© dawgbyte77


When the economy became particularly troublesome for my work-from-home business, I decided to pick up some part time work. I wanted something simple I could do from home, that wouldn't detract from my "real" job. So where did turn to look for work? Craigslist.

I found a job asking for what sounded like a virtual assistant position. It said it would require me to help with a virtual business, respond to inquiries and write response emails. It sounded perfect for what I needed at the time. So I sent in my resume. Within a day I got a response asking for further information, including my age and address. This should have been my first clue. Also the email was written in broken English.

After asking multiple times for personal information, they finally told me I'd been hired. They said my first task would be to "forward" a check that they needed. They said it would be express mailed to me and that I would need to deposit it and then write them a check and mail it forward.

When I got this email I thought the entire thing sounded fishy. Not only did it not sound like the job description on Craigslist, a check for the amount sounded sketchy. I decided not to respond. But a week later an express letter came with a check in it for at least $2000. I made up my mind that this had to be a scam and started researching the email address I got the letters from. Then the phone calls started. I had put my cell number on my resume.

The calls were from collect call type agencies where a text interface was read to me over the line. Not only was the English still terrible, the woman on the phone actually told me that this sounded like a scam. Did I want to talk to a manger? The creepy thing was, the guy on the line referred to himself as my boss and was very rude and aggressive about why I hadn't mailed the "package" yet.

Fortunately I found a number of sites that help you alert the police to these kinds of scams and eventually the calls stopped. I never found out if they caught the guy, but I haven't had any issues since. The thing is, the job looked and sounded legitimate until they contacted me. As the economy goes south the number of these scams increases rapidly as more people look for work. So be careful!

Have you ever experienced an online scam? What did you do?