On Sat. 1/24/09, I received a check with a letter in the mail. The letter came from Canada. The check was in the amount of $3,985.00 and made out to me. Also I was told that I was hired by this company to be a mystery shopper. They enclosed a tel # and name of my "coordinator", which I tried to contact for 2 days with a message in French 1st, then English, that said he was unavailable to try later.
I was instructed what to do with the check. There were instructions for 3 different things to do. I was to keep $300.00 for my first weeks "pay" and $85.00 to shop at a list of stores and I could keep whatever I purchased. I rec. Forms to fill out on the places I shopped and then I was to send $3,420.00 thru Western Union or Moneygram to one on a list of names of people in the NY area.
I contacted my bank and gave the manager all the info and showed her all I had. She researched this for me and found out that this was fraudulent. The business did not hire mystery shoppers and the bank the check was drawn on did not have this customer and that the check was no good. Had I not brought this to my bankers attention and cashed the check I would have been out this money.
I contacted the U S Postal Inspector, because it came thru the US mail and reported this. They told me that they already had a file on this scam and that they were pursuing this legally. I was told that alot of people had lost a lot of money because of this same scam. Please be very careful. The check and the letterhead looks very realistic.
My bank manager told me that you can probably notice two things about the check: 1. If the corners are curved, look out. And 2. If the amount is under $5,000.00 the bank does not have to investigate the check. She said, had I not questioned this, I would have been out $3,985.00. The people you send the money to are not legitimate.
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