Money transfer - a possible scam?

The account the money comes from may have been defrauded by "phishing" - ie details obtained via scam e-mail.

A robbing bastard logs into that account and transfers money to you. You transfer the money to Russia.

Accountholder that has been defrauded gets transaction reversed, leaving you out of pocket.

Don't do it. Tell him to f*ck off. Better still, report the request to the police.

IMHO, the mere mention of Western Union fills me with suspicion.

Sounds like they're possibly money laundering in which case you could possibly get a five year stretch if implicated.....very dodgy.....avoid!!!

Its a scam by which a large number of students have been defrauded.

Some details here.

Yes, it is a scam.

You may be aware that there are a lot of "phishing" email going around. That is, emails which trick people into giving their bank account details and passwords to a website that looks like the one belonging to their bank.

Once they have these details, they need to be able to transfer money out into their own account in Russia. You generally can't do international transfers online, so that's where you come in. The stolen money will be transferred to your account, and you will be asked to transfer it abroad.

When the phishing victim realises that his money has been stolen, he will report it to his bank, and they will see that it was transferred to your account - so you get the blame for stealing it. The transaction will be reversed, leaving you out of pocket, getting the blame for the fraud, and the real victim of it.

The message from Jonathan Bryce contains these words:

Just had one myself...........deleted it as usual.... Jim (a lurker on this group)

You are stupid and greedy - where is the work, on your behalf, in this transaction? Nowhere. So somebody is willing to give you 15% of their money for nothing?

A fool and their money ...

SE