PSA Topic Scamming using Cashiers Check is Now a Thing

I have started an assortment of jobs of lately.  One was to be a dog walker.  I know you guys love your fur babies but playing somebody 25$ for a half hour walk??? Ridiculous.  (And this is going rate.) Of course, I join the nationwide site and try to see if I can get any nibbles and I get a SCAM.  The VERY same day.  This doesn't bode well, my family was not excited about me driving strangers around and between my dad, mother, and brother they were sending me optional other jobs.  The SCAM though, let me get back to that because it was something I did not realize was even a think cashier checks was an option to get folks.  (And this story is kinda funny.)

I filled out my FBI compliant form, maybe unnecessary but Rover.com told me to after I reported to them.

It is a leisurely Wednesday afternoon and I receive a text.
It goes:
(844-611-1202)

Hii, My name is Jessica Lombardo, My Supervisor is searching for a pettsitter, if interested contact her at Patricia.Belcher@outlook.com

(Yes, all those errors in text were EXACTLY how it was sent.)


I email the lady and its short and sweet, basically saying, "How did you get my telephone number?"

Now here is where it gets interesting. I get an email back rather promptly.

Okay.  Yes, I am 'on' the website care.com but I haven't been on since 2010 when I graduated college. So red flag number one.  Red flag 2, my number isn't listed on there, you can only email me through their site.  Okay here is where I was like oh hmmm, this is good to be true (and it is not the insane amount of money paid, I have gotten big pay deals from people to watch their furbabies before so that wouldn't be the nope for me right off the bat) notice her husband name changes from John to David in the email.  Now, I have NEVER been married before so maybe this is something that happens.  I now realized this is likely a scam but meh I will email back.  

My email back was short and sweet, read like so:

Congratulations on your first human baby!  Very exciting, I am interested, what area are you moving to?  

Ready for her response:  

Okay: lady you did not answer ANY of my say one question there did you?  I realized this was a scam back in the first email, but I was curious, can I scam the scammer?  Like can I set up a dummy account with 1 dollar and then cash the cashiers check?  In my mind that is the safest way to do interacting with unknowns.  I googled petsitting cashier check scams and was very surprised to here that it was a common thing.  One of the stories was even the EXACT same as my email story.  Even the email, and the one person texted it back and it was a BOT.  (Of course I text back the assisant now, and low and behold my response: Thanks for the message.  Configure your number's SMS URL to change this messagge.reply HELP for help.reply STOP to unsubscribe.msg&Data rates may apply.  So yes, it was a BOT too.)  I read about how people got really screwed if they did not realize what was happening before they cashed check into their REAL account.  Scary stories.  The way that they scam you, is they get into your account steal your money in there, then write bad checks, and get credit/debit cards in your accounts name.  After reading all of these, I was like shoot, I don't think there is a way to scam the scammer.  But I did send one last email to this lady,  

It goes 

(Sorry no screenshot but there was no way I could edit out.)

Ok, I need to know some details about YOU Patricia, to help me be more trusting with you guys.  Where will you be moving to?  What will your new address be?  If you don't feel comfortable giving me exact number or apartment, that is fine.  The internet can be quiet scary and full of scam, ya know:)  But what street are you moving to?

  How did your "assistant" get my number?

Why would you be so forth-coming about hiring some random off the internet without every meeting them?

And my biggest question, do you know who the baby daddy is, Pat?  Is it John or David??? Do you even know?  I hope you didn't cheat on John with David because of his long hours.