Victim Location 99218
Total money lost $2,870
Type of a scam Fake Check/Money Order
I was contacted by David Shain saying he was an alum of the university and a nephew of Mary Kewell, who "just got transferred" (was going to work here) to work for Whitworth as an auditor from Canada and needed weekly pet sitting for 400$ weekly, and to contact Mary via email. Mary emailed me explaining herself as a 38 yr old widowed partially deaf person with 2 young dogs and asking for my name, residential and mailing address, age, phone number and days willing to work. She said se selected me to work for her and that I would be receiving a check for $2870 to cover "various things ranging from grooming items to new furniture and home décor for where I will be living, and her son has place someone in charge of that. But I could take $400 from this check for my first weeks pay and I should send the rest to "the clerk" to purchase these items to have them ready for my arrival. I said I would accept the opportunity. She then texted me that the check would arrive at my house and to text her when I receive it in the mail. She sent me the clerk’s mailing address and told me to deposit the check. After I deposited the check at my credit union’s ATM at their location, I called my credit union a 1/2 day later to ask when the funds will be released to me and said they are available after 2 days, but since I am at good standing with the credit union… the representative said that the funds are now released to me, that they are there in my account for me to use. I took that as what they said is true. Then Mary asked for me to withdraw the 2470, with me keeping "my" 400$, and send this cash to the clerk’s address via Fedex, next day air with signature service, which I proceeded to do. She asked for me to send her a picture of the shipping receipt. After I did this, I asked to be reimbursed for the money I spent on the shipping and magazine to ship the money in. Before this situation occurred, I have never been educated on what check fraud was and the classic signs of what to watch out for. During this whole process, I didn’t know to look for these signs in the way Mary was communicating to me or her actions because I didn’t suspect that anyone would do anything different if they were in her situation. I notified Crime Check of the situation with more details on April 12.