I'm 20 and in college, looking for online work. I found a position on one site helping an art company with the business side of things and essentially working as a virtual assistant. It paid 25/hour (which seemed crazy awesome) and seemed pretty straightforward.
A few days later I got an email asking for an interview. He explained the details of the position:
- Design a spreadsheet for the data entry and to record every activities for the week i.e the sales, prices, expenses, such as your week-pay, and other expenses.
- Design an Invoice which will be issued out to the customers after every purchases
- You will be attending to all customer enquiries and refer them to you to complete the sales and record.
- You will be helping out with recruiting as we intend to expand consistently.
- You will need to pick up few supplies, such as printer, Ink, Envelope e.t.c. I will be responsible for the fees and charges involved.
He also explained I'd be paid 50/hour for now. Confused, I asked when the 50/hour would drop. He explained that the position paid 50/hour with potential to increase depending on any increase in workload. 50/hour with the basic requirements above cued warning bells, but I've decided to go with it, make sure not to give any personal information (bank, SS, etc.), and then just quite after a week if I'm not paid. I probed for more details, and he sent over a website for his company and details about what he does - it seems mostly legit. He makes art and sells it using an online platform with other artists. But obviously easy stuff to fake.
We couldn't get the video call set up, so he emailed me the list of questions, I replied back immediately saying I "passed" and he could proceed with giving me tasks (warning bells!! there's that little competition for a 50/hour position??) I was told to make a business spreadsheet for his expenses and to track artwork he was working on/had finished, who ordered it, the order number, date ordered, etc. I created this all-inclusive business spreadsheet for him (only took about an hour and a half) and sent it, along with an invoice. He emails back saying it looks great. He didn't request any changes, didn't ask how any of the functions or auto-calculations worked, just wanted to proceed with the next task.
Next, he wants to send me a check with my pay in advance and some extra so that I can buy letters/envelopes for "correspondences," business app subscriptions, and other office supplies. He's about to email me a check to deposit so that I can make these purchases.
Paying me up front makes it seem like less of scam, but I'm not sure why I have to make these purchases from my account with his money... (Cue more warning bells) Even if this is a scam, I'm not sure what the risks are with depositing this check. If it goes through, I actually get the money, and then use it to purchase office supplies, there's no risk I can see of him accessing my bank info or anything else.
Can anyone spot what's going on and whether depositing this check is a terrible idea? Someone mentioned money laundering to me, and I'm not terribly opposed to being involved in a not so legit company as long as I can deny knowledge of anything and I'm not personally at risk in any way because I sort of need a job right now. But I also want to be extra cautious because I can't afford to lose my life savings.
TL;DR: Paid 50/hour to do work a 12 year old can do. being sent $ to buy envelopes. is this a scam and what kind?
Submitted April 13, 2020 at 06:59PM by lefthandonthecoffee https://ift.tt/2K2E5Wl
