Victim Location 78041
Type of a scam Fake Check/Money Order
Yesterday My wife got a $2850.00 check addressed to her with name on it, in a Priority Mail envelope from a Mystery Shopping Survey company with instructions, she was so happy, it’s a $2850.00 but had questions about it. So she asked me about it, I’m a cautions Person must be the COP in me. So I checked the paperwork, the check. The Check is on Check paper, Business Name does exist, Business address and routing number match up, you copy the check it states Void on it (Like a check). Business Name and address on priority mail from McAllen does exist also. But the paper work was questionable, it stated for you to buy EBay gift cards and take pictures of them back and front, send back to a number stated. That’s when I said SCAM. When they ask for a copy of gift cards. I looked up name of company of the Mystery shopper survey company / National Shoppers link online…
Don’t be a Victim-Scammers need a good story to get to your wallet. Once they find one that works, they use it again and again.
One of their old favorites brings together fake checks and secret shopping, and we’ve been hearing a lot about it lately.
Here’s how it starts. You get a check in the mail with a job offer as a secret shopper. You deposit the check and see the funds in your account a few days later, and the bank even tells you the check has cleared.
Now you’re off to the store you’ve been asked to shop at and report back on, often a Walmart. Your first assignment is to test the in-store money transfer service, like Western Union or MoneyGram, by sending some of the money you deposited. Or you might be told to use the money to buy reloadable cards or gift cards, such as iTunes cards, Ebay cards.
You’re instructed to send pictures of the cards or to give the numbers on the cards.
Fast forward days or weeks to the unhappy ending. The bank finds out the check you deposited is a fake, which means you’re on the hook for all that money. How does that even happen? Well, banks must make funds from deposited checks available within days, but uncovering a fake check can take weeks. By the time you try to get the money back from the money transfer service, the scammers are long gone, and they’ve taken all the money off the gift cards, too. (By the way, money orders and cashier’s checks can be faked, too.)
The moral of the story? If anyone ever asks you to deposit a check and then wire or send money in any way, you can bet it’s a scam. No matter what they tell you.Â