I applied for employment from Career Builder and was sent a Secret Shopper e-mail from Dereon Inc. Advertising for the need of secret shoppers. They sent me an e-mail containing an application and Secret Shopper independent Contractor agreement. The application did not ask for vital information (ssn).
They sent the application along with a first assignment containing information to comparison shop Wal-Mart & Best Buy on product pricing for Apple Computer products. I completed the assignment and faxed over the information. I tried calling them for 4 days to verify they received it but the phone was always busy which was my first red flag. On the 5th day, I wrote them off but then received a check in the mail for $2,880.00, my 2nd red flag. A check for $2k sent regular mail??? They had a note inside asking me to respond by e-mail when I received the check.
The following morning I received a call from their so called NY office asking if I received an e-mail regarding my next assignment. The woman on the phone identified herself as Erin, and asked me to call back if I don't receive the e-mail within the hour.
I immediatley contacted the bank that the check was drawn on and found out that the checking account was good but it had no available funds. The customer service asked me some questions regarding the check and then filed a suspicious activity report against the account. She advised me to beware of the secret shopper lures and mentioned that there next response would be to send some of the money to someone else.
Do not be a willing participant... Report these people so that they can be found and prosecuted.
Career builder should be careful not to allow themselves to be used in such a way when you have people looking desperately for employment and then they find these scams!!
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