OLD SCAM IS NOW HOT AGAIN-NOW SPECIFICALLY TARGETING VA'S

Hi Folks,

Please read the information regarding this old scam that has recently began targeting a few of the members here. Although the details of their requests have changed over time, these folks have been studying the VA industry and are now HEAVILY contacting some of the VA companies on this board to lure them into disguised money laundering under the cloak of providing VA services to their "clients".

These people are no longer just working through e-mail.

THEY ARE BOLD ENOUGH TO CONTACT YOU THROUGH PHONE AND PROVIDE THEIR "OFFICE LINE" WHERE THEY ACTUALLY ANSWER.

It seems that they want you to perform services for a "client" (for me an advertising company) of their "consulting company" with a retainer being deposited to you via PayPal, and commission to be transferred to them as you bill against the retainer.

Of course these clients do not exist, the work assigned is fake, and the accounts used for payment of your invoices are either stolen or the funds are from some illegal activity.

PLEASE NOTE, EVEN IF YOU ARE SCAMMED, YOU CAN BE FEDERALLY CHARGED WITH MONEY LAUNDERING FOR PARTICIPATION!

As stated they are now studying our industry and know that there are people who subcontract and refer services for commission legally. Please note the e-mail address because I suspect they will be switching up their game pretty soon.

Thank the Lord my instincts won out and I did not accept the offer after some research. But, I want you all to protect yourself as well.

DO NOT PROVIDE ANY SERVICES TO COMPANIES YOU CANNOT VERIFY THE EXISTENCE OF.
IF POSSIBLE, MAKE SURE THE PAYPAL ACCOUNTS MATCH THE ACTUAL COMPANIES YOU ARE WORKING FOR.


Please see here for the original thread for more of their tactics.
http://www.virtualassistantforums.co...yer-scam-17658

__________________
www.lloydbusinesssolutions.com
"Getting you back to what you do best"

I am so glad that I ran across this post. I just received an email from them through my VA website. It seemed alittle strange so I didn't respond and now I am so glad that I didn't. I even tried to do a search by the email address they left and nothing came up. I know the person that contacted me stated that his name was Roy Max and the email address he left was rm@roysupport.com.

Hopefully others out there will also come across this post and be very cautious.

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Stephanie Rodriguez - Human Resources Specialist / Admin Support
www.dsradministrativeservices. com

FYI- I just found the domain registrar and have sent their support address an email to alert them to this problem.
You are welcome to copy and contact them yourself. I'm hoping the more people who come down on them, the better chance they may do something about it.

I'm adding this to the original thread as well-

email: support@name.com

To Whom it May Concern:

The owner of this domain is using more than one email address associated with it, to contact random Virtual Assistant business owners under the guise of needing their services.

When I was contacted, the name being used was Tony Mayer from USAID.gov. More recently, the name Roy Max has been used. It appears this person(s) are only using your domain services but thought you should be made aware of what they are doing.
Email addresses used:
tonymayer@roysupport.com
rm@roysupport.com


I have copies of all emails and I know several VA’s who have copies of theirs as well.

This Tony or Roy asks for the VA to open a bank account in their own name, accepts funds from “clients” and send commissions to Tony/Roy. As you can see, this would be illegal. Luckily, no one I know has fallen for it but I feel some action should be taken on all who are involved/affected.

I have already contacted USAID.gov and the Real Tony Mayer(consultant to USAID) to alert them of this issue.



~C

__________________
~Christina-Business Darlings-Magazine for Virtual Business Owners

Indeed! I was just contacted over the past couple of days by this very same entity - RoySupport.com

My intuition kicked in (it rarely fails me), and I responded with 'my two sense'. Never got a response. Hmmm... wonder why?

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Janice St. Germain, Owner/Virtual Office Administrator
Germane Virtual - Technical A & S Business Support Services

Interesting. I got an email yesterday from Ryan Max at rm@roysupport.com. It looked a little weird to me so I also did a search. I wrote back, very reserved, asking for more information about them. I have not heard back yet.

Thanks for the warning.

__________________
Pam
www.adminetcetera.com

WOW....just got an email also from a Ryan Max with Roy Support! The last email seemed too fishy...glad I caught on! Thanks everyone for looking out for eachother!

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Angelica, Let Me Get A GRIP On Your Books!
www.mygripbookkeepingservices.com

I have had a series of emails back and forth with Ryan Max for a couple of days (Sun. & Mon.) - have not heard back a couple of days. My antennas were up too. Actually would have been my 1st truly VIRTUAL that I had not contacted. He told me I would be doing phones, research, etc. He was to get 50% commission which I thought was a lot but I didn't care if I received what I wanted... -- if they would have presented me with the work - and I did it -- how would I be guilty of money laundering?

Deb,

he says 50% commision but, what he doesn't mention till he thinks he "has" you is that YOU have to open a bank account in YOUR name and accept checks/payments. Once you receive a payment you would be sending HIM 50% of that money received.
That money could come from stolen checks, credit cards, etc.

That is money laundering, and you would be the one that would be charged. They have no way of knowing who this Ryan Max is or worse, WHERE he is so it would all fall on your shoulders.

~C

__________________
~Christina-Business Darlings-Magazine for Virtual Business Owners

Originally Posted by Tomekia Lloyd

OLD SCAM IS NOW HOT AGAIN-NOW SPECIFICALLY TARGETING VA'S Hi Folks, Please read the information regarding this old scam that has recently began targeting a few of the members here. Although the details of their requests have changed over time, these folks have been studying the VA industry and are now HEAVILY contacting some of the VA companies on this board to lure them into disguised money laundering under the cloak of providing VA services to their "clients". These people are no longer just working through e-mail. THEY ARE BOLD ENOUGH TO CONTACT YOU THROUGH PHONE AND PROVIDE THEIR "OFFICE LINE" WHERE THEY ACTUALLY ANSWER. It seems that they want you to perform services for a "client" (for me an advertising company) of their "consulting company" with a retainer being deposited to you via PayPal, and commission to be transferred to them as you bill against the retainer. Of course these clients do not exist, the work assigned is fake, and the accounts used for payment of your invoices are either stolen or the funds are from some illegal activity. PLEASE NOTE, EVEN IF YOU ARE SCAMMED, YOU CAN BE FEDERALLY CHARGED WITH MONEY LAUNDERING FOR PARTICIPATION! As stated they are now studying our industry and know that there are people who subcontract and refer services for commission legally. Please note the e-mail address because I suspect they will be switching up their game pretty soon. Thank the Lord my instincts won out and I did not accept the offer after some research. But, I want you all to protect yourself as well. DO NOT PROVIDE ANY SERVICES TO COMPANIES YOU CANNOT VERIFY THE EXISTENCE OF. IF POSSIBLE, MAKE SURE THE PAYPAL ACCOUNTS MATCH THE ACTUAL COMPANIES YOU ARE WORKING FOR. Please see here for the original thread for more of their tactics. http://www.virtualassistantforums.co...yer-scam-17658

I remember working to solve a scam game, back in the 90's where the client would ask the contractor to open an account in his/her name to deposit money, (Back then the name wasn't Virtual Assistant, but Office Assistant), they'll keep some monies for commission the rest would be give to the client. This was done by drug cartels, to move their monies freely without getting caught. When the law enforcement caught on, the person with the bank account was left holding the bag, (some were looking at heavy federal time) and the client simply disappear and moved on to someone to get their money through. Remember I worked in Law enforcement before starting my VA practice. Criminals are always improving their game, you have to stay one step ahead. I always say if it feels wrong then it is wrong. If it feel wrong, then research it, it wouldn't hurt.

This isn't new, their just changing their game plan. A scam is scam by any name.

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Phyllis L
UNIQUELY40, LLC
http://www.uniquely40.com

WOW - I just got one of those emails from Roy Max, as described above. I didn't reply. It sounded kind of weird, but forwarded it to my husband to read and he can right back with this thread, telling me it's a SCAM. This almost blows my mind that someone could try to pull a fast one like that. For a second I was thrilled that someone found my services, but when I read the email, I thought something didn't sound right. Sure enough, it wasn't.

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Tanja

Well, you can add me to the list as I just received this e-mail (from rm@roysupport dot com) and thank goodness I remember reading about it here! Would it be a good idea to act like I'm interested just to get more information to prove the scam or just leave it be? (Someone in an earlier post mentioned contacting the domain register.) This has to be a form letter because I don't even do the work he mentioned in his e-mail! (I only do transcription.)

Hi,


I’m Ryan Max; a client of mine is interested in your Virtual Assistant Services.

Nature of work will be General Office Support e.g. schedule appointments, handling travel arrangements, performing research, and distributing information via e-mail.

We will be interested to know what your mode of operations & discounted rates are.

Thanks and regards
Ryan Max

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Pam Deyerle - Transcriptionist in the Richmond, Virginia area
The Perfect Word Transcription Services

I received one of these idiotic things last week. I could tell they had no clue what I offered, since I'm a paralegal and they claimed to be looking for admin, etc. I checked out their web site, which is nothing but a link to elsewhere, labeled them spam and deleted.

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Virtual Bankruptcy Paralegal
www.bkprep4u.com

You can add me to the list as well as having received emails from a Ray Mayer from Roy Support. His proposal was for me to open a paypal account and he would deposit money which I would have to withdraw and pay his contractors. I thought that was just plain weird but once he asked for a copy of my photo id, i knew it wasn't legit!

Guys thanks for informing us, yeah you are right you need to do some research on that company before accepting offers.

OMG, I was just getting ready to post this. I got an email from a ryan@roysupport.com last week. When I asked for a photo id, I didn't hear anything back. And then today, they filled out my contact form, with the exact same email that was sent earlier.

It bothers me to see things like this, I hope everyone is passing this along to every VA and small business owner that they know. It makes me sick to my stomach to know that there are people out there trying to take advantage of those working hard to build a honest business.

__________________
Trena Stubbs of Apex Virtual Solutions
& Author of The Road to Going Virtual