was a good thing I was on the phone for three hours because it delayed the transfer for so long I got a little heads up about the fraud and was able to get some of the money back.

This whole time, the scam artists continued to text me. Glenn Miller, the fake boss, was appalled the check didn't clear. He said it was a problem on their and it would be fixed in no time. Mark Roberts, fake vendor, continued to assure me the truck was on its way. Yes, I do have a phone number for the scam artists.

This morning I received an email from the company the scam artists spoofed and it was strange because the man sending the email was named Glenn Miller, too. Glenn said this scam has happened before. they've used his name in the past as well as other executives at the company. The tell is a slightly different email. He gave me some numbers to pursue as well. Ziprecruiter has the fake ad and Glenn has had it pulled down.

I went (Just got another text from the scam artists) to the DMV to get a Real ID and seeing about changing my Driver License number. While I was waiting there this morning the scam artists resurface. I received a text from Mark and a group chat from Glenn. Things were still on track. They didn't make the delivery last night because the payments had come in late. but I should get my office set up by noon today. Glenn told me that he was having a problem with the iTunes card. I needed to go an activate them. He assured me the money would be in my account by the end of the day. I told them I couldn't do that right away because I had an appointment to go to but when I got back I would straighten everything out.

I had this dream that if I kept them active, super sleuths would track them down. I've been dissuaded of this dream

I stopped off at my police station and filed a police report. I have a case number now. I get the feeling that nothing will be done.

Meanwhile I'm still getting texts from Glenn and Mark.