I received a letter and check for $1389.60 in the mail from Total Work Force Compliance, Inc (postmarked from Canada) stating that I had been selected to be a mystery shopper. The letter detailed what to do and how to spend the money from the enclosed check. First, the letter had many small typos, but enough that it raised a red flag that it would not be from a reputable company. I continued to read the letter where it told me to deposit the check into my bank account and wait 12-24 hours. Then, I was to withdrawal the money and send $955 $80 to Jude Finley via Western Union in Madrid, Spain. Then, the letter instructed me to spend $54.60 at Wal-mart, Costco, Best Buy, or Home Depot and save the receipts of what I bought. Finally, the letter instructed me that the remaining $300 would be my fee for completing these mystery shop assignments. This seemed too good to be true so I did some research.
First, I typed the company name into Google and nothing came up. Then, I typed the website (www.consumershost.com) in but this also did not exist. After this, I typed the address into Google Maps. There is a One Jericho Plaza Jericho NY, but the zip code from the letter and the zip code from Google Maps do not match. Finally, I typed the phone number into Google and that took me to several message boards with people who posted the SAME EXACT SCAM, but the person/people running the scam have been using a variety of different company names, dollar amounts, addresses, etc. Their signature seems to be the letter in the mail with the check and sending part of this money to someone via Western Union.
Fortunately, for me, I did not deposit the check so I did not lose any of my money, but several people on the message boards shared that the check they "deposited" was a fraud and then the exact amount of the check was withdrawn from their bank account. The messages on these boards dated back to 2009. This scam is causing hardworking people to lose $1300-1900. Please spread the word about this scam and be ultra skeptical when it comes to your money, depositing checks, and sending money via Western Union.
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