Luke Got Scammed
Donation protected
Hello,
My name is Luke Manning and I am a current sophomore at Manhattan College. I am double majoring in Marketing and International Business and I have a Minor in Mandarin Chinese. I am originally from a small town just outside of Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
A few weeks ago I recieved an email on my student email from what I thought was a potential employer. This employer said that she had found my resume on my schools career website which I had been using recently to apply for jobs and internships. This woman was named Larissa McClain and she said she worked for a company called Reality Based Group and that they hired mystery shoppers to perform performance evaluations on a variety of different shops and restaurants. Little did I know that this woman was impersonating a legitamate company and would eventually scam me out of $1,610.
After speaking with her through several emails about the job position and what all I would be doing she asked for my mailing information to send me my first assignment, I gave her my school mailbox number and the next day I recieved a package. In this overnighted FedEx package there was a check for $1,860.
The woman told me that I would be reviewing the performance of Walmarts Moneygram service. Being firmilar with the service I didn't see anything sketcky about what she was asking me to do and I had never heard of a Moneygram or Western Union scam (it may shock some people but I don't spend my day looking up different kind of scams on the internet). The woman told me to take a $250 commission for my first evaluation and she sent me a review form to fill out with various questions about the Moneygram process. The woman told me to cash the $1,860 check and then to take the money, minus my commission, and then send the rest via Moneygram to someone who would then review the recieving process. I deposited the check into my Bank of America account the next day and was able to withdraw the funds in full the day after that.
I completed the process and took my time to fill out the report form in detail, in total the whole process took me around two and a half hours. At the time I didn't think the $250 seemed like such a crazy amount of money to earn once or twice a month for going somewhere and filling out a detailed report form, I had no idea that real mystery shoppers make around $10 to $20 per review and not $250. After sending in the report form "Larissa" told me I had done a great job and she would be in contact with me soon to do another evaluation.
A few days later she contacted me and told me I would be performing the same evaluation and she sent me another check, this time for $2,160. I became a little more concerned so instead of looking into the company she was impersonating I looked into her name. At first I didn't find anything but after digging through several pages of Google I came across a mystery shopping form where a college student posted the same situation as mine. The people on the form informed him that this was indeed a Moneygram scam and not to get involved, even the company who the woman was impersonating posted on the form and said that they had no involvement with this "Larissa McClain." I began to post on the form and told them my story, the people on the form told me that the check would eventually be bounced as they assured me it was a fake check. Luckily I didn't send the other check.
A few days later I looked at my bank account, and Bank of America had debited my account for the amount of the first check and had taken everything I had out of my bank account. The next thing I knew I was unable to even look at my bank account so I called BofA and they informed me that they had closed my account due to the fact that I had deposited a fake check. I started to freak out and tried to explain to them what happened but they didn't care they said that I now owed them money. I went to my local police department and filed a police report and I also filed a report with the FBI's division of internet scams known as the IC3.
I informed my college that I believe that this person did in fact find my information through my school but the school seems to want to take as little involvement as they can. I have no doubt that this scammer did indeed find my information through my schools career website but the question is how and what can we do to prevent this from happening again.
Bank of America now says I owe them a total of $1,427.39 since they took everything out of my bank account. They have also listed me in the CHEX System as a fradulant client and I am unable to open a checking or savings account with any bank anywhere for 5+ years. Until I pay this amount off I will be listed in their system as a fradulant client, I am trying to appeal this with the CHEX System by sending them copies of my police and IC3 report but it may take several months for this process to get completed.
The quickest way I have to ensure that I can continue to have good standings with banks and my credit is to pay off the entire amount of the debt owed and make an appeal to the CHEX System with the information I have filed. I am pleading with anyone who is able to help me out to please provide me with any assistance you can. I am a college student who is currently working an on campus job and writing for an online newspaper. I was an orientation leader at my college this past year and I have been very involved with my college.
I know this story might sound crazy and you might be saying "Well you were stupid enough to fall for this." But I assure you that this scam seemed very legitimate and the only reason I believed in it as much as I did was because I thought it came directly from my schools career website, I thought I could trust it but I shouldn't have been so naive.
I appreciate you taking time to read this long story and I appreciate any donation that anyone can contribute. I am trying to work as hard as I can to pay this back as quick as I can and I am currently looking to take on a second job to help make ends meet with this. I realize I probably won't obtain my full goal of $1,610 to make up for what the bank took from me and the check but anything will help.
My name is Luke Manning and I am a current sophomore at Manhattan College. I am double majoring in Marketing and International Business and I have a Minor in Mandarin Chinese. I am originally from a small town just outside of Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
A few weeks ago I recieved an email on my student email from what I thought was a potential employer. This employer said that she had found my resume on my schools career website which I had been using recently to apply for jobs and internships. This woman was named Larissa McClain and she said she worked for a company called Reality Based Group and that they hired mystery shoppers to perform performance evaluations on a variety of different shops and restaurants. Little did I know that this woman was impersonating a legitamate company and would eventually scam me out of $1,610.
After speaking with her through several emails about the job position and what all I would be doing she asked for my mailing information to send me my first assignment, I gave her my school mailbox number and the next day I recieved a package. In this overnighted FedEx package there was a check for $1,860.
The woman told me that I would be reviewing the performance of Walmarts Moneygram service. Being firmilar with the service I didn't see anything sketcky about what she was asking me to do and I had never heard of a Moneygram or Western Union scam (it may shock some people but I don't spend my day looking up different kind of scams on the internet). The woman told me to take a $250 commission for my first evaluation and she sent me a review form to fill out with various questions about the Moneygram process. The woman told me to cash the $1,860 check and then to take the money, minus my commission, and then send the rest via Moneygram to someone who would then review the recieving process. I deposited the check into my Bank of America account the next day and was able to withdraw the funds in full the day after that.
I completed the process and took my time to fill out the report form in detail, in total the whole process took me around two and a half hours. At the time I didn't think the $250 seemed like such a crazy amount of money to earn once or twice a month for going somewhere and filling out a detailed report form, I had no idea that real mystery shoppers make around $10 to $20 per review and not $250. After sending in the report form "Larissa" told me I had done a great job and she would be in contact with me soon to do another evaluation.
A few days later she contacted me and told me I would be performing the same evaluation and she sent me another check, this time for $2,160. I became a little more concerned so instead of looking into the company she was impersonating I looked into her name. At first I didn't find anything but after digging through several pages of Google I came across a mystery shopping form where a college student posted the same situation as mine. The people on the form informed him that this was indeed a Moneygram scam and not to get involved, even the company who the woman was impersonating posted on the form and said that they had no involvement with this "Larissa McClain." I began to post on the form and told them my story, the people on the form told me that the check would eventually be bounced as they assured me it was a fake check. Luckily I didn't send the other check.
A few days later I looked at my bank account, and Bank of America had debited my account for the amount of the first check and had taken everything I had out of my bank account. The next thing I knew I was unable to even look at my bank account so I called BofA and they informed me that they had closed my account due to the fact that I had deposited a fake check. I started to freak out and tried to explain to them what happened but they didn't care they said that I now owed them money. I went to my local police department and filed a police report and I also filed a report with the FBI's division of internet scams known as the IC3.
I informed my college that I believe that this person did in fact find my information through my school but the school seems to want to take as little involvement as they can. I have no doubt that this scammer did indeed find my information through my schools career website but the question is how and what can we do to prevent this from happening again.
Bank of America now says I owe them a total of $1,427.39 since they took everything out of my bank account. They have also listed me in the CHEX System as a fradulant client and I am unable to open a checking or savings account with any bank anywhere for 5+ years. Until I pay this amount off I will be listed in their system as a fradulant client, I am trying to appeal this with the CHEX System by sending them copies of my police and IC3 report but it may take several months for this process to get completed.
The quickest way I have to ensure that I can continue to have good standings with banks and my credit is to pay off the entire amount of the debt owed and make an appeal to the CHEX System with the information I have filed. I am pleading with anyone who is able to help me out to please provide me with any assistance you can. I am a college student who is currently working an on campus job and writing for an online newspaper. I was an orientation leader at my college this past year and I have been very involved with my college.
I know this story might sound crazy and you might be saying "Well you were stupid enough to fall for this." But I assure you that this scam seemed very legitimate and the only reason I believed in it as much as I did was because I thought it came directly from my schools career website, I thought I could trust it but I shouldn't have been so naive.
I appreciate you taking time to read this long story and I appreciate any donation that anyone can contribute. I am trying to work as hard as I can to pay this back as quick as I can and I am currently looking to take on a second job to help make ends meet with this. I realize I probably won't obtain my full goal of $1,610 to make up for what the bank took from me and the check but anything will help.
Organizer
Luke Manning
Organizer
New York, NY
