I received a letter in the mail from this RS Consulting group asking me to do an assignment that involved going to a Western Union and a retail store to do some observations and complete the instructions in the letter. The retail stores that I could choose from were Walmart, K-mart, or Best Buy. Now I have done mystery shopping assignments before so I thought this was just another one. I deposited the check that they gave me for $1550 and they told me that I had 48 hours from the time the check cleared in my account to complete the assignment. The $1550 was to be used for a $900 money transfer at Western Union, $150 for the transfer fee at Western Union, $200 for the retail shop, and $300 as participation wages. Also I could keep all the merchandise that I bought with the $200. I was instructed to go to a western union and use $900 from the money that was provided to me in the check to complete a money transfer to a man named Sam Godffrey in London. I was also allotted $150 for the fee of the transfer. I used my ATM card to complete the transaction and then I proceeded to take the $200 that was allotted for the retail portion from my checking account. When I checked my bank account this afternoon I noticed that my account was in the negative! The check that this people gave me was returned by my bank and the reason my bank returned it was because they stated that the account that it came from was closed. I called the number that was on the letter that was sent to me and the man explained to me that it was some sort of security measure they used and that he would contact his bank immediately to get the funds put back in. I was starting to get worried so I called the bank that was named on the check and when I spoke to one of the people that worked there he said there was no such company that had any affiliation with them and they have been receiving calls about this matter from other people. He said that this was a scam and these people have been taking advantage of quite a few people. I then proceeded to call Western Union to see if there was anything that they could do for me and luckily the scam artist had not picked up the funds so I was able to stop the transfer and have the money sent back to me. Western Union also has on file that this was a scam in their system so hopefully when that creep goes to get the money he or she will be arrested. I also filed a police report and I am in the process of filing a report with the Attorney General's office in my state. When I was talking to the police man he said these scam artists are getting better and better and its getting harder for people, especially people who have completed mystery shopping assignments, to recognize what is real and what is fake. I know there are legit mystery shopping assignments out there but now I have been burned by this and I do not trust anything. I was one of the lucky few to recover the majority of the money that I was put out. Be careful out there... If you see anything from this company, report it to the police and don't call them or put that check anywhere near your checking accounts!
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