LeAnn Evans was in need of some extra cash. When she came across a website called Care.com, she thought she was in luck. It's a legitimate website for families looking for caregivers and people like LeAnn looking to provide that care.
"I thought, 'Oh, this is great, now I can have some extra money,'" said Evans.
Not long after she registered with Care.com she got a hit; someone was looking to hire her for child care.
"They said the child is in a wheelchair and they would send me a check for $2,700. I would keep $300 of it and send $2,400 to a wheelchair company," she said.
She showed us the emails detailing how the deal would work.
But excitement quickly turned into disappointment. Red flags started to go up.
The person offering the job was out of state and sent her a check before she even met them. There were also grammatical errors in the emails and the person would never contact her by phone.
"I went to a friend for advice to see what she thought, because my gut feeling told me this was wrong," Evans said.
Her suspicions were correct and confirmed when she took the check to the bank.
"I played it out to see what happened and FedEx came to my house and brought me this check. I took it to the bank and I asked them to verify to see if it was real. The routing number was correct, however, the account number was incorrect," she said.
Care.com is aware that scammers will sometimes slip through the cracks and misuse sites like theirs. The company has an "A" rating with the Better Business Bureau and even warns users about scams and offers helpful tips. The company encourages background checks and interviews. It says never to accept payment in advance or wire money to someone after receiving a check.
"It's not the company. I don't blame the company at all, because things like this do happen too frequently," Evans noted.
She contacted Care.com and the company says it removed the fraudulent contact.
"I am frustrated and I am also afraid that someone else may fall for a trick like this. They may not know any better and they will deposit the check in the account like the person wanted me to do," she said.
LeAnn hopes her story will keep people on their toes and is a reminder that just because a website is legitimate, it doesn't mean all the people using the site are. For more information, visit the sites below:
http://www.care.com/safety-tips-p1010.html
http://fakechecks.org/
http://www.fraud.org/tips/internet/fakecheck.htm
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