About 3 weeks ago, I got a job offer. This was brilliant as the extra money would really come in handy. So my prospective employer sent me a cheque with part of the money being an advance on my salary and part of the money being to pay off the builders. This sounds too good to be true. It was. He forgot to sign the cheque. So he sent me a new one. I put it in my bank. It appeared in my account and then it started to get funny. He wanted me to draw out the money and then cable it to the workers. He was also rude to my wife on the phone, so she chewed his ear off. We started to get suspicious so we looked at the unsigned cheque and it was from a different bank. So instead of going to draw out the money, we went to the police instead and they phoned him up and as soon as he realised who was on the phone he slammed the phone down and that was the last that we heard from him. If he wouldn't have been so rude to my wife on the phone, we may not have become suspicious and we would have been 1000 euros in the negative. That was close.
It was the best thing that could have happened when he was so rude to your wife on the 'phone. If it hadn't been for that you could have lost a fair bit of money!! I hope the police can trace him and stop him doing this to other people.
Oyvey! these scammers need to be in jail. glad you weren't totally taken advantage of. we have a buy/sell website we sometimes put stuff on... you have to be really careful as there are people who think you should ship them something at your expense after they have promised to send you a check or the day they have sent you the check... send it NOW! "sorry, until your check clears the bank my stuff stays right here! if you want it right now bring me cash." this happens all the time. there is a woman trying to sell her house somewhere (in another state south of us) that has "squatters " in her house... she can't make them move as someone listed her house on the site and rented it out as she is trying to sell it.. now she has to evict them and probably lose a sale due to the issue. We have a similar law here, too. if someone even gets one piece of mail in your mail box you can't make them leave you have to evict them through the court...
Trouble is the police are only local and the scammer is not local and the police do not have the resources to follow through on that case, most of those people are online in other parts of the world. The man didn't forget to sign the check, that was on purpose. By contacting him about it he knew he could go on the to next step of his scam. That scam has happened ( I think it is one of many versions of what is called "The Nigerian Bank Scam) to hundreds of people in the US and many of them have lost every cent they had and there is no way to get it back.
That is horrible Odif!! Thank goodness you called the police. It's no wonder I don't trust anyone these days.
Odif, I'm so sorry your new job turned out to be a scam. Anyone would be lucky, happy, and oh so fortunate to have you work in their garden. Think of all the people you may have saved from losing everything--you called the police, who will hopefully notify the website and this lowlife will be banned from that site. You were alert, did the right thing, and somehow you will be rewarded, if only by knowing you helped others.
I read your post, and it makes me wonder if we weren't working for the same person. My new boss also gave me some money in advance, and I accepted them because I desperately needed some cash. But then, when I cashed out the cheque, my boss began to act like I was his slave and I owed him.
I have 3 friends who have been scammed out of money, and another friend who figured it out just before she got scammed. All four are smart people who got taken in. The commonalities were being over 60, living alone, and getting panicked. The panic overrode their common sense & not having another person there in the house with them deprived them of the chance to bounce it off someone else.
The bummer is that I mentioned this to one of my single friends, I was trying to give her a heads-up as a warning and she just yessed me. Like most people she thought "that can never happen to me". She was one of my friends who lost all of her retirement savings.
I had a similar story, but in my case, I decided to look into a completely different career path afterward, something where I could have more control and avoid situations like that. I ended up finding some resources online that helped me figure out my next steps. If you’re thinking of changing direction too, there’s this guide that might be useful. It’s specifically for becoming a vet office manager, but it’s a good example of how you can find a niche and get some solid career advice without getting scammed again. You can check it out here: https://www.veterinaryschoolsu.com/vet-office-manager/
