I recently bought some LDS books on ebay, and a week later received this email from the seller : Hello Kellen, this is Dean - you recently made a purchase from me on Ebay. I also work as the US affiliate of a German company and I want to take a vacation for a couple of weeks. I'm writing you because I need an Ebay member, with Internet access, to fill in for me until I return. If your schedule allows you to work one hour a day - weekdays only, for about one month, and if you could use an extra income (11% of the transactions) please let me know. Best Regards, Dean So ..this sounded good so i emailed him back asking for more details. I think this is a scam but im still not sure... I then got this email.. Many people - including myself, prefer to pay for merchandise with Paypal. European merchants, like the company that I work for (Agile Electronic GmbH) don't have the option of withdrawing funds from Paypal directly to the company bank account, therefore their ability of receiving paypal payments is limited. What I do, as their affiliate payment processor is quite simple: I am notified when a customer wants to pay with paypal (the amount and date of the payment). After the buyer has completed the payment to my account I have to confirm the receipt so they can ship the product. I keep 11% of each payment (my commission) and send them the remaining via Western Union. Of course, you will keep the entire commission for the period that I will be away, should be about $300 / week, depending on the company sales. If you think you can handle it I can ask Mr. Schneider - the manager, to send you full instructions. Please let me know at your earliest convenience, I want to settle this before I leave. Best Regards,
and then i received this email from the "manager" Dear Sir,
Our affiliate in the United States of America sent me a request to forward you details and conditions regarding the temporary affiliate position available.
We currently need a temporary affiliate to process our incoming Paypal payments sent by customers in The United States. We are selling new with warranty electronic products and accessories, retail and wholesale (Handy's, Kamera, Digital Surround System, Notebooks). Our customers in the United States that prefer to pay with Paypal will be instructed to send the payments to your account. I will inform you in advance before receiving each payment. After the receipt of each payment we need you to send us a confirmation e-mail with the Sender's Name, Address, Paypal Email and the exact amount sent so we can validate the order.
You will retain your commission directly from payments, then deposit the rest of it into our Corporate Bank Account. We are estimating an average of three payments weekly, on amounts up to 1,000 USD.
Your commissions are in between 7% and 11% of the total amounts received and processed, depending on your deposit schedule and the processing duration.
You can stop processing our payments at any time as long as all the transfers are completed. We do ask you to inform us about it one week in advance.
Please let me know if you find the temporary position suitable for you.
Respectfully, Herr Erich Schneider
Sales Manager Agile Electronik GmbH Robert-Bosch Str. 17 D-71088 Holzgerlingen Deutschland
So my question is, Do you think this is a scam? and if so, what are they going to do that will scam me. And will it hurt to play along with them?? Any Help would be GREATLY appreciated
Posted by Jay (Member # 5786) on :
Interesting….. They might be trying to somehow get bank account info from you. Work you into their trust then BAM.
Posted by Lanfear (Member # 7776) on :
See thats the thing... Im a 15 year old and my bank account has like 50 USD in it.. and im gonna spend it in like a week.. so we'll see
Posted by Morbo (Member # 5309) on :
I think Jay is right. This in particular seems like an outright lie, and is the whole reason they need an "temporary affiliate":
quote: European merchants, like the company that I work for (Agile Electronic GmbH) don't have the option of withdrawing funds from Paypal directly to the company bank account, therefore their ability of receiving paypal payments is limited.
A legitimit business can't use Paypal, just because they're European?? I highly doubt that.
Also, why would they pick you, a random e-bay buyer, to be an employee, who will process money? That doesn't make ANY sense.
99% it's a scam.
Posted by Morbo (Member # 5309) on :
You could also be helping them launder money or something else illegal.
Please don't give these people ANY personal info without exhaustive research.
Posted by Will B (Member # 7931) on :
Go to the Paypal site and click on the Worldwide link. You'll find a variety of countries that have paypal sites (Germany's one) and more that can still do the direct-deposit thing. The few that can't interact directly are small and won't have much eBay business, I think.
[ July 01, 2005, 11:32 AM: Message edited by: Will B ]
Posted by Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged (Member # 7476) on :
This sounds like an updated Nigerian internet scam.
Posted by Katarain (Member # 6659) on :
Send it to snopes.
Posted by Jon Boy (Member # 4284) on :
You mean that was a scam?! Posted by Lanfear (Member # 7776) on :
I just don't see how they can scam me, if there going to send money to my paypal, and then i just send it to them....and keep my "comission" I personally think its doing something illegal. Ill keep you all updated though
Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :
I would report it to both Ebay and Paypal as well.
Posted by Morbo (Member # 5309) on :
quote:Originally posted by Lanfear: I just don't see how they can scam me, if there going to send money to my paypal, and then i just send it to them....and keep my "comission" I personally think its doing something illegal. Ill keep you all updated though
If you transfer money from an account of yours to an account of theirs, they can use that info against you, perhaps. Millions of people get suckered by phishers, don't be one of them.
Posted by Katarain (Member # 6659) on :
A friend of my husband's did something similar for someone on the internet. Federal agents showed up at his door--it wasn't clean money. Luckily, he didn't go to prison because he agreed to help get the other guy.
You don't get something for nothing. Don't be naive.
-Katarain
Posted by Morbo (Member # 5309) on :
quote:Originally posted by Farmgirl: I would report it to both Ebay and Paypal as well.
I meant to say this earlier.
Cons work by stroking the greed of the victim. Don't be blinded by imaginary commisions!! Posted by ill malkier (Member # 8244) on :
quote:Originally posted by Morbo: Also, why would they pick you, a random e-bay buyer, to be an employee, who will process money? That doesn't make ANY sense.
99% it's a scam.
99.99999999% it's a scam.
And you're only, what, 15? And they'd be trusting you with $1000+ ??
Now, I bet you are trustworthy, but NO company I know of would trust $$ to a 15-year-old.
Internet scams are all over. I'd say forward the messages to Paypal and Ebay, and leave it alone.
Posted by Stray (Member # 4056) on :
Sounds like either a phishing scam or money laundering to me. Even if they aren't trying to get your account info, the money that's moving around could still be dirty. Definitely report it to Ebay and Paypal.
Posted by TMedina (Member # 6649) on :
quote:Originally posted by Murphy: If it sounds too good to be true, it is.
-Trevor
Posted by Morbo (Member # 5309) on :
Posted by Belle (Member # 2314) on :
Do not, do not, do not fall for this!
Report it now.
I know I'm just repeating what others have said...but I can't not say something.
Think about it. You're a company that relies on employees to move around cash for you. So, one employee is going to be out for vacation. What do you do?
Oh, well how about pick some random person on the net you've never met in person and send all your money to them! That's a good idea!
No legitimate company would ever, ever do this. It's got to be a scam.
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
Want a really scary reason to report it: There are crimes, especially federal crimes, where your knowledge of whether what your doing is illegal doesn't matter. Even if you truly believe their story, you could be found guilty of something if it's a scam.
Posted by 1lobo1 (Member # 7762) on :
Stay away and report. The potential consequences are not worth whatever benefit you MAY get out of it...
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
Think of this: if someone was going away and not going to be able to see junk on ebay, why not just shut down the shop for a while instead of keeping it running and letting someone else keep the profits? Makes no sense. Disengage communication and notify ebay's and paypal's fraud divisions.
Don't be a sucker. Even if you have zip in your checking account, your information can still be used by identity theives, and your credit rating can be harmed.
Advice from your Tante, Esther
Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :
I disagree; please do keep in touch with these people. In the spirit of pure scientific inquiry, I want to see just how their scam works. Your money is eminently expendable when I'm curious about something.
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
Send it to ebay's fraud department. I'm sure they'll be most interested to see that this is going on.
Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :
The FBI also has an internet fraud unit. You send them the e-mail along with the message source and they at least make a record of it.
There is no way this is legitimate. And you'll just end up finding out afterwards that they were able to do something extremely clever that you hadn't thought of that somehow costs you big time.
Don't fall for it.
Posted by Shan (Member # 4550) on :
And someone's also running a PayPal scam, trying to get more personal information with a VERY authentic looking e-mail warning about "unusual activity on your account" . . . what is suspicious about this is that I don't have a PayPal account . . . and yet I received an email at both work and home . . .
Report, and stay clear and free.
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
They would get your bank info this way, your paypaly info, and also they would be able to take payments and not ship the items.
Since you took the customers money, YOU would be liable for any damages they would seek for fraud, and would be facing federal charges and possibly international INTERPOL charges for fraud.
Posted by Troubadour (Member # 83) on :
The way this works, they send you a huge cheque, get you to take your "cut" and send the rest on to them.
The money becomes available at the usual check clearing time, unfortunately because the check is from overseas, it takes a little longer to actually clear than a normal cheque.
So you send on their share thinking you've gotten a nice little sum for very little work and the next thing you know you've been hit with repaying the 89% you passed on to them because it never existed in the first place and you've bit hit with one of the little loopholes of international finance.
It's a fairly common scam.
Posted by docmagik (Member # 1131) on :
You'll also want to contact Western Union. They can pass along the details and not only contact the appropriate FBI agencies, but also notify Western Union agents to be on the look out for the scam, and hopefully save some people some money.
If you read the EBay site, they talk about Western Union transactions, and they explain that just about anything involving EBay and Western Union is a scam.
Actually, pretty much anybody who's asking you to send them money Western Union who isn't having you do a Quick Collect with a specific code city is scamming you.
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