Is this money laundering or illegal in any way?

Ok, basically I'm a full-time student desperately struggling with finances this Summer.


My student loan will not be enough to last me until September what with bills, living expenses etc. and I've tried desperately to look for a job to fund myself during the holidays unfortunately to no avail as nowhere wants to hire students - I've literally lost count of how many applications I've made and CV's I've handed out.





However, about a week ago I answered an ad on craigslist.co.uk which seemed to be a very lucrative business structure but I'm slightly curious as to whether it is classed as money laundering or any sort of illegal operation and whether I will be an integral part of it if I go ahead.


The company's representative replied to my curious application asking for my postal details and the following information:





Dear Prospective Representative,








I want to seize this opportunity to congratulate you and Welcome you to our Company. We have verified all the information's you provided OK and I see that you are clean.You are to adhere strictly to the Company's Code of Conduct and Privacy Policy that is you are to dress properly like you are in an office environment whenever handling any of the Company's transactions.





Once again, we say congratulations and Welcome to the company. Your task is to coordinate payments from customers and help us with the payment process.





On receipt of any payment on behalf of our company from our customers, You are requested to initiate banking procedures, Deduct your contract fee of 600 Euro and remit our balance to us either via Western Union or Money Gram following detailed transfer instructions.





This is your Representative Number and should be included in any email you send or receive from us.





It is for Confidentiality and Security purpose...********.


I believe you now understand in full details what the job entails and do not have any further questions.





Feel free to contact me if you have any enquiries whatsoever.


In addition I would advise you to check your email at least twice daily to avoid delays in response.





I checked out their website and it turns out they're a company that builds agricultural equipment and sells and distributes them across the EU.





Anyway, this morning, the guy emailed me saying that the first cheque from a client of theirs will arrive in the post to me at some point next week.


I then replied to this stating that I was curious of whether this was in any way legitimate and explained that I'm just a 22-year old student in desperate financial need and I'm on the edge and almost willing to do any kind of work to ensure I have enough money for what I need to pay for - to which he replied: 'I understand how you feel and i want to assure you once again that this is a legit transaction and you have nothing to worry about. Keep an eye on your email for updates when the payment has been mailed out to you.'





Now, as I had mentioned before - I am in a considerable amount of debt on top of living expenses not to mention the fact that I've had to apply for temporary Payday loans to tide me over for the time-being. And since this guy emailed me this morning, I have to say I'm strongly considering going ahead with this, as I said I am in desperate need of cash and all of my other efforts thus far have proven to produce disappointing results.





I just wanted to get some advice on here from some very honest and intelligent people on what they think this sounds like - whether it is legitimate or an illegal thing as I do not want to jeopardise myself, my chances and my studies - I've worked very hard at my studies - the last thing I want is the police on my front door questioning me on something that I'm obviously quite naive about.





As I said - I am in desperate need for money right now - however this has become quite a dilemma for me and I don't want to make matters worse if I can help it.





Any useful advice would be greatly appreciated.





Thanks a lot.





R|||100% scam.





There is no job. This is not money laundering as there is NO money to launder, only YOUR money going to some anonymous scammer somewhere overseas.





The next email will be from another of the scammer's fake names and free email addresses pretending to be the "secretary/assistant/accountant" and will demand you cash a large fake check sent on a stolen UPS/FedEx billing account number and send most of the "money" via Western Union or moneygram back to the scammer posing as the "supply company" while you "keep" a small portion. When your bank realizes the check is fake and it bounces, you get the real life job of paying back the bank for the bounced check fees and all the bank's money you sent to an overseas criminal.





Western Union and moneygram do not verify anything on the form the sender fills out, not the name, not the street address, not the country, not even the gender of the receiver, it all means absolutely nothing. The clerk will not bother to check ID and will simply hand off your cash to whomever walks in the door with the MTCN# and question/answer. Neither company will tell the sender who picked up the cash, at what store location or even in what country your money walked out the door. Neither company has any kind of refund policy, money sent is money gone forever.





Now that you have responded to a scammer, you are on his 'potential sucker' list, he will try again to separate you from your cash. He will send you more emails from his other free email addresses using another of his fake names with all kinds of stories of great jobs, lottery winnings, millions in the bank and desperate, lonely, sexy singles. He will sell your email address to all his scamming buddies who will also send you dozens of fake emails all with the exact same goal, you sending them your cash via Western Union or moneygram.





Whenever suspicious or just plain curious, google everything, website addresses, names used, companies mentioned, phone numbers given, all email addresses, even sentences from the emails as you might be unpleasantly surprised at what you find already posted online. You can also post/ask here and every scam-warner-anti-fraud-busting site you can find before taking a chance and losing money to a scammer.





6 "Rules to follow" to avoid most fake jobs:


1) Job asks you to use your personal bank account and/or open a new one.


2) Job asks you to print/mail/cash a check or money order.


3) Job asks you to use Western Union or moneygram in any capacity.


4) Job asks you to accept packages and re-ship them on to anyone.


5) Job asks you to pay visas, travel fees via Western Union or moneygram.


6) Job asks you to sign up for a credit reporting or identity verification site.





Avoiding all jobs that mention any of the above listed 'red flags' and you will miss nearly all fake jobs. Only scammers ask you to do any of the above. No. Exceptions. Ever. For any reason.





If you google "fake check cashing job", "fraud Western Union scam", "money mule moneygram scam" or something similar you will find hundreds of posts from victims and near-victims of this type of scam.|||This is 100% illegal and will only make your financial situation even worse





YOU are 100% liable for anything deposited into your account. When that check bounces, which it will in 3-4 weeks, you will owe your bank the entire amount of the check. If you are sent a $4000 check and it bounces you don't have a 0 balance, you are negative $4000 and have to pay your bank back immediatley or you can be jailed for bank fraud and possession of counterfeit monetary instruments





Read the non profit Fraud Aid's site http://www.fraudaid.com/check_liability.鈥?/a>


"Check cashing and account holder responsibilities are the same in all countries:





You cannot rely on your bank, credit union, PostBank, or check cashing store to protect you from counterfeit, stolen, or forged drafts. It's not their job to watch out for you, it is your job to watch out for them. Like you, merchants, banks, and credit unions have the rightful expectation of being given good money.





BY LAW YOU ARE LEGALLY RESPONSIBLE AND FULLY LIABLE for any and all checks or money orders deposited into your bank account by you or someone else, and for any funds wired into ANY of your accounts by you or someone else.





Your are 100% liable for any and all funds deposited into any of your accounts by any means whatsoever."





If you deposit or cash anything YOU are responsible for paying the bank back the ENTIRE amount of the bad check, not the person writing the check. You would then have to try and sue the writer of the check in court - if you could ever find them as they use fake names, fake addresses, pay as you go phones paid in cash that are ditched with each new victim|||Ddin't need to read all this garbage - it reeks of being a scam! The grammar and use of English is rubbish.



Remember the old adage: if it seems to good to be true, it usually is.|||Break off all contact.





This is a SCAM.





The check/cheque that they would send you would look perfectly real but it would be fake. It will bounce about 10-14 days after you deposit it and long after you have sent out the funds via Western Union or Money Gram. This leaves you on the hook for covering the bad check, possibly facing criminal fraud charges yourself and putting you in much worse financial shape than you are now.|||On receipt of any payment on behalf of our company from our customers, You are requested to initiate banking procedures, Deduct your contract fee of 600 Euro and remit our balance to us either via Western Union or Money Gram following detailed transfer instructions.





c'mon. Anyone over the age of 12 knows the western union scam.





You gotta know better than this.|||And here is an answer from the UK. This is a well known scam, anything with Western Union is. You will be out of pocket and breaking the law. This one has been around on the net for some years. When the police close it down another one pops up.


have you tried around the bars and cafe's for p/t work, I used to employ students. Start walking around your city centre. A lot of places put ads in shop windows.|||To stress the above post:





The fake check will appear to clear because your bank will typically follow a 3 day courtesy credit rule. This does NOT mean the check has cleared.





When the fake check bounces--which could be weeks later, you will be required to repay 100% of the money. You will be hit with NSF fees, your account will be reported to CHEX and when you can't pay, your name will be turned over to the policy for possible charges of money laundering.





These scams work because a) you are desperate; b) you are young and dumb; c) the emails try to sound legit. they use the name of real companies, but real companies NEVER hire people to cash checks and forward money by Western Union. You will be told to tell WU that you know these people, foiling WU's attempt to rescue from yourself.|||It's not money laundering, it's simply robbery. They will send you forged cashier's checks which you will foolishly deposit in your bank account. Then you will transfer them some money. Then your bank will call you up and tell you that the check was forged and that you owe them a whole bunch of money. Then you will have been robbed.



So here's how it goes down:

They send you a check for 6,500 euros.

You wire them 5,900 euros.

Your bank tells you that you have to pay them the 6,500 euros back because the check bounced.

You are out 5,900 euros.



That's a great way to make money for the scammer, and a good way for you to go broke.|||I don't even have to read this:


How the scam works.


You get a fake check.


The bank, by law, has to clear it within a few days.


But.. the check can bounce (and will bounce) up to 2 or 3 months later.


Remember: you sent them all kinds of cash via western union.


Haven't you heard of the scam before?


Any check you get from any company online has a 99.99% of being fake