I have been approached for a "job offer" basically what it entails is receive payment in check form , cash them, take a perctage, send the leftover to someone in another country. They claim that everything is legal . To me it sounds a lot like money laundry. For which I remember as being enough to go to jail for a very long time.?

SCAM

I heard on the news about a woman (I think from Texas) that got involved in one of these and she was charged along with the scammers.
They also had this on 60 minutes They followed people around and showed exactly how it is done and how they use innocent people.

Typically called Nigerian scam

internet scam people cashing checks for people overseas - Google Search

A guy that IM's me wants me to do that
His IM is pharel jr or something like that

Don't Do it!! Sounds to me like a lot of the emails I get, all scams wanting me to give them my information, they will send or direct deposit a check, I keep a portion and wire money to a different country. Again, DON'T DO IT!! I think that if it was a person who approached you, turn them in as fast as you can.

Definitely it is a SCAM!

"If it sounds to good to be true........"

"Nothing is what you get from nothing."

Plays on people's greed...

Stringer