Victim Location 55118
Type of a scam Employment
I began work for Web5Design on Thursday November 5th. Monday November 16th I was instructed by my "boss", Laura Jones, that a check from the company’s client would be coming to me at my personal residence via postal mail and she would give me instructions once it arrived. I alerted her when the check (in the amount of $2801.45) arrived on Tuesday November 17th and she directed me to deposit this check, from company GeoStructures, into my (personal) bank account and tell her once the check had cleared. The check cleared completely for cash withdrawal on Thursday November 19th and Laura instructed me to wire $2615 (USD) to programmer Oleksii Garkavenko in Prague, Czech Republic, with $136 to go toward wire fees (she instructed me to use Moneygram or Western Union) and to retain $50 for my own travel expenses incurred. Upon withdrawing the money I did as instructed and wired Oleksii Garkavenko $2615 through Moneygram from the local Walmart and alerted Laura, who told me that – if I was questioned about my relationship with Oleksii – I was NOT to identify him as a business associate, but as a personal acquaintance. Friday November 20th Laura contacted me via email with direction to investigate with Moneygram why this money was not yet available to Oleksii and I contacted Moneygram, who asked me of my relationship with him which I indicated was personal per Laura’s instruction.