The return of money scam.  – This scam can take many forms.  I have seen it done when I was renting out rooms.  I also had a friend who had it happen for the shipping of his motorcycle that was for sale.  These two examples happened on Craigslist but keep in mind that it can happen in any marketplace and any type of exchange.  It involves receiving payment from someone who is remote. 

They will typically send you a money order for more money  than they actually owe.  Once they are sure you have received the payment or what looks like a payment, they will call you stating that they or someone on their behalf made a mistake and sent too much.  They then ask you to send back the surplus funds.  Sometimes they will tell you to even keep a small portion of the proceeds for yourself.

Chances are the money order is a fake and two to three weeks later, the bank will report it to you as such.  At that time it is too late and the thieves contact info no longer works.  Never accept money orders from other countries. 

Never accept money orders in remote situations within the US and if you do then make sure that the money clears before you actually act on the payment.  This could take several weeks.  Check with your bank on how to ensure that the transaction completed successfully.  

The fake IRS scam – Note that this isn’t the IRS performing the scam but someone impersonating an IRS agent.  The IRS impersonator will call you during the business day.  They will identify themselves as an agent and they will state their badge number.  The caller will typically have an accent but we have all seen and met government employees with accents.  The fake IRS agent will then tell you that you have filled out your taxes incorrectly and you have a short period to remedy the situation with a payment or you can choose to go to court and then they quote exorbitant court fees.  They are counting on you to go for the less expensive payoff. 

I recommend that you remain calm.  Do not get upset and holler at them  They will probably ask for your social security number.  If they are really the IRS, they will have all this information.  Tell them that you can’t give your social security number over the phone as your coworkers can hear.  Do not give them any information.  The IRS does not contact people in this manner.  The IRS will notify you by mail and if they need to speak with you, then they will provide a phone number.  Another version of this will come from an automated phone system which will leave you a voice mail to have you call them back.  You will notice that if you wait several hours or until the next day, then the number will no longer be valid. 

Don’t trust the phone coming in with an ID of IRS of something similar.  There is software out there and this can be done via an approach known as “spoofing” which is a digital way of masking their true identity.  If you are on the phone with them and they are making things difficult then tell them that your customer is calling out to you and ask for a return phone number.  Once again, that number will only be good for a very short period of time.  If you call several hours later or the next day, you will find that the number is no longer valid.

The box full of magazines scam. – I fell for this one.  There will be a car or truck driving through a parking lot of a mall or a neighborhood.  They will have boxes of electronics that look like they came in from the factory. 

In my case, it was a box that had thick shrink wrap on it along with the AOL compact disk and paper contain the branding of the product.  The thieves claimed to work for an electronics store and some of these boxes fell off the truck.  They took great care in shrink wrapping the boxes and finding advertisements which had all the right branding on it.  Then they filled the box with free car trader magazines that sit in the front of the grocery stores.  They also know how to pack the boxes to make them feel like the correct weight.  They also make sure that shaking the box doesn’t have too much play in it making it obvious that there isn’t electronics gear in the box. 

The crooks were asking for a $1000 dollars since computers in those days were going for about $2000.  I did talk them down to $300 but it still was a lot of money for a box of car trader magazines.  I’ll never forget seeing the car peel rubber as they left the parking lot.  Also, the car was a beater and didn’t have license plates.  I didn’t see that up front.  The thieves did a great job playing off of my greed.  Never buy the box that fell off the truck.

The Job Scam – Believe it or not there are even scams targeting job seekers.  The unscrupulous  potential employer may begin with seeking you out.  A potential employer will email you and tell you that they have seen your resume online and you would be a good candidate for a position they have in their company.  Some of these schemes can be quite elaborate.  The idea is to get you into their company.  They will ask you for information like name, address, and the scary one is Social Security number.  Then they will ask you to prepurchase items that you will need for the company on your own credit card.    All under the guise of repaying you.  Here is a list of what to look out for. 

The offer is too good to be true.

The initial email to you contains pay and benefits up front that you typically see after or at the end of an interview.

Companies that provide great pay for tasks that don’t require a lot of skill. 

    $20-$25 dollars an hour.

    20 hours per week.

    Receive shipments, Unpack the items and then pack them back up and ship. 

Free training while you get paid by the employer. 

    Lessons contain spelling and grammar errors. 

    Lessons contain different font sizes and line spacing. 

    It is obvious that the author is not a native English speaker

Prepay for company items on your own credit card.

Either no interview or a very lightweight interview that doesn’t last very long.

    It is obvious that the interviewer is not interviewing you with your resume in front of them.

    The interviewer does not ask for references 

They may have a website but it is sketchy.

    The site doesn’t look professional

    There is no way or it is difficult to contact someone to speak to personally.

Any of these issues on its own may not be a big deal but if you start seeing anyone of these issues then your radar should go up.  Trust your gut and be sure to do your due diligence.