Have recently had my hours cut (isn't that a sign of the times?) so went online to look for another part-time job. Gosh - one stood out right away!! It was part-time, home-based. The job title was "office assistant" (but these kinds of jobs also are listed as "administrative assistant", "personal assistant"). The requirements sound reasonable - receive and send out mail, run errands, help busy executive with scheduling and purchasing airline tickets (things a regular administrative assistant does anyway).
So, I applied for one and received an IMMEDIATE response. In this case the CEO was a married woman with "two wonderful children" (that phrase alone put the hairs on the back of my neck up)...total strangers don't usually tell you how "wonderful" or "not wonderful" their children are. In fact, they usually don't discuss their family at all in a first email. She didn't have time for a proper interview as she was currently in Australia, but she LIKED my resume and felt confident I was the "right person" for this job.
She would, she said, (if I provided her with bank information) deposit an amount into my account with which I would buy toys for several orphanages (she would give me a list at a later time). She had a trustworthy admin. assistant, but the assistant became too ill to work (more likely, the poor thing was arrested).
The hairs on the back of my neck REALLY stood up. Why would I give any of my banking information to a total stranger? Why would a total stranger send me money without having met me? I am a notorious "Googler" - I don't trust anything except Google (sometimes I even Google stories heard on National Public Radio!). So I began to Google her name - nothing came up. I began to Google some of the so-called companies she represented and........................BINGO!!! Someone else wrote in to the FRAUD line - the letter he received was slightly different (but same premise) - the CEO who wrote him was a married man with "3 wonderful children" and could tell by his resume that he was the RIGHT person for the job. His CEO was in Great Britain, but like the one who wrote to me - said he would send him some money for some charities if the guy provided his banking information.
Let me warn you - in this time and age when jobs are rare - more and more money-launderers are using this ruse to get some unsuspecting person to launder their dirty (from drugs, or stolen) money. Oh yes, you might purchase airline tickets "for your boss" (whose name and address will be so fictitious no-one will ever find him/her) - but I guarantee you will be using some poor soul's stolen credit card. And the one who will get arrested is NOT this fictitious person in England or Australia - it will be you!!
It's a real shame, because being a real Administrative Assistant is a respectable profession and these money-launderers are using that term to catch anyone who might be jobless to do all their dirty deeds. I reported this person to the Fraud tip line and to the company who advertised the job, but for every one of these that falls, there are hundreds that spring up.
Be wary; be careful. If a job looks a little too good to be true....chances are - it is!! Don't ever give out your banking information to anyone, and don't give out your social security number either (unless you are signing a job contract face-to-face with a legitimate company or filling out an I-9).
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