I received an offer similar to what everyone is talking about: receive checks from unknown persons, deposit in your own account, send money back to unknown. Unfortunately, I deleted the emails a few weeks ago so I don't have them to post here.

The offer came through Career Builders and was from a company based in Russia (flag) so I couldn't find any info on them. Receive checks, deposit into my account, keep 5% of amount as my fee, send the rest Western Union to specified person.

I had to give them my home address, phone number, email. Also had to sign a contract which stated that once receiving the check, money must be deposited immediately and sent Western Union (minus my 5% fee) WITHIN 24 HOURS (flag) or I would lose 1% of my fee for every 24hrs that the money was not sent. I replied back that I was very interested (I wasn't because I knew this was a scam) but that if they could possible change the contract to state transfering the money within 4 business days because the check would not clear (funds would not be available) within 24 hours. They never replied back. What a surprise!

Actually, there was an article in the Buffalo News a few weeks ago (which I could not find in their archives because I wanted to post the link here) that discussed this exact scam. What I was most surprised about from the article is that the check might clear in a few days (which makes you think the check is good), but it may take up to a FEW WEEKS for the bank to actually realize that it was a phoney check. By that time, you have already sent the money. So, you are out the money plus any fees you must pay to the bank.