Scam of the day – March 5, 2017 – A new mystery shopper scam

admin

9 years ago

I have written about mystery shopper scams many times over the last few years, but I am making mystery shopper scams the topic of today’s Scam of the day because I just received a new email that you may have received as well. In addition, these scams continue to snag many unwary victims so it is important to remind everyone to be aware of this scam. Mystery shoppers are people hired to shop at a particular store and report on the shopping experience for purposes of quality control. Unlike many scams, there actually are legitimate mystery shopper companies, but they never advertise or recruit through emails.

The manner in which the scam works is that when you answer an advertisement or an email to become a mystery shopper, you are sent a bank check to deposit and use for your shopping. You spend some of the money on the goods that you purchase which you are allowed to keep and also are directed to keep some of the balance of the check as payment for your services. You are instructed to return the remaining funds by a wire transfer. The problem is that the check is counterfeit, but the money you send by wire from your own bank account is legitimate and that money is gone from your bank account forever.

Here is a copy of the email I recently received:

“Hello, We are a company engaged in the mystery shopper field.

We need a team filled some people with age, residence location, experience and other different.

Description;

You will be assigned to visit the shop, store, bank, etc

You have to pretend to be a normal potential customers who’re looking for a specific product/service

You will then complete questionnaires online to share with us your customer’s experience

Get $350/assignment, at least 2 assignments/week will be assigned.

Requirements;

18 years old or above

Can read and write English

Can speak the local language well

Registration;

If you are interested reply this email fill out information below to get started :

� Full Name :

� Full Address :

� City/State/Zip :

� Gender/Age :

� Email Address :

� Phone Number :

So we can look at your distance from the locations which you have to put your service, and your address would also be need for your payments.

Best Regards

Head of Recruitment

TIP

One reason why this scam snares so many people is that there really are mystery shopping jobs although the actual number is quite few and they do not go looking for you. An indication that you are involved with a scam is when you receive a check for more than what is owed you and you are asked to wire the difference back to the sender. This is the basis of many scams. Whenever you receive a check, wait for your bank to tell you that the check has fully cleared before you consider the funds as actually being in your account. Don’t rely on provisional credit which is given after a few days, but which can be rescinded once a check bounces and never accept a check for more than what is owed with the intention to send back the rest. That is always a scam. Also be wary whenever you are asked to wire funds because this is a common theme in many scams because it is difficult to trace and impossible to stop.