Police in Sussex are warning students and other young people about the dangers of getting caught up in money-laundering scams when they are making multiple job applications.
Detective Inspector Till Sanderson of the force’s Economic Crime Unit said, “We have had two recent instances of young people supposedly being “employed” by companies in America and then being asked by them to transfer funds placed in their accounts, onward overseas.
“In both cases the people concerned thought they had been given genuine jobs and have just become suspicious later.
“This is a not a new fraud and it is an international issue which is not unique to Sussex. The last such case reported to us was a few years ago so to have two in a week or so is unusual. It is possible that the fraudsters are exploiting the difficult job market.”
The incidents were reported by a Chichester man on March 18 and by a 21-year old Worthing woman on March 10.
The man had accepted an apparent on-line job offer purporting to be from a promotions company in Florida, and forwarded on £3400 to an account in Turkey before his bank became suspicious.
The woman had accepted an on-line ‘job’ as a data inputter with a supposed New York City company, and had similarly forwarded on some £1710 to a Ukraine account before suspicions were aroused.
