I have written many times over the last fifteen years about the mystery shopper scam because it continues to ensnare unwary victims.   Recently a Georgia woman lost $2,650 when she responded to a letter sending her a check for $2,650 with an offer to become a mystery shopper.  All she had to do was purchase $2,000 worth of gift cards and provide the numbers to the  phony mystery shopper company, keeping $650 as her fee for acting as a mystery shopper.  Of course, it was a scam and she learned too late that the check sent her was a counterfeit and her own money that she used to purchase the gift cards was gone forever.  These scams continue to be effective and are increasing in number so it is important to remind you about them again.   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, text messages or letters.

The manner in which the scam generally works is that when you answer an advertisement, or respond to a letter, email or a text message to become a mystery shopper, you are sent a bank check. You  deposit the check into your own account and 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.  Of course, the check that was sent to you is counterfeit and bounces, but the funds wired by the victim of the scam is gone forever from his or her bank account.

TIPS

One reason why this scam fools so many people is that there really are mystery shopping jobs although the actual number is quite few and the companies that do mystery shopping do not go looking for you. A firm 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 Don’t rely on provisional credit which is given after a few days, but which will be rescinded once a check bounces and never accept a check for more than what is owed with the intention to send back the rest.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 or send gift cards because this is a common theme in many scams because it is difficult to trace and impossible to stop. Legitimate companies do not use gift cards as payments.

For more information about legitimate mystery shoppers, you can go to the website of the Mystery Shopping Professional Association https://www.mspa-americas.org/scam-alerts/

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