Scammed, Getting My Life Back

First here's a little back story, I am 20 years old trying to find a new job so that I can get my first apartment. I have to find this apartment by June 1st and move in by that day as well. I've been looking for a job since the middle of March. I use Care.com to find nannying or babysitting jobs. Currently I only have one gig driving 2 great kids to school, but that only makes $50 a week. 

So I am applying to babysitting jobs. I have a job set up for September, but I need a job for between now and then.  I came across an ad by a woman reguarding her son, Michail. Nothing suspicious about it at all. Twenty dollars an hour for full time work! I was ecstatic when I heard back from her asking for my email so she could give me more information about the job and see if I was a good fit. 

She sent me an email about how they haven't moved into their new apartment yet and they were from Kansas. That seemed potentially unsusal but I kept persuing the job. She said she was hard of hearing and could only communicate through writing or reading lips. She asked if I would have a problem with this. I said of course not! I even know a little sign language and thought that could help.

As our emails continued, she said that I got the job. I was excited because I knew that this job would mean I would make the money I needed in time for the apartment. She said I would start at the end of April. That's when she and her son would be in Chicopee. 

But then I got the email that changed everything. She said she was going to send me some money to give to a toy seller that was going to be in town and she wanted me to purchase the toys for her son. 

I've been scammed before and this sounded very suspisious. I told her I'd been scammed before and expected her not to reply to me again. But then she replied the day after. So I decided I would continue to look for work but also stay with this woman in case she really was legit. If the check cleared, I would do what she asked me to do. She was going to send me $500 to secure me as her sitter and as payment for doing what she asked me to do, plus whatever she needed to pay the toy seller. 

When I recieved the check, I deposited it immediately. My bank allows all funds to be available right after you deposit checks, but that doesn't mean the check has cleared. The next morning, it appeared as though the check had cleared, it was no longer a "pending" transaction. So I did the Walmart to Walmart transfer she asked me to do, which was supposedly going to the toy seller. This still felt really strange to me, I was very anxious about the whole thing, but you do silly things when you're desparate. I transfered the money she asked me to, $2450.00 to Simon Aktorah in TX.

There was still $470 of the money she sent me left for the toy seller, I wasn't sure why this was until she texted me again an hour later after I had gone home to go to CVS now and transfer the rest. 

That was it. That's when I stopped replying to her. I texted her the next morning saying I was going to call the police because I felt this was a scam and she never contacted me again. I thought I had just been very smart and in the end got $1000 from a scam. I was proud and excited that I would be able to make my bills this month. 

That didn't last long. I checked my bank account a couple days later and all my money was gone and the money I had transfered was now negative in my bank acount. The chack had bounced. It never had cleared.

The bank won't give me my money back. I'm going to get charged for the check bouncing and for my acount being negative. I can't pay my bills for my car or the insurance. I'm still looking for a job and I don't know what to do. I know I was silly and got myself into this mess, but I would really appreciate any amount of help. Every cent counts!

Thank you all for taking the time to read my story.