Janice Clemente | Information Specialist

BBB warns jobseekers not to answer this job offer sent to email accounts across the country. Financial Center says they’ve found your resume on CareerBuilder.com and they would like to hire you as a financial agent. Your job would be to process checks from home for their clientele located in Europe. But this isn’t a legitimate job offer. Instead, it’s a check cashing scam. Here’s how the scam works - when you’re “hired” you’ll be asked to deposit checks into your personal account and wire the money overseas, keeping a percentage of the money as your commission. But you’ll find out the checks are counterfeit and you will be responsible to cover the costs of the funds you wired, including any bank overdraft fees.

This is what happened to a Newport, KY man that answered the email. He applied for the job offer online and sent Financial Center a copy of his driver’s license. He received a check by certified mail a few days later. When he went to cash the check he was told by the teller it was fraudulent and the check was confiscated. Even though he’s lucky to not be out any money, he now has to monitor his credit report to make sure Financial Center doesn’t try to steal his identity as well.

BBB has had over 600 inquiries and 10 complaints about this company so far. And we know this isn’t the first time this company has attempted to scam jobseekers. BBB first heard of this company under their old name, Online Office. They’ve used different names since then, such as Always Smart Business, Business On-line and now, Financial Center. The BBB Online Seals that appear on Financial Center’s website are forged and the address they list for themselves is fake. The business that is actually located at 5155 Financial Way in Cincinnati is not affiliated in any way with Financial Center and has never employed individuals to process checks from home.

You can avoid this type of job scam by steering clear of any job listings that use these descriptions: package forwarding, reshipping, money transfers, wiring funds and foreign agent agreements. Never forward or transfer money from any of your personal accounts on behalf of your employer. If a legitimate job requires you to make money transfers, the money should be withdrawn from the employer's business account, not yours. If you are a victim of this company you should file a complaint with BBB and report the incident to your local postal inspector and the Federal Trade Commission.