what to do?

violetmva · 21 February 2006 at 4:30PM

I was so stupid to reply to a link from an email and now my bank account is close because of a fraud.It was EcoLife -Company. This is what they wrote:

If You are firm of purpose, active and are willing to earn some cash,
then this offer is for You. The EcoLife Company is one of the largest
cleansing facility dealers in the world. Every year we go out to the
markets of different countries, keep and eye and study the demand and
sales-market in every new country. As a result of our move to the market of
Germany, Belgium, United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, France and Greece we
are having temporary employee recruitment for the position of a financial
manager. It is required for You to be:
Honest and executive

- You must have a bank account
- You must have several free time hours per day
- You must have a phone number we can get through to You
- You must have an email address

The fact that You need no specialized knowledge or some sort of
financial investment is sure an indisputable bonus of our partnership. The job
we are offering to You consists of receiving bank wire transfers from
our clients and partners on to Your bank account. Once the money is on
Your account, You must send it to the customer’s representative office
that has the wares purchased by the customer in stock either via the
Western Union or via the Money Gram. For Your service You get from 5% to
7% from the total amount of transferred funds. The EcoLife Company
covers all other Western Union and Money Gram fees and costs.
Your service won’t be needed on a constant basis, but only for the time
of our sales-market study in Your region and also for the time of
registration of all necessary papers and the corporative accounts opening.
You don’t just earn cash by working with us, but also help saving and
cleaning our endangered environment.
If You have any questions, please contact us via email:

info@swiss-eco-life.be

Special offer!
In order to work with us, you even may not have a bank account. You are
welcome to consult our manager via the e-mail regarding this offer.

The EcoLife Company is very grateful and thankful for Your attention to
our offer. https://www.monster.com supplied us with Your email at our desire
because Your email address has been subscribed to the job-offer
advertisements by You or someone else.

Best wishes to You

Klaus Preiss
EcoLife Company Administration

So i replied, as i needed to pay for my bills. I thought there was something dodgy when they made the first transfer and there was no information where the money was coming from. I received an email saing i should send the money with moneygram to russia - i did that, and tried to call the adviser who called to confirm that i got the money, but there was noone on the number i got. Next day i got another mail and there was another transfer without my permition. I did what they told me to do, and when they called to confirm i sent the money i told them i don't want anything to do with them anymore, i sent an email as well. But the damage was done and now i don't know what to expect. Am i going to go in jail for this? Or are my other accounts are going to be closed?
Please give me some advice!

hjb123 · 21 February 2006 at 4:38PM

Have they taken alot of money?

When you get emails like this NEVER respond to them! They are 99.999% of the time scams! Well actually i would say probably 100% of the time!

violetmva · 21 February 2006 at 4:42PM

no. the thing is is they didn't take any of my money, but maybe they have taken it from someone else to put it in my account.

hjb123 · 21 February 2006 at 5:02PM

Have you been in touch with your bank to see what they say - they may be able to give you some advice and tell you what to do!

violetmva · 21 February 2006 at 5:09PM

they want a proof of where the money's from, which i don't have. I've only got the emails they've sent and i don't think it will help. I'm so frightened to even call my bank. But i guess i have to do it, even if they get me handcuffed out of the bank.

-=Mr-J=- · 21 February 2006 at 6:01PM

This is a known money laundering scam -
You should contact your bank and take advice immediately.

Take a look at this randomly searched article.
Do a web search on EcoLife Scam, and will find plenty more results.

At the end of the day, you have fell for the scam and realised it, the most you should lose is your dignity (and possibly your bank account number) - although I am certainly no expert in this, honesty is the best policy and silence (in the UK) is no defence.

Stonk · 21 February 2006 at 6:51PM

My suspicion is that the transfer they made into your account will very shortly be retracted, leaving you in the position of having sent your *own* money by Western Union - which you will have zero chance of getting back.

Isn't that how these scams work? Just because you see money in your bank account, doesn't mean it is necessarily cleared and staying there for good.

Either that or it's laundered criminal money and you should notify the police. That will look better than waiting for them to notify you ...

Bossyboots · 21 February 2006 at 7:14PM

Unfortunately I agree with Stonk's view of this.

I think the OP should be totally upfront with the bank and show them the e-mail received. There is then the faint hope that they may refuse the money recall. Otherwise, they may report this for money laundering anyway. Better to admit to having been caught out and have some chance to redeem the situation than be thought of as laundering money and all that will involve.

violetmva · 21 February 2006 at 8:36PM

Thank you all very much for your support. Tomorrow i'm going to the bank to deal with this. Will write again to let you know what happened. Hope noone else is going to do what i did.

whitty999 · 21 February 2006 at 9:28PM

I have been recieving these emails also nearly everyday,So glad i did not get into it,Wasn't sure at first but did read it and thought about it,Please let us know how you get on,I hope it all goes well for you,I am sure you will not go to prison for this,Explain to your bank and take a copy of the email.
Thinking of you x

Justicia · 21 February 2006 at 10:31PM

Stonk wrote:

Isn't that how these scams work? Just because you see money in your bank account, doesn't mean it is necessarily cleared and staying there for good.

Yep, it's a means of money laundering and also has links to the Nigerian (and Russian) scamming rings...

With you acting as a representative for your "employers," a "client" (possibly a third party who is unaware of this payment being made) sends you a payment by paper means. You then pay this into your bank account and it appears to be cleared and the money is credited to your account. As agreed with your "employer," you then send the majority of these funds to them via Western Union (highly likely form of transfer used) minus a percentage that you keep as commission for doing such a fine job.

A few weeks later, your bank then contacts you to advise that the payment cheque was actually a very good fake and therefore the full money amount that you thought had cleared (and subsequently was paid by the bank into your account) becomes a debit against your account, resulting in you actually owing the FULL amount (normally a fair few thousand) to your bank.

You contact your "employers" to query this situation and "DING DONG!," it would appear that their e-mail addresses no longer work and you cannot contact them again...

Youy end up with a severe debt with an unforgiving bank and may also possibly get some grief from your local Police in regards to cashing fraudulent cheques.

violetmva; be proactive in seeking a solution to this situation, get to your bank with copies of all of your e-mails, other related documents, etc., and see what they suggest.

Hope that it get resolved.

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