Very thorough. Wow times have changed, for better for worse...

I've recently read about a similar scam on freelancers where the client acts as a middleman representative for a 3rd party who insists in paying you up front, but with a paper check that they have delivered to your address.

You take the check to the bank, the bank confirms the money and the account as legit, so you deposit it.

Then the scammer says they need to cancel the job and ask for their money back. So you do it. The real owner of the account claims fraud as someone else impersonated them.

By the time this happens, you've already refunded the money from your own account to the scammer and your bank refunds the money from the deposited check to its rightful account holder...

Crazy how these scams have evolved.