Beware of SCAMs

A member of my family is in the business and doing well but he can always use more work.

Someone just offered him $16,500 for two relatively simple commercials using the "The Advanced Fee Scam."

The way this works (according to Claude):

As Stripe's fraud department describes: "the scammer makes a payment (generally in the thousands) for a project and pays more than they need so you can then transfer money direct to a third party (e.g. a consultant, graphic designer, etc)... the card used is stolen and the third party is the scammer. So, when the legitimate cardholder disputes the payment the business is left holding the bag on the money retrieved from their account and what they transferred to the scammer."

The "private project consultant" is the signature move. In every variant I'm seeing, the consultant is the one supposedly holding the script, logo, and content, and the consultant is who you eventually get asked to wire money to. In one well-documented case targeting a video production company, the scammer actually went all the way through signing an agreement and FedEx'ing a fake $9,400 check from a real company (BPX Energy) signed by a fictitious person, with instructions: "Once the payment of $9400 was delivered, you can proceed to have it deposited for clearance at your bank (this usually takes overnight or maximum 24 hours). you can send the Project consultant her money after taking out your own payment of 6000 from the total amount."

Picturelab

The reason it works is a banking quirk most people don't understand. "In some cases, the victim may even 'cash' the check with a local bank, and the local bank may accept the check for a time. This reinforces the freelancer victim's belief that they have already been paid... The scammer then convinces the victim to send some amount of money 'back' to the scammer. Rather than reversing the payment they have received, the victim is convinced to send or wire money back to the scammer from their own account or funds... The scammer's initial forgery is later discovered, by the individual or by the bank." Provisional credit is not cleared funds. The check can bounce weeks later and your wire to the "consultant" is gone.

Proz

The specific offer you provided follows the pattern precisely.

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The bottom line: If it seems too good to be true it usually is.