ComputerWorld Fraudulent Checks North Sydney, Australia

I was emailed about a job opportunity working from home as a data entry clerk. I was out of work for a while so I thought this was a good idea. I was ask to responded through yahoo instant messenger and I spoke to someone named Mattew Spencer who asked me a couple questions and he said: "I am Dr Mattew Spencer ,age 51. The personnel manager of ComputerWorld . I've also served as an Executive Vice President of Fortis Inc. I started my career as an Actuary of CUNA Mutual Insurance Group since 1974.

I joined Ledcor Group of Companies , where i served as a Staff Actuary for Ledcor Employee Benefit since 1981. I served as the Chariman of Disability Insurance Committee for the Health Insurance Association of America (HIAA) for 3 years. I've been an Executive Director of ComputerWorld. Since March 17, 2006. I served as a Director of Union Security Insurance Company since 1988, i'm the Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries. I hold a Bachelor of Business Administration in Actuarial Science and Finance in 1976 from the University of Wisconsin/Madison."

I looked up computerworld and saw it was a real site based in Australia. I told him about myself and my work experience at Microsoft and he said I was right for the job. Then he told me of the benefits and how it was going to be $30 per hour. Then he said he was going to send me check to buy the programs I needed to do the job. Then on the 22nd of February I received a check for $1900 in the mail. I was to deposit the check into my account, so I did. I figured what could go wrong because it wasn't my money. On the 26th the check cleared and the money was in my account. After that I was to withdraw the money and send it a vendor by the name of Ashley Martinez in Texas (Tracking number:.

After that they were to send me the software materials I needed and I was introduced to someone who was supposed to be my supervisor, Kelvin Davis. After speaking to him over IM briefly he said that the check was incorrect and it was supposed to be $1500 more. So he asked me to put up the rest, to which I refused. He claimed I would be reimbursed but I still didn't want to. He said the $1500 was for a Time Tracker program to keep a record of my hours. At first I didn't believe it, but I searched it and there were time tracking programs for that amount.

He said that I was running out of time and that Ashley needed the rest of the payment to get me the software as soon as possible. I asked why they couldn't send the rest and he said that the funds have to come from my city in my name to make sure every "other employee" got their materials as well. So I buckled and sent $500 (tracking number: 129-180-1874) and Mattew said he would speak to the vendor about having me pay the rest after I was reimbursed.

The next day I still didn't get any software but I received a check in the mail for $3650. He said, "the issue of inomplete materials was tabled at the meeting yesterday and the Chairman of the Board of Directors decided and instructed a company that was owing us to mail out a check in your name to you this morning which has been delivered to your home address. The check is for the balance of the Time Tracker you will be needing for training and also the rest will be going to the Vendor as well. the company will have the rest gotten for the vendor later.

You are to have the check deposited like the first one. The software, Time tracker and W4 for will be delivered on Friday morning. This was shifted due to the fact that the vendors balance is not complete yet. also all other employees will not be starting training till Friday morning as well according to the chairman of the Board of directors." I went to the bank again on the 27th and I figured it would be faster to simply go to the teller and cash the check. After some time, the teller told me the check was bad. I informed Mattew of this and then I tried depositing the check through an ATM and it checked out.

The funds would be available on the 8th of March. But Mattew said the money needed to be sent that day, so he asked about the $1000 dollars I could have given the day before and that the training was to begin Friday and the couldn't be any more delays. I buckled again and sent $1000 of my own money (tracking number 961-691-4629). And then later that day I saw a news report about how everything I was asked to do was part of a scam. The checks, deposit, western union, all of it. I immediately IM Mattew about this. He didn't get beck to me until the next morning, the 28th.

By that time I started seeing the that what he was saying was most likely lies. There was no information about him or Kelvin on the website, which he replied because the site was under construction. I couldn't find any information about Ashley Martinez nor did he give me any aside from that she was a private vendor for the company. I demanded to see a tracking number or a receipt for my purchase and he said that the accounting dept would email that to me once it was ready. I asked why all this was coming from Texas and he replied, "Good question, we do not specialize in the software and we send out check to our employees to make purchase directly to the vendor so there will not be a mistake in the address, state, city and zip code." and the I pointed out that the return address for the FedEx package for the $3650 was that of Chrissy Navarro, from Missouri.

He said, "remember i told you he check was coming from a company that was owing the company so i guess that name is a member of staff of the company." I asked what company and he said he wasn't in a position to tell me that. I wanted to speak to the accounting department and he sent me this email address: accounting_desk@yahoo.com, which looks clearly made up. I asked him why it didn't end in @idg.com.au like all the other contacts on the site and he said it was because the site was still under construction. So I demanded to see a picture of him holding up a sign that said "Hello Ralph, this is not a scam". I didn't to confirm my suspicions or put them to rest. And received nothing but excuses about how he didn't have a camera and couldn't get one from someone else, which in this day and age is ridiculous. Then he says he has to be at a meeting. So I still demand to see a picture of him.

During that time I checked my account at Chase and find that the $1900 was a bad check and taken out of my account, so now owed Chase $1369. At that time Kelvin started messaging to me. I demanded my money back and wanted to know how he could do that to people.  He said that he would speak to the accounting department and that hey were working on fixing the problem. He said that if this was a scam he would wouldn't be talking to me still. He said that he would send a memo to the "board of directors" and they would send me the money by cash through western union as I didn't want any more checks.

After that Mattew signs back on and still is unable to send me the picture I demanded. I received an email from Jessica Koch from the computerworld website saying I had nothing to worry about. but when I started to make a reply, I found that the reply was to go to Mattew's email address. He said she must have set up the email to do that, which made no sense, so I sent an email directly to her address, although I still haven't gotten a reply. Then he says the money will be sent to me in the morning and then he started being very dismissive saying he had other things to do. Now its March 1st and I find that both Mattew's and Kelvin's email accounts have been deleted and I am left with nothing.

The day after that I get an email from Mattew saying that he can get the money back from the vendor through western union, but i would need to send the money transfer fees. I reply that I have no intention of doing that and i don't get a response until the next day, the 3rd of march. He then says its the only way they can send the money back because the vendor doesn't have enough to cover the fess. I simply tell fim to deduct the fees from the total and send the rest. I haven't gotten a reply yet, but I am very sure I'm not getting my money back.