Ben Richmond - Angela Wilson -Melissa Lewis Money Order Scam on craigslist.org Internet
On Oct 3, 2009, I saw a job posting for Customer service attendants on www.craigslist.org. I applied for the position ad and was notified via email by Ben Richmond (benrichmond200961@live.com) about being a mystery shopper. We have been corresponding via email about going to various location and observing employees performing customer service. My job was to observe the employee and send a report about the experience to Ben Richmond. On October 22, 2009, Ben Richmond sent a UPS package containing two money orders which were in the amount of $950.00 a piece in total $1900. He also sent me an email with my first assignment which stated that I was to go to Fiesta Mart inc # 20 located on 8320 fm 1960 rd, Houston Texas 77070 and send $1700 to Karl Simons, 16 Old Oxford Road, London, United Kingdom. For my services I was paid $200. I completed the assignment on October 23, 2009 and sent him a report that same day. On October 24, 2009 Ben Richmond sent me assignment # 2, however I told him I could no longer be a mystery shopper because he wanted me to send large sums of money and I didn't feel right about the transaction that took place the day before. Therefore he insisted that I do the second assignment and I told him "no". I received another package sent via UPS on October 27, 2009 but I returned it to the sender and notified Ben Richmond but he has not responded to my email. On October 28, 2009 I checked my bank account and noticed that my account is in the negative. Now, I have to repay my bank which is Bank of America $1900 because the money orders were fake. I would never try to hurt anyone, let alone scam anyone and I have been scammed. I don't know what to do because that is a large sum of money that I have to pay back. I should have initially went with my gut or intuition and prayed about my choices before I accepted those money orders. There is nothing like a bought lesson. The bank, police and FBI will not help. Please stay away from www. craigslist.org, don't take money orders or any type of payment via internet and last but not least do not take the easy way out in life to make fast money. Unfortunately, there are too many dishonest people out there and I dont want the same mistake to happen to anyone.
I was misled and used and I am to be blame for being so stupid to fall for a scam like that. I need your help to track Ben Richmond or least give me some advice on what to do about my situation. Please help. I
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Flynrider
Phoeix,Arizona,
U.S.A.
Not much you can do.
#2Consumer Comment
Thu, October 29, 2009
The scammers have worked this out so that there is very little chance of their getting caught. When you send money via Western Union or Moneygram, it is virtually untraceable. In addition, when you send it to another country that insures that no single law enforcement agency has jurisdiction over the transaction. Given these two circumstatnces, there is very little you can do about this situation.
There are numerous other scams on the Internet that are ripping people off (i.e. fake loans, fake buyers for cars), but they all have one thing in common. They require the victim to wire a large sum using Western Union or Moneygram. Legitimate businesses to do not require you to send money this way.