Possible customer wants me to handle payment to another contractor. Is this a scam or not?

Question

I'm going to do some possible contract work in my field and I've had an offer for some work I found through a reputable venue. However, that venue doesn't handle payments or anything like that. I seem to have negotiated some work, and the person agreed to it. Now, the job requires that I work with another person whom my possible customer is going to contract with. This other contractor will do some work on another aspect of the job.

Today, my 'customer' tells me they want me send me an amount 3x what I asked, in the form of a check. I am supposed to deposit it, deduct the amount I specified, and then send the remainder to the other contractor, who needs to complete their work before I can start mine. My customer says once I do this, the other contractor will send the customer what I need and they (the customer) will forward me the stuff so I can do my part of the job. Finally, the customer proceeded to ask me the name of my bank, but was careful to specify they did NOT want details of my bank. I'm thinking they wanted the name of the bank so if I were to deposit it, the customer could confirm through their own bank I had deposited it. But this payment arrangement seems strange.

Is this a scam? Thanks in advance for any help.

Answer 1

100% scam. It's not your job to pay other contractors on behalf of the customer.

Ask yourself this: If the situation were reversed and the customer was saying he'd pay the other contractor, who would then be expected to pay you, would you take the job? I'm thinking probably not.

It isn't difficult or expensive for the customer to send two payments - one to you and one to the other guy. So why is he doing it this way? What can YOU do here that he couldn't do himself?

This is just a variation of the classic advance fee payment scam, modified for use on job hunting boards. The cheque that this "customer" sends you will ultimately be found fraudulent and get reversed by the bank, but not before you've sent off "payment" to the other contractor, who will no doubt have insisted on a non-reversible payment method like Western Union or something. So you'll be left out however much money you sent off and both of these guys will disappear.

Answer 2

There is no reasonable scenario where a customer can write one check but not two.

Even if they were on their very last check, they are just a few days away from ordering more.

It may not be a scam had you picked the other contractor and paid them on the side. But, like in this case, when the customer dictates that you pay a third party AND they also designate the third party, it is nearly always a scam.

Answer 3

The other answers already listed the basics of this scam. However, the scenario of a bounced cheque is one of the better ones: it means that you are scammed out of a particular sum and then hear nothing any more.

Far worse cases are those where the money goes through for good because

1. you are likely to continue doing things this way and getting more comfortable with it.

2. there is an actual source of the money, but it will not be what you think it is.

Basically, you are either laundering money stemming from criminal activity, or you are cashing in cheques on the accounts of unsuspecting victims that may or may not eventually notify the authorities.

In either case you are not only on line for repaying all of the money you received, but also are likely to get criminally prosecuted for money laundering, fraud and/or aiding and abetting crimes.

So it's not just a matter of you shouldering the expense if this does not work as announced to you. The consequences may end up a lot worse.

Answer 4

I have had such a scenario happen to me and not being a scam. It was a known customer so trust considerations may apply. The scenario was that the tender had been assigned to us because only one contractor could be assigned, even though the tenderer knew full well this was going to be a kind of consortium work. This is a circumvention of the rules but I think people in the above answers are only considering business in highly regular societies, or....they just do not conduct that much business. It is not an ideal way of conducting business and you may be opening yourself to liabilities, but to say it is a scam outright like the highest voted answer is of a certainty which i do not find reasonable for an experienced business person. That 2 payments is not an issue makes no sense. The accounting that matters, and registering 2 checks will not match with the letter of the tender.

Bureaucracy is sometimes inflexible and going and sometimes changing the bureaucracy is not feasible even for the customer. So my opinion is if you do not know these people personally and you see liability coming to you do not accept it. That is actually about it. Scamming is a different league and assumes malice, where at least in my society is not something common, but of course consideration of it is necessary.