the newest online scam – Russian money laundering

Over the last few weeks, i've been correcting some English documents/memos for a Russian company based out of Moscow. i needed the money/work and the company seemed legit, at least at first. So i corrected five sets of documents, the bulk of which seemed legit..

Part of their business in America seems 'remarkably similar' to money-laundering.. Random deposits are made via Chase QuickPay, to randomly chosen recipients (their 'representatives'), then you (their representative) forward the money (less your fee of course) to Russia via Western Union / other service. Let me copy-paste the relevant description in one of their emails:

We need representatives in USA (as we have clients in USA) who will accept payments from our clients and then send the money to us. This is a help to us in our business. Of couse we pay salary and commissions for this important work.

Why clients don't send the money directly to us??

Here an answer - Clients use online paying for our service.

But the main problem is - impossible to send the money to Russia from any country using online service.

When you are a client, you don't go somewhere to send the money, you are sitting at computer and do all things via internet.

It sounds legit if you think about tourism, dating-services, etc but .. From a Russian-mafia standpoint, you could end up in jail for laundering their money for them.. And so you should contact the US Secret Service when you have forwarded money overseas in this kind of scam..

.. i have never been burned by a Nigerian 'advance fee' scam but they tried..

Many Americans have not been so lucky/cautious – as me.

And so many Americans have lost money to clever Nigerian criminals..

And many Americans will go to jail for laundering Russian-mafia money..

But reread above and think about it logically..

There are at least two services you can use to send money directly to Russia online: Western Union and MoneyGram. Even after informing them of this, they still wanted me to perform 'the service'.. Why? It must be because the senders do not want to be known for sending money to Russia. That is the only logical explanation.

My point here is: you don't have to go to jail for the Russian Mob .. You can avoid these scams by:

1. reading an article such as this (and understanding/digesting it!)

2. don't participate in the scams

3. reporting serious/provable violations to the US Secret Service

(Don't waste the US Secret Service's time on unprovable claims/situations.)

The website for the US Secret Service is here.

PS: remember, there is NEVER such thing as 'easy money'; “if it sounds too good to be true, it IS”.