Thoughts of the almost scammed
As I’m sure I’ve mentioned before on here, I have a love hate relationship with my current job. As a simple way out if I ever needed one I started a care.com account. Recently I received messages from an “Evelyn Parker” who was moving to my area over the summer with her 5 year old daughter, Tara. She was looking for a nanny for Tara on the weekends and offered me $30/hour. This seemed a bit off, but if I could talk to my boss and set up my schedule so that I didn’t work weekends I’d be making bank. I continued the conversation. She gave the start date for the job, but it conflicted with a trip that had been in the works for over a year. I explained to her that I would be out of town the first weekend, but she still persisted in trying to secure my services. She requested my mailing address for a cashiers check of the first payment upfront to ensure there would be no disappointments. I, regrettably, obliged. She also mentioned that she would want to interview me when she arrived, I asked her when that would be, concerned again about the vacation conflict, but she never answered the question. As the conversation went on she mentioned that her daughter was in a wheelchair. She then restated that the start date was to be during my already mentioned vacation. I once again said, in what I saw as more clear terms, that I would be unable to start that weekend and that if she still wanted my services I would be happy to speak with her more. She acknowledged that I would be gone and I let the conversation drop.
Today, I received a check for nearly $5000 from her. My dad did some research online and found that many people have experienced this scam, sometimes with varying names, ages, backstories and payment rates. Thankfully, I had already decided not to take the job due to the hinky-ness of conversation and the scheduling conflict. We contacted the local police and because I had not cashed the check there was nothing they could do. So now here I sit with a check that I’m about to shred, the looming knowledge that I will likely receive more texts from her and a feeling of total stupidity and shame. Looking back I wish that I had seen the red flags sooner, but as a college kid $30 an hour was a bit blinding. I’m just thankful nothing actually happened to harm my future or myself.
To anyone on care.com: PLEASE be careful and aware of those you talk to. Keep your eyes open for red flags and do your best to keep yourself safe.
I will do my best to post screenshots of the texts later this weekend when I get the chance, but for now it’s off to the job that I am very much happy to have after this. Yay for non-fraudulent money!
Please feel free to share this to spread awareness about these scams. This is in no way against care.com, just trying to prevent others from getting hurt.