Victim Location 60640
Type of a scam Fake Check/Money Order
The potential scammer reached out to me via email stating that they found me through my college that I will be attending to offer me a position as a personal assistant for her as she claimed she was in an engineering career and was researching in Brazil. She required a personal assistant to do tasks such as going to the bank, post office, and department stores on her behalf.
Here’s an excerpt from the first email she sent: “ I am looking to hire a motivated and organized person who is quick to learn. Successful applicant will have a positive attitude and ability to remain detail-oriented while performing several tasks is important. Someone who can handle financial/confidential matters and provide basic admin/office support as needed. I need someone who can work twice a week — ideally Tuesday and Thursday.
Pay rate: $17.00-$21.50 per hour
Hours: 10-25 hours per week.
All tasks can be completed remotely at your current location this summer. The job is available immediately and doesn’t have a set duration, though we would like to have someone stay until September/year round in order to provide coverage for employees on vacation.
For more information, reply to this email. I will be happy to send you more info regarding the duties and compensation. Please send your resume, availability and salary requirement.
I look forward to hearing from you!
Susana Llerenas-Ozoria”
The second email after I responded wanting more information about the position is below. At this time I still thought it was a legitimate work opportunity:
“Thank you for your email, I hope this message finds you well. In addition to working full time in one career as an engineering consultant, I am physically in Manaus, Brazil right now conducting a research on bauxite and gold mining in the Amazonas so I expect my time to be quite limited as I focus on these two full time endeavors. I’m looking to hire a personal assistant to support me in variety of areas; someone who can perform specific business tasks as I assign them. This might include running various errands such as:
Buying Items from departmental stores
Drop off documents to the post office and locations in town
Occasional bill payments
Light shopping and occasional trips to the bank
Requirement:
-Ability to work independently and confidently
-Ability to work efficiently and multi – task
-Ability to meet deadlines in a timely fashion, prioritize assignments (with little supervision)
-Trustworthiness
-Willingness to take direction, positive can do attitude
Pay period: Weekly, bi-weekly
Compensation: $19.00/hour
Travel expenses and mileage will be compensated
Work hours will vary from 10-25 hours weekly. The hours are flexible so you can spread those hours on your own time. How many hours can you work for every week?
All tasks can be completed remotely so long you have access to the post office and departmental stores in your city.
I need someone who is very flexible and is an enthusiastic learner. I will maintain a fair degree of flexibility in terms of working around your other commitments, provide clear set of instructions for each task and adequate funds to cover all expenses. I am looking to hire someone for this role immediately so let me know if you are available to fill this role.
Please advise,
Thank you!
Susana Llerenas-Ozoria
I still thought it was a real work opportunity at this point so I accepted the position. The scammer responded asking for my mailing info to send paychecks to. I sent her my mailing address and asked if there were any forms I would need to complete for tax purposes. She stated she would have the forms at a later date (August 3, 2019-nine days from that time). This seemed suspicious to me that she couldn’t provide the forms immediately and before employment would begin. They later sent me an email stating that they would mail me a check to deposit into my account to cover expenses for the tasks she would assign in the future. A check for nearly $2000 was sent to me before even speaking to me on the phone. This seemed even more suspicious so I asked her if we could chat by video conference call and she said she was unable to do that until she received her “satellite phone” even though she was able to send me emails and texts. I then decided this was likely a scam after researching online scams where victims were sent checks in similar scenarios.