Is this a scam and if so, what?

dianauni

Recently I saw an ad in a magazine published on the Costa del Sol for ex-pats asking for homeworkers to work just a few hours a week and to earn over £3,000 a month plus benefits which were uspecified. The company is a textile company based in Utah USA. They need people to process cheques for them as they take a shorter time to clear in Europe than in the States. They asked for a few personal details but no banking information and offered 20% commission on each cheque to be deducted when the cheque had cleared. It was not made clear if this was in addition to or included in the monthly salary which, let's face it, is a large sum of money for just a few hours work. They stated that a contract would be necessary.
After two weeks of silence I received, to my surprise, an e-mail saying I would shortly receive a cheque and reminding me to deduct 20% when it had cleared No contract has been sent.

Has anyone seen this type of advert in other publications and if they have answered what has been the outcome please?

Jo_F

Isn't this the one where you bank the cheques, take your bit, and then send the rest of the money on to them, and then find out that the cheque bounced and your account is now hideously overdrawn?

asea

moneylaundering perhaps?

Chollita

I hate to be rude,but is it not obvious that this is a scam? You seriously think it could be possible to earn £3000 for say, 12 or 15 hours work? That would be £200 an hour - hell, if it were possible to earn that legally, we'd all be trying it.

Also consider this:

-I don't know much about the US banking system, but their 'reason' for wanting to process cheques in Europe can probably be easily disproved.

-The company either won't exist, or is a front for moneylaundering.

-I would guess that they are targeting expats who have problems getting a job because they don't speak the language well enough. I also live in Spain, and see numerous similar ads on jobs websites (written in English). They are usually characterised by spelling errors which make it blatantly obvious that they are not native speakers. These ads also try to appear plausible by giving the company's 'address' and the name of the MD or whoever, but give themselves away by spelling the name something like Peter Williams, but the email address as peterwiliams (note missing L), and it's always a webmail address (surely a company doing that much business would have its own domain name?)

Must say, Jo and Asea put it so much more succinctly :rotfl:

dianauni

Thank you for your replies confirming my own thoughts.

Chollita

Diana, go to Loquo.com and look for your nearest site. In the jobs sections (especially part-time), you will see loads of these dodgy ads.

I can appreciate it is difficult for expats to earn a living. I speak Spanish reasonably well, but not the local language (Catalan), which many jobs require, and the usual expat jobs of teaching, call centres or barwork do not appeal.

Hope you can find something suitable.