I am in big trouble!! Few days back I saw an job advert on gumtree saying Administrative assistant wanted. I did apply to the job and few days after they have sent me an e-mail saying I have been shortlisted and they will call me within few days to do an interview. The day after they said it's all good but as they are company based on USA they need to verify that I am genuine resident of UK and asked me to sent my scan photocopy of my ID and I did so . They have done all the formal thingss which every normal company do.Then they explained me the job that I have to meet clients once a month but before that I they will send me money in my account number, which I had to give them before I started,and I have to withdraw the money and send it to few clients as prescribed via western union. My salary is 5% of the amount they sent me. I have done few transaction but after that my bank has freezed my account and when I asked them they said the company from which it was coming was victim of hacker that means the money I was dealing with was hacked amount and my bank have sent back all the amount in my account to the company they hacked but the thing is the amount they have sent back was my hard work money not the money they gave as I had sent all the money to other party keeping maximum £150 for me but rest was my money . I have told everything to the bank but they are saying they cannot do anything about it as I unknowingly involved with them . I have given them their website which they saw still they can't do anything about it . They have closed my account and asked me if I want to I can report to police . I am really concerned about my ID now . If they are scammer they can do anything with it . Even I am scared to report to police because if they find out they can do anything with me.. I REALLY NEED HELP!! Please do advise me.

I'm not sure what steps you can take in the UK but I wanted to share that when my passport was stolen a few years back I was able to put an alert on my social security number with the three credit bureaus in the USA (they might be international bureaus, I'm not sure). I had to pay a $30 fee for a service which sent me a credit activity report monthly.

Luckily no accounts were opened under my identity, but had I seen any activity I would have been able to dispute it and report it before too much time passed (whether I would have been able to close the accounts and not claim liability I'm not sure).

I would also file a police report. I'm not sure what they'd be able to do since it deals with two different countries, but it's worth at least looking in to. A friend had a checkbook stolen and she filed a police report. She was able to fax the police report to collections and it really helped her out.

Sorry I couldn't offer more solid advice, but I wanted to share the steps I took in a somewhat similar situation.

First report it to the police, you were the victim him

Next the money you were sending western union was going back to the people who "sent it to you" but they were using fake or stolen money, and you sent good real money to them.

This is a common and famous and even well known fraud.

You owe every penny back to the bank, if you have enough to pay back, great, you are just out all the money you sent Western Union. If you don't have enough in the bank you will have to pay it back to them as you get money.


Also if you are good looking, your name and photo and passport may be used latter in a dating scam where someone claims to be you and want to move someone to date someone, but you need money.