Scam or not a scam, that is the question...

I got this email in response to sending my resume for a Commercial Construction Project manager, I removed the name;

Hello Applicant,

I have considered your Response to my Ad as posted on craigslist and I'm Impressed with your previous experience and your ability to Multi Task which will be an Edge in this offer.

My name is **, I am 54 years old, married with 3 wonderful children. I am a relatively successful entrepreneur and huge investor in the real estate market, which tends to be my main source of income.

I'm looking for someone that can be trusted and reliable to work very well with good understanding as my Personal Assistant. This position I am offering is home-based and flexible, working with me is basically about instructions and following them, my only fear is that I may come at you impromptu sometimes, so I need someone who can be able to meet up with my irregular timings. As my personal assistant, your activities amongst other things will include;

Duties and Requirements:

Scheduling programmers, flights and keeping me up-to-date with them. Handling and monitoring some of my financial activities. Processing weekly check payment. Filing, Faxing, Creating and sending out letters, scanning documents, some personal assistant duties for owners, and many other *Managing expenses and invoices

Basic wage is $650 weekly from start date.

I'm sure you'll understand I tend to have a very busy schedule at this point. Please note that this position is not office based for now because of my frequent travels and tight schedules, it's a part-time work from home for now and the flexibility means that there will be busier weeks than others. I would like to give you an immediate trial, so if you are interested kindly get back to me. As I have been checking my files and schedules and would need someone urgently to run some errands for me this week/next week, while I am away. I will have some funds sent to you to complete the errands and would get back to you with more information on that, get back to me with your Personal/Contact Details such as:

FULL NAMES: ADDRESS: CITY: STATE: ZIP CODE: HOME PHONE #: MOBILE PHONE#: SEX: EMAIL ADDRESS: PRESENT JOB: Nationality: Current Job:

Are you eligible to work in the United States? Yes _ No__

If you are under age 18, do you have an employment/age certificate? Yes No

How often do you check your email: __

Days/Hours Available: Hours Available: from _ to ______

What date are you available to start work? ____

Benefits:

• Yearly performance bonus
• Paid vacation/sick/personal days

Salary: - $650 weekly.

I will be looking forward to your Response.

What say you?

As soon as I see wonky capitalization I just immediately assume "scam."

Mess with him.

"I have considered your Response to my Ad as posted on craigslist and I'm Impressed with your previous experience and your ability to Multi Task which will be an Edge in this offer."

Scam.

If he wants all that crap listed at the bottom and he "has your resume", it's a scam.

"If you are under age 18, do you have an employment/age certificate? Yes No "

What the hell is an "employment/age certificate"? Non in this country. Scam. Gotta be Nigerians.

It is illegal to ask about gender in a job application. It is also illegal to ask about citizenship or nationality.

Perhaps not in Nigeria.

It is also unusual to say "Full Names", at least if you are a native English speaker, and are not looking for aliases.

Scam

Too many grammatical errors. Scam.

I'd send him your "SEX: EMAIL ADDRESS" and see what happens. Looks fishy to me as well.

"My name is **, I am 54 years old, married with 3 wonderful children."

An real employer is not going to start by telling about his family...

My name is **, I am 54 years old, married with 3 wonderful children. I am a relatively successful entrepreneur and huge investor in the real estate market, which tends to be my main source of income.

This is typical Nigerian ploy. Who the hell says this E36 M3 in the real world?

Since I do not see the play up front, I am going to guess that this is a deal where they will play you with a request to "Park some $$$" in your account until a deal is completed. They may even have advanced to the point where they will invest a paycheck or two into the venture.

Googled up "Personal Assistant Scam" and its all over the place. Here is how the game plays out:

t sounds weird but I send her my details anyways, I knew it was weird and I didn't think anything will happen, after a week she got back to me and said she sent a check to me for 3300 euros and to e-mail her when I get it. When I got the check I've e-mailed her and she asked me to put the check in my bank account and then take 2900 and send it to some other name - she said it's an Electric products company via WESTERN UNION, and then when my RED LIGHTS came up, now I've e-mailed her back saying i don't want to do that and I don't want to get involved in something illegal, she replayed the next 2 mails:

Of course I WON'T do it after I read everything online about those kinds of scams but i'm scared that she can use my information somehow and she knows where I live.... what can I do?!?

This should be your only response.

Please find the information you requested along with my resume at this link.

NSFW (and possibly your faith in humanity)

main point: if you are a successful entrepreneur, likely your english, communication, and hiring skills are better than this.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: This should be your only response. Please find the information you requested along with my resume at this link. NSFW (and possibly your faith in humanity)

You never cease to amaze me

I knew it was a scam, the listing was for a completely different position. I wouldn't be a very good personal assistant anyway. I couldn't figure out what the point of it was but I think NOHOME nailed it.

In reply to Nick_Comstock:

I think every "personal assistant" ad on CL is a scam. Not even exaggerating. Someone will have to enlighten me about what the scammer gets out of the receipt of a resume. Is is a step closer to identity theft?

Do people actually work for $650/week gross? What is that, like $400 after taxes?

In reply to EvanR:

There's not much I wouldn't do for $400 a week wink wink

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: This should be your only response. Please find the information you requested along with my resume at this link. NSFW (and possibly your faith in humanity)

Well, now I have to go bleach my brain. Thanks for that.

All grammar problems aside, it looks like they want to hire a scapegoat/fall guy.

Handling and monitoring some of my financial activities. Processing weekly check payment. Filing, Faxing, Creating and sending out letters, scanning documents, some personal assistant duties for owners, and many other *Managing expenses and invoices

Yeah just put your John Hancock on all my financial dealings which are totally not shady at all! $650 weekly!

EvanR wrote: Do people actually work for $650/week gross? What is that, like $400 after taxes?

I worked my entire life for less than that

wbjones wrote:

EvanR wrote: Do people actually work for $650/week gross? What is that, like $400 after taxes?

I worked my entire life for less than that

Helluva lot more than I make!

EvanR wrote: Do people actually work for $650/week gross? What is that, like $400 after taxes?

I know people that bust their ass, digging holes, carrying around very heavy E36 M3, mixing concrete, you know hard physical labor that get paid $8.50 per hour. That is $680 every two weeks. So yeah, people do work for much less than that.

In reply to Nick_Comstock:

And OTOH, my neighbor's daughter makes $400 cash in a single evening serving draft beer in yoga pants to "sports" fans.

In reply to Giant Purple Snorklewacker:

She's doing well, because the median wage for an individual in America is only $513.36 per week.

In reply to Nick_Comstock:

I'll admit that she has certain genetic assets that would make it hard for a great number of people to duplicate the success.

In reply to Giant Purple Snorklewacker:

She doesn't have Vajankles does she