Secret Shopper Scams

I have been looking for a new job, so my information is out there on a lot of the resume posting sites, and I am guessing that is where the scammers found me. I got a letter in the mail, along with a check for $500. Basically, the letter told me that I had gotten a position as a secret shopper/customer service evaluator. I was to take the check enclosed and cash it, keep $100 for my payment for the work I am doing, and then take the rest of the money and go to a Money Gram location and wire it to Ontario, Canada. After that, I was to fill out the survey questions and fax that in to show that I have completed my assignment.

Obviously I did not do any of this. Because I have heard of this scam, and worked with victims of it at scamvictimsunited.com/ I knew that the check was counterfeit, and if I did cash it and wire the money off, in a few days the bank would come back to me looking for me to refund the money.

With times being tough right now, and the holidays just around the corner, I could see how some people would fall for this even though all of the warning signs are there . . . a letter from a company I have never heard of before, a check that I did not know was coming to me, the letterhead says the company is in New York, the check is from a bank in Minnesota and the postmark on the letter is from Canada, I am supposed to complete the entire thing in 48 hours (they always want you to work fast so that you wire off the money before you have time to realize the check is fake).

I even went as far as to google the name of the company on the letterhead, and it turns out that they are aware of this scam and they have posted a warning on thier website. http://surveyclub.com/e/ScamAlert.aspx

Be careful!