William Crawford Fred Tanner, Nanny/Mone Scam, Internet

I used a nanny/babysitting website to try and find a job. I contacted William Crawford about the position with his family. After only 4 emails back and forth, "my answers were satisfactory" and I had been hired. He told me all about how he and his family were foreign investors from Belgium living in Malaysia, and that they would soon be relocating to Saint Louis. I was also asked to purchase a Nintendo DS for his daughter 'Ruth,' along with several games. He was always cordial in our communications and seemed very sincere.

I have contacted the nanny/babysitting website to let them know of the scam.

Everything sounded within reason, but at the same time, everything sounded a little off. He never disclosed seemingly obvious information: his wife's name, where was his 5 year old daughter going to school, what his actual condo number was (all he disclosed was his address.)

I probably should have noticed the red flags, but I was very excited about this well-paying job and well, they were allegedly in the middle of a big move. I was able to understand how certain things might be missed.

I was to meet with him today. We asked for him at the front desk of the address he provided and the doorman knew nothing of him or even any new tenants. We, again pushed our concern off as a moving stress causality, thought perhaps he gave us the wrong information so we went to the other condo buildings on the street. We finally gave up and went home to try and call him. Obviously, the number would not work, so I googled it, where I found this website and realized my misfortune.

We have not received any payments yet, as I bought the DS and accessories out of pocket. I'm not sure if we will because I did it in a different order. We returned everything.

We hopefully figured this out early enough. So all I'm out right now is a job.