Internet Scam: Fake Job Employment Scam

Given so many people are out of work and/or need extra money, this scam really has seen a spike in victims. There are many variations and I'll post examples as I run across them, but typically the fake job opening is for a "payroll processor" or "shipping assistant" or "mystery shopper". The goal is to get the victim to either receive goods (which are stolen using a stolen credit card) and re-ship them elsewhere (and so the victim is now criminally handling and moving stolen goods) or they may just want the victim to move counterfeit money orders or money stolen from other victims who have taken the fake money orders as real and then sent their real money. Often the "employers" (i.e. scammers) will use the victim right up until the victim is expecting to be paid for their work, and then the scammer will dump them and get another victim to move stuff for them.

Scammers also use this scam for Identity Theft, if the victim has given up a lot of sensitive personal information, thinking they are giving it to an employer.

Here is a newsclip that is hard to believe the woman did not know she was doing something wrong. The scammers usually don't get the victim to actually *produce* the counterfeit money orders, just move them around.

BUFFALO -- The wife of the Buffalo Common Council's majority leader has avoided prison but must pay $20,000 in restitution for her role in a counterfeit check scheme.

Jayme Smith was sentenced in federal court in Buffalo Monday after pleading guilty in April to bank fraud. The wife of Common Council Majority Leader Demone Smith could have gotten up to three years in prison, but received two years of supervised released.

Smith's lawyer says Smith was the victim of Internet scammers who steered her to create counterfeit checks from her home computer and mail them to various people after she responded to a Craigslist ad for a payroll-processing clerk.

Smith told the judge she never intended to commit a crime.