Hey #ScienceTwitter and #SciComm Twitter. I have a bit of a strange predicament I'm in and I would love some advice from the hive mind. Basically, a stranger reached out to me on the @ScienceWriters DM system asking for my help with writing a 2,500 word article about (1/?)

(2/?) the health benefits of exercise. I'm a freelancer so this isn't a totally strange scenario, but the way the request was made smelled sort of fishy. They were talking about methods of payment up front, didn't reveal a lot of details about who they were...

(3/?) or why they wanted this done, and didn't seem to have any questions for me about who I am and whether I would be qualified to do this. Plus, like, who needs a 2,000 word article about exercise? Like, no specific angle, no specific sources to talk to.

(4/?) Just, "why is exercise a good thing." I can't think of a topic with more saturated coverage in the popular science media. Regardless, I humored them, mostly because I have an unhealthy curiosity about the online scam world...

(5/?) (if you've never checked out http://419eater.com  have a look). I responded to the request (over email) asking for the above details, and saying I was available for writing an article about exercise if they really wanted me to.
They responded with...

(6/?) a few sort of vague answers, but I still don't have a clear idea as to who the person is and why they want this done (the work is apparently being sponsored by "WTP Power Corporation" which is either a misspelling of an actual company or a company that doesn't exist)...

(7/?) But we emailed back and forth a few times and they asked for my address to send a check to, for completing the work, a request which I agreed to, simply because I'm not really sure what kind of scam someone can do with a name and an address...

(8/?) (apart from coming to my house to murder me I guess). In the days of the Yellow Pages you could look up anyone's name and address... Anyway, fast-forward to today when a priority mail envelope arrived with my name on it. And inside the envelope is a check...

(9/?) from @MidFirst Bank... for $5,550 dollars... for an online promise to an internet stranger to write a 2,000 word article about exercise. Sooo my question is.... what's going on here? It feels like it has to be a scam... but what's the scam? Usually in a scam...

(10/?) someone is getting a person to send THEM money. I've not heard of scammers running a scam where they issue arbitrary $5,000 checks... I've been watching a lot of Breaking Bad so I'm wondering if it could be some kind of money laundering scheme (the car wash!)...

(11/11) but with money laundering usually the output is still of some value. What value does an essay about exercise have? Anyone have any guesses or similar experiences? Could this possibly be legitimate?

lol