Victim Location 43212
Total money lost $2,000
Type of a scam Fake Check/Money Order
This person, called himself "Michael Haywood", emailed me an "application" for a "job" as a secret shopper. In telling this story I feel like a complete [censored] and should have known from the beginning. I filled out the application, as it didn’t ask for any personal information so I figured it couldn’t hurt. They got back with me saying application received and that I would be mailed my first shopper assignment in the next week. I was mailed FOUR $800 money orders! So I took them to the bank and they cashed them and deposited the money into my account that day. I’m not really familiar with money orders and checks so I figured if I was able to take them to the bank and deposit them then they must be legit! So then they asked me to go buy some Best Buy gift cards with the money then report on the service that I received. I sent pictures of the gift cards per their request, they spent the $2,000 worth of gift cards then a week later the money orders bounced and the gift cards balances were zeroed. So I lost $2,000. I felt like an [censored]. I’m a full time student in graduate school and work full time to pay for school. Being in graduate school, you’d think I’m smart enough to smell a scam when it’s right under my nose and looking back I can’t believe I missed it. I only have a total of $4,641 in my check account and they just stole $2,000 of it. I’m devastated and I don’t think there is anything I can do about it at this point, unfortunately. I will learn from this and I hope this will caution others away from losing all this money.