Job Seeker Scammed: Deposits Bad Check, Spends Her Own Money

A 38-year-old New Canaan woman applying online for a job as a babysitter agreed to accept a check from a prospective employer and then use the money to transfer it to others, purportedly to buy a motorized wheelchair, she later told police.

But after she’d wired money to someone helping to buy a wheelchair for her prospective employer’s family, she found the check to her had bounced and the possible employer had vanished. She gave this account to police:

The job seeker, a resident of Turning Mill Lane, corresponded with a potential employer through the Care.com website that connects people who need or want to make money providing child care. The purported employer said she was a deaf woman with a son who needed a wheelchair before childcare arrangements could be set up. All correspondence between the two went through email.

The woman agreed to accept a check for $2,450 (which she received on April 13), deposit it and then send the money to various places: A day after depositing the check in her bank account, she sent a $969 Moneygram to a woman, then sent $976 by Western Union to the same woman and sent another Moneygram to someone else for $411.50. Those three expenses total $2,350.60.

After sending the money, the victim learned that the check from the supposed prospective employer had bounced, and that woman (if it was a woman) couldn’t be found. On April 28, the victim went to New Canaan police, who are investigating the matter.