Mystery Shopper Scam Alert
April 24, 2012Imagine opening your mail and finding a check for $1,985 with the offer to get paid to be a mystery shopper. How many of your employees would be tempted to moonlight and make a little extra money by being paid to hit the mall? Well, my husband was sure tempted when he got an offer that sounded too good to be true from American Consumer Opinion in Ontario, Canada.
As soon as I saw the amount of the check and the Canadian return address, I told my husband not to start spending the money in his dreams yet. Although the check looked legitimate, there were a few red flags. Scams like these commonly originate in Canada, and the major red flag was that one of the mystery shopping trips involved visiting Western Union and wiring back a large part of the check amount for “research purposes.” The goal of this scam is to get the victim to deposit the “paycheck” into their bank, then wire back all but a small amount (in this case, $250) as a mystery shopper task, and then a few weeks after the wire has already taken place, the victim’s bank notifies the unsuspecting victim that the check has been returned due to being a counterfeit check. Unfortunately, Western Union takes no responsibility since their money transfer service is immediate and once the funds are transferred, typically to an off-shore account, the funds cannot be retrieved.
Once I read the sales pitch, the first thing I did was to check out the company using the Better Business Bureau’s website at www.bbb.org. They have an A+ rating and have been BBB accredited since 2004 so I was beginning to think that perhaps this was the real deal. However, when I Googled the company name to visit their website, there was a warning about the scam:
“WARNING! Mystery Shopper Scam”
“ A fraudulent Canadian company is using the American Consumer Opinion® name to mail counterfeit checks for thousands of dollars, instructing you
to deposit the check and then wire part of the money back to them. The company falsely claims the money you wire will go towards your training to
become a mystery shopper. This is a criminal and illegal scam. Do not attempt to cash or deposit the check. Do not wire any money to anyone. Membership
in American Consumer Opinion® is always free.”
So how can you protect your employees? When you hear about these types of scams occurring, highlight the story in your company newsletter. In addition to the Mystery Shopper scam, another common scam to warn your workforce about is the Grandparents scam, which I wrote about last year after my own parents almost fell for the con. In addition to warning your employees in print or online on your intranet bulletin about these types of scams, another idea is to provide an over-the-phone financial counseling service, which can provide a sounding board for your employees that want a second opinion on any financial opportunity that they are considering. Because when something sounds too good to be true, it almost always is!
