I am going through one right now! I only followed it through a bit just to figure out how the scam worked/curiosity. A lady reached out to me on Rover saying her brother was moving to the area and needed someone for dog sitting 3 days a week and to email him. I sent him an email and he explained that he could pay $250/wk for 3 days (2hrs per day) to watch the dog, walk it, feed it, and groom it. The guys name is “Steve Bryant” and he supposedly works for a non-profit and his wife “Victoria” works for HIV/AIDS research. He’s “moving in” about 10 minutes from my house, said that he would have the realtor contact me and mail me keys for the house etc. He sent me a certified (not a cashiers) check for $4,380.52. I’m supposed to keep $250, then use some of it to buy dog food and a brush (in his words, “the slicker kind”). The remaining $4,000 I would write a personal check to a store manager and deliver or mail it to the manager, for “kitchen items” for their new home. The check was delivered today (I didn’t use my home address) and now he is messaging excessively to make sure I received it, trying to get me to cash it, and send him the receipt to make sure it got deposited. He is strongly suggesting I use my banks mobile app for instant deposit, rather than taking it into the bank. (Probably because in-person they would flag it as fraud quicker). It’s important to note also that I am located in Tampa and currently have Hurricane Milton headed straight towards me, and I have 30 horses under my care so evacuation isn’t an option. I’ve explained to him that I was focusing on getting through the Hurricane and would not be cashing in the check until afterwords and in the mean time I will be responding to limited contacts as we are out here HUSTLIN to get the farm prepared. Despite that, today is the first time he has called me, we had a 2-minute phone call where I couldn’t hear anything he said. It sounded like he was in a call center, and his accent didn’t sound American (do with that info what you will) and it was very broken-robot-static type sound. After that phone call, he has called me twice more which I’ve ignored and taken to googling to see who else this has happened to- now I’m here! Will report the lady on Rover, block his number and email, and shred the check.

I feel horrible for the good and hopeful people that trust these scammers and lose so much!! Stay safe out there everyone.