Hey all. Well a common understanding is that college kids have no money. You can see buzzfeed pictures of college kids turning pizza boxes into dust trays, and filling a gallon of milk up at the caf because we are just so resourceful at beating the system. It’s something you have to get good at. Fortunately for me, at least I thought at the time, the job I had recently gotten would ease my empty pockets. I could pay for my sorority, pay for college, and even have extra spending money for sushi nights and that newest pair of shoes.
I found this job on care.com. A website I thought to be home to nothing but sweet mothers and fathers who needed a break on date night or a nanny during the day on occasion during work hours. This is when I came across Mary. Mary traveled a lot and said she needed help with her son when her husband was at work and she was traveling. I said I would love to help her and sent her an email. All of a sudden Mary said she no longer needed a babysitter and that the position was filled, however she could use a personal assistant to help by sending her packages and paying bills and other odds and ends that she would say when they came up. Then she told me I would be paid $350 per week for only about 20 hours a month. $70 an hour is quite a lot I told myself. So, I obliged. She said I would begin working for her right away and that she would mail me checks to deposit into accounts to do all of her spending.
The next morning, she said I would meet with her when she got back from her business trip and that she needed my bank information to deposit money because she needed something done right away. I was a little hesitant but I soon obliged because she was paying me a lot. I did her first job of sending someone in South America about $1500. I didn’t know who it was but Mary said it was a family friend. Mary then deposited $2000 more dollars into my account to whom I would send to the same person. However it was unavailable at the time. She asked me for a loan of $300 for the time being and then I told her I didn’t have $300 in the account. I told her most of my money was in my savings account. She then asked for my savings account information which I promptly declines to give her. She claimed i didn’t trust her but then gave up trying.
The next morning I woke up early to go and send that money to South Africa when I received a notification from my bank’s app. There were 2: “You account balance is less than $5.00” and the other saying “You have overdrawn from your account.” I wasn’t sure what had happened. there should have been about $2210 in my account. Maybe it was a mistake or something I wondered. I logged onto my bank account and saw a number that terrified me and caused me to break into tears. A number of around -$5000 was staring me in the face. How could this happen? How? Frantically I tried calling and texting Mary with no luck. Finally, my teary eyed self called my mom. She has told me that this job seemed sketchy but i didn’t listen to her. I was in love with the money I thought I would have. There was no possible way to get my money back and no way to contact Mary. My mom and I spent several hours on the phone with out bank and Moneygram (the service used to transfer money) with no luck.
Because of this incident, I can’t open an account ever again with my bank and am a victim of fraud, all because I didn’t listen to my parents because I was obsessed with making money. Just saying to all of my fellow college nannies, always make sure you meet a person and never give out any personal information to anyone ever. I hope this never happens to anyone ever again. WE still don’t know if Mary is a real woman or where she lives. Her phone numbers were created with texting apps so we may never find out who she is.
Now, a poor college student becomes an absolutely broke college student who doesn’t get to leave campus or buy anything off of my meal plan or buy anything online for lord knows how long.
Keep this is in mind when dealing with anyone or anything online
Talk to you soon
Alicia
32.715738
-117.161084
Living off Leesh 