Recently I was checking out Craigslist gigs for extra income since I stopped working with Demand Studios. I still write for Ehow.com occasionally but not under Demand Studios. Anyway, I found a tutoring gig for English and Writing, accepted, was told I was hired and told my schedule. But here's where the alarm went off. They immediately mailed me a lump sum of money for a student who is in the UK and is flying over. First of all, I find it rather odd that someone from another country (and continent) would need to come all the way over here to be tutored, especially from UK for "English." But sometimes people like to go to different places to pick up the lingo there, so I said, "All right fine." But the company never specified where this person would stay. By home school tutoring, I didn't plan on the student living with me. I tried to confirm that but got no response, and they do have my address.
But what really made my eyebrows raise was them telling me that they sent the wrong check to me, and the amount I was going to receive was thousands of dollars more. They wanted me to transfer the funds through Western Union to the travel agent for the mistake after "cashing the check immediately." Okay, everybody knows that the fees for wiring money through Western Union are far more expensive than canceling a check, so why not just cancel the check altogether, especially in thousands of dollars. Why risk that? For all they know, I could run off with the money after cashing it. The only people who do that are broke.
I can already tell the results of this. I cash the check. Send the remaining amount (subtracting my fee) through Western Union, the check bounces, and I'm stuck scrambling for funds. I tried to clarify with this company to send the money through an online secure site instead of snail mail with a check, but I got no response. I asked where the student was living again. No response. I pointed out the check canceling. No response. But the company surely did contact me again asking if I'd received the check and cashed it yet.
I told them I wasn't cashing a thing and instead I'd "Return to Sender." Something about this whole gig doesn't sound right. When you run into companies (or emails) like this, report it to the Internet Crime Complaint Center.