Sponsor just called me asking for person who doesn't work here

[cd34]

In January I received 4 W-9 requests from sponsors I've never had any dealings with. One of them told me the epassporte id where they had sent payments which shocked me. Betrayal is a good word there I think.

I have also gotten calls from the State Unemployment Office for employees that filed saying they had been laid off. That usually requires a few hours of paperwork to get straightened out. Makes no sense as I have to file quarterly employment reports and a simple check against those forms would give them the answer they need, yet, I get a 3 page form that needs to be filled out to deny the claim each time it happens.

Since Epassporte introduced their tax evasion card, it has made it very easy for unscrupulous webmasters get just enough info from someone so that they can get tax-free sponsor payments. Since most sponsors don't appear to be asking for 1099's for tax reporting, many can get away with it for a long time. Or, they're in a blacklisted country and use that info to get past the blacklist.

However, picking someone in the same city is just kind of odd.