February 1
On January 31st, I received an envelope in the mail from Shawn Pickens, Pickens Solutions of San Francisco CA.
Inside the envelope was a Money Gram, money order in the amount of $900.00. There was also a letter with specific instructions of how to handle the cashing of this money order. Those instructions are listed exactly as the letter reads, including the numerous grammatical errors from the sender:
"CASHING INSTRUCTIONS: This money order has 3 columns that needs to be filled, the first column (PAY TO THE ORDER OF) You are required to Write your FULL NAME in the column, The Second and Third column is the purchasers details and it should be written as stated below respectively
Purchaser, signer for drawer: shawn pickens
address: 380 eddy st. San francisco, ca 94102
After filling out the money order, take it to your bank to deposit and cash, deduct $200 which is your salary after cashing the money order for your assignment, then proceed to carry out the Mystery Shopping assignment below.
YOUR FIRST ASSIGNMENT: You will be evaluating Any Wal-Mart store and Western Union outlet in your City. Purchase an item not more than $20 for your personal use (any item) and carry out a survey while you are there. After Wal-Mart evaluation, proceed to any western union money transfer outlet and Send the balance of the money via WESTERN UNION MONEY TRANSFER to the name below while you secretly perform the same shopping. Report back to us with the following assignment details/reports for both outlets you visited (Wal-Mart and Western union):
GUIDELINES/SURVEY: -How long it took you to get service? -Ambiance/Outlook of the Shop/Outlet? -Customer service professionalism?
The Western Union transfer charge is to be deducted from the remaining funds ($680.00) and not from your $200 salary. The Name to send Western union money transfer to is:
Name: RYAN GORDON
Address: 222 Brickell Avenue, Suite 2200, MIAMI FLORIDA 33131
Send your reports and money transfer details below to [email protected]
1. Name and address of sender
2. Money transfer control number
3. Amount wired
Best Regards,
Shawn Pickens".
Clearly this is not a legitimate business offering me or anyone else a job. This is an individual or group of individuals feeding on those who are struggling in these tough economic times. The first red flag was the return address being from San Francisco, CA, yet the postmark on the envelope right next to the return address was from Columbia, South Carolina.
The second red flag was the blank money order in the amount of $900.00. The third red flag was the fact that the sender was so specific in his instructions to deposit the money order into my bank account to cash it. I believe "Shawn Pickens" is laundering money using Money Gram, Western Union, and those who are financially desperate enough not to heed the obvious red flags of fraud.
It appears to me that this criminal is attempting to frame innocent people for his crimes because if the authorities decide to action on this, it fall back on the one who deposited the money order into their bank account. The law has no interest in displaying compassion on people who commit crimes such as this regardless of how little they knew about the crime they unfortunately helped carry out. Where is the F.B. I when you need them?
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