Subcontracting gig job scams -- the drop-ship scam of the labor world

[Dan Druff]

It is both interesting and sad to learn about the various new scams out there meant to low-income working people. A woman I know recently contacted me to ask for my help regarding a scam which victimized her, and left her unable to pay rent for December. I'll call her "Laura".

She was taking gig cleaning jobs from care.com. For those of you who don't know, care.com is a site where people hire gig workers for things like housecleaning, pet care, child care, senior care, tutoring, etc.

Anyway, she responded to an innocuous-looking ad from a woman advertising a cleaning job for a 1-bedroom apartment, which was strongly implied to be the place where the job poster lived.

When Laura responded, the job poster introduced herself as Amber. Amber strongly implied (but did not directly say) that she owned various apartment buildings around LA, and that this was one of many available cleaning jobs she needed done.

They agreed upon a rate, and Laura was happy for the moment that she would have a steady stream of apartment cleaning jobs from what appeared to be a wealthy, reputable building owner.

Laura did these jobs as agreed upon, and at first was paid quickly. Amber was steadily offering her jobs, though these were in different buildings, and on one occasion Amber met Laura to let her in to the apartment. Laura was surprised to see that Amber looked only late 20s, and did not at all have a professional look to her. Amber did not at all have the appearance of someone who would own several apartment buildings around LA, but Laura was getting real work and getting paid for it, so what could be the problem?

As you might guess, this eventually went bad. Amber started slow-paying Laura for the jobs, making excuses regarding the "bank having issues" and other type of scammy BS. However, she kept giving more jobs to Laura, swearing that the issues would be cleared up shortly, and Laura would get paid in full.

After a number of unpaid jobs, Laura told Amber that she needs to pay the December rent, and needed this to be rectified immediately. Amber responded by giving Laura 20% of the money owed, promising the rest would come "next week".

Unable to pay rent, Laura contacted me and asked for my opinion.

I'll give you my asssessment and tell you the action I helped Laura take in the next posts...

[Dan Druff]

I told Laura that there was zero chance Amber was a rich apartment building owner.

Anyone who owns multiple apartment buildings in LA can come up with a small amount of money to pay a solo gig cleaner, even if the owner is having cash flow problems. The fact that she paid 20% (of a relatively small sum of money) when pressured indicated that this was a person who did not own any of the buildings, and was probably living from hand to mouth.

But what was going on here? These were real cleaning jobs, Amber indeed lived in southern California (i.e. it was not a foreign scam), and Laura was initially paid in full for her work.

After some research into Amber's identity (which I grabbed from her email address), I determined the following:

- Amber was 27 years old, and lived in a crappy studio apartment in Burbank, CA

- Amber did not own any real estate

- Amber previously lived in Chicago, prior to moving to the LA area about 5 years ago



It became clear to me that Amber was taking contract cleaning jobs from either care.com or elsewhere, and then "hiring" others to actually do the work, while strongly implying that SHE owned the buildings where these cleanings were to take place. Amber would then offer the second worker a lesser rate of pay than she would be receiving, thus receiving money for "cleaning" despite not doing any of the work herself!

Now, this would be completely ethical if Amber were to be up front about what she was doing. If Amber presented herself as one who farms out cleaning jobs, this would be totally fine, provided she paid promptly. However, that's not what was happening. In order to make potential victims feel comfortable, Amber would pose as the building owner, and then would slow pay those she "hired" for as long as she could string them along (or hope they'd give up collecting).

I told Laura that I strongly felt this was what was occurring.

Laura agreed that I was most likely correct, but the question remained: How could she get paid for her back work?


I'll tell you in the next post how I helped.

[Dan Druff]

I help a lot of people behind the scenes get their money back when they're victims of scammers or unethical companies. I especially feel motivated to help when the victims are struggling financially, and the scam becomes a huge imposition upon their life.

I offered to help Laura, but told her that I may not be successful. Amber appeared to just be some random piece of shit living in a Burbank studio apartment, and very well might either be broke or completely uncooperative. On the plus side, Amber did not seem to be very sophisticated, and I felt that perhaps I could rattle her into paying up.

I attempted to call Amber, but she did not answer. I then texted her, and laid it all out for her. I told her that I knew this was a subcontracting hiring scam, and that she had broken the law by holding herself out to be the owner of these buildings, and then not paying Laura after being paid for Laura's work.

She initially told me that she had "already handled this with Laura" (complete lie), and that she was refusing to talk to me further about it. She instructed me to stop contacting her about it.

I told her that I would not cease contacting her about it, and that she had to pay Laura immediately. I reiterated that she had broken the law, and included lots of legal threats regarding her impending arrest, as well as claiming I would contact the real owners of these buildings and inform them what was really going on, so they could also be part of the criminal complaint. In addition, I told her I would contact care.com and all other gig sites, and get her permanently banned from them.

Amber continued to be defiant, repeatedly telling me to stop texting her, and at one point said SHE would call the police.

I responded that I wanted her to call the police, and that I would be glad to tell them the reason for my texts, and all about the scam she was running.

Still, Amber wasn't budging. She kept telling me that I "don't know anything about her business" and to "stay out of it". She claimed I was "threatening" her, at which point I responded that these were not "threats" -- only informing her of the criminal legal consequences, as well as exercising my right to contact her various victims (gig sites, apartment building owners) and letting them know the truth.

Interestingly, what finally rattled Amber was my last statement of, "I don't know if you're still operating like you're in Illinois, but in California you're committing a crime with what you're doing. You just had a birthday where you turned 27, right? I'm surprised you want to risk prison at this point."

For some reason this got to her -- perhaps because it let her know that I had researched her enough to know her birthdate and her previous Illinois residence.


Amber then stopped responding to me. She texted Laura and wrote, "I'm sending you your money now. You're also fired. Do not contact me again."

Laura indeed received the entire amount owed to her.


Laura said to me, "I can't believe this. She had the money the entire time, and just didn't want to pay me! She owed me for more than a month and didn't care that I was about to get evicted!"

Laura thanked me, and the crisis was over.

I'll conclude in the next post.

[Dan Druff]

Drop ship scams involve people "selling" merchandise they don't actually own, for marked up prices. For example, let's say I notice a toaster on sale on Amazon for $20. I then go to eBay, list the toaster for $50 (with greatly inflated and grandiose statements about how great it is), and when someone buys it, I just purchase it on Amazon for $20 and have them ship it directly to the victim.

Drop shipping is legal, but highly unethical, and it can venture into illegal territory if false claims are made about the drop shipped product (such as its value or capabilities).

This was a gig work form of a drop ship scam. Amber posed as the owner of the buildings, but was careful not to directly identify state so. She would write things such as, "I have 3 more of my units which need cleaning today", or "Another one of my buildings might have a job coming up". Presumably she felt she could simply claim that "my buildings" or "my units" simply meant these were buildings or units she was hired to clean, much like saying "my company" referring to your workplace does not mean ownership of the company.

Again, had Amber simply subcontracted cleaning jobs for which she was hired, this wouldn't have been a problem. It was the fact that she solicited other gig workers by posing as a building owner, and then didn't pay as promised, became an actual scam. Clearly she wanted to be paid for other people's work, and was planning to either stiff them or massively slow pay. The fact that she had the money to pay Laura all along was indicative that this wasn't any kind of unexpected financial crunch.

I don't think anyone here would be looking for these type of jobs, but my advice to Laura was to always make sure she's working directly for the owner, and to verify this in some way (such as meeting the building manager in their unit). I also advised her to abruptly stop working for anyone who fails to pay on time.

[nunbeater]

hey Druff, can you help me get my money from this guy that runs poker tourneys on his 8th tier poker web site? I won a freeroll for 25 bucks like four months ago, and figured I would get paid soon enough. The guy didn't pay me though and in the meantime I actually won another freeroll for 25 bucks, I was like wow! 50 whole bucks! To me! from winning poker! anyway I dmed the guy about it and he just acted like a total dick, and said soon, then a month later he said soon, then two months after that he said soon. I know it's only fifty fucking dollars but it's the principle that bugs me

[nunbeater]

also Merry Christmas

[Dan Druff]

hey Druff, can you help me get my money from this guy that runs poker tourneys on his 8th tier poker web site? I won a freeroll for 25 bucks like four months ago, and figured I would get paid soon enough. The guy didn't pay me though and in the meantime I actually won another freeroll for 25 bucks, I was like wow! 50 whole bucks! To me! from winning poker! anyway I dmed the guy about it and he just acted like a total dick, and said soon, then a month later he said soon, then two months after that he said soon. I know it's only fifty fucking dollars but it's the principle that bugs me

Let me know how much money you've spent on the site and I'll refund all of it.

[nunbeater]

lolwat? it's money I won, not money I spent

[Dan Druff]

lolwat? it's money I won, not money I spent

I should be paying out this week. Send current payment info if different than before.

[nunbeater]

lolwat? it's money I won, not money I spent

I should be paying out this week. Send current payment info if different than before.

so you're saying......soon?

[The Boz]

Good topic and interesting reading. Leaving me with one question, maybe two.

Did you report her to care.com to possibly save others from being scammed? And do you think it’s against their terms or do they even care?

[donkdowndonedied]

Interesting how the liberal laws of California are what Druff came up that got her compliance in the matter. Libs this, libs that, but here we are.

[Dan Druff]

Interesting how the liberal laws of California are what Druff came up that got her compliance in the matter. Libs this, libs that, but here we are.

No, I'm sure the laws regarding something like this are similar in all 50 states, and I have no idea what they are in Illinois.

I just texted that stuff because I knew I was dealing with a simple-minded, low-level, 27-year-old con artist who could be rattled into returning the money she scammed. And it worked.

[Dan Druff]

Good topic and interesting reading. Leaving me with one question, maybe two.

Did you report her to care.com to possibly save others from being scammed? And do you think it’s against their terms or do they even care?

Laura said she would report it. I don't know if she ever did.

It is against the terms of care.com to take gig jobs and then use them to re-hire people to do the work for you. You are supposed to be posting your own jobs offered there, and accepting jobs only on your own behalf.

Even if not against the terms to do that, Amber definitely violated terms by not paying for the work done!

[donkdowndonedied]

Interesting how the liberal laws of California are what Druff came up that got her compliance in the matter. Libs this, libs that, but here we are.

No, I'm sure the laws regarding something like this are similar in all 50 states, and I have no idea what they are in Illinois.

I just texted that stuff because I knew I was dealing with a simple-minded, low-level, 27-year-old con artist who could be rattled into returning the money she scammed. And it worked.

I don't think employee protection is near in strong in many states that aren't California. Sure, they all have some laws. California is very pro-little guy, like it or not but I see your point.

[Dan Druff]

No, I'm sure the laws regarding something like this are similar in all 50 states, and I have no idea what they are in Illinois.

I just texted that stuff because I knew I was dealing with a simple-minded, low-level, 27-year-old con artist who could be rattled into returning the money she scammed. And it worked.

I don't think employee protection is near in strong in many states that aren't California. Sure, they all have some laws. California is very pro-little guy, like it or not but I see your point.

I'm not against employee protection laws. In fact, in many cases I'm for such laws. I even got a dose of what it was like being a low end employee when I worked in various crappy jobs as a teen, as well as witnessed some pretty bad/unfair treatment of a girl I dated in the '90s.

I do think that employers need to be empowered to fire shit employees, or otherwise that's very harmful to both the business and the customer. But I am very much for strict laws regarding abuses of unpaid/underpaid overtime, denied breaks, etc. I dealt with some of that shit as a teenager and it infuriated me, because these companies were outright breaking the law, and as a teen I had little recourse. So in that sort of situation, I am all for companies paying stiff fines for that type of shit.

[NickyPipes]

Druff do you know what a No Shipper is?

A huge % of the drop shippers you see flexing in Dubai on social media are scammers, I’d probably be comfortable saying 100%

Many of the top drop shippers are Dutch, which is not surprising considering the Dutch dominate many spheres of online business

[Dan Druff]

Druff do you know what a No Shipper is?

A huge % of the drop shippers you see flexing in Dubai on social media are scammers, I’d probably be comfortable saying 100%

Many of the top drop shippers are Dutch, which is not surprising considering the Dutch dominate many spheres of online business

I'm assuming a No Shipper is a scammer who takes an order and payment, and never ships?

[dmndkutr]

lolwat? it's money I won, not money I spent

I should be paying out this week. Send current payment info if different than before.

Can I get paid as well for Robert Gray Memorial freeroll. Believe was 8/18. 4th for $30. PM’d you 8/18. Have a great New Year’s!

[nunbeater]

I should be paying out this week. Send current payment info if different than before.

Can I get paid as well for Robert Gray Memorial freeroll. Believe was 8/18. 4th for $30. PM’d you 8/18. Have a great New Year’s!

Fuck you