How I Kept Myself From Becoming An Internet Fraud Victim

I've been looking for a job for quite some time now. My schedule is somewhat difficult to work around, having been a stay-at-home mom for some years now. When my daughter is in school I only have between the hours of 8AM until 1 PM to work, and after looking for months I still hadn't found anything that worked for me in that time slot.

Perusing the Chicago want ads had become a daily morning ritual. I had seen the want ads for Mystery Shoppers before, but this morning while sipping my first cup of coffee for the day I decided to fill out the online application and see where the process took me.

It was a whim, I'll admit, but after hearing a little more about the process involved I was pumped, this was a job I could get behind. After working in the customer service field I knew what it took to be a good customer and I'd plenty of examples of bad customers to guide me in case I needed to “get angry” as part of the job.

Within hours my future “employers” sent me an e-mail informational kit, asking me to survey two stores, & to write them back within the next day as to the addresses of the stores I had chosen in my area. Also included were the questions about the stores they wanted answered and I supposed this was my informational kit. It seemed a little scarce. The stores were a Walmart and a Money Gram service.

I wrote them back, giving them the appropriate addresses and asking when my evaluation kit would be arriving thinking there would be more information included with the kit. They informed me that a check & evaluation kit would be arriving within the next day or so that would provide me the funds and information I needed in order to complete the store surveys, just cash the check at the bank and start shopping.

In a matter of a few days after filling out my online application they sent a check to my apartment via DHL. It was for four thousand dollars. Immediately I was suspicious. There was no evaluation kit, no further information. I wrote an e-mail asking why the check was for so much and why I hadn't received an evaluation kit yet. I got no response for hours from a company that usually had written me back within minutes.

The check was out of state, (not unusual,) but listed the bank on the check. I looked them up on Google which gave a listing, including a phone number. I called the bank which asked some simple questions about the check, then informed me there was not four thousand dollars in the account and asked me not to cash it without confirmation from them. They asked me for my phone number then proceeded to call the primary account holder for further information.

While I waited for them to call me back I inspected the packaging from DHL which I found to have at least three different men's names on the return address.

The bank returned my call and told me that the primary account holder had not authorized the check I had received. He was grateful for my diligence in calling the bank to make sure everything was legitimate.

I then proceeded to give this information to the website which I had found the want ad on. They removed it, banned the user and thanked me as well. I'm happy I didn't invest anything other than time and hope in this endeavor. I could have been in serious financial trouble if I had tried to cash that check, not to mention possible legal troubles.

Some tips for avoiding Internet mystery shopping scams:

• Money Gram services do in-house customer quality assurance surveys. No one should <ever> ask you to survey these companies, it is a scam if they do. Also, using Money Gram services for anything other than their intended purpose is against company policy.
• If you are asking questions and getting responses which contain no answers to the questions you've asked in e-mails more than once, chances are you're being set-up for a scam. Legitimate companies shouldn't have any problems answering your questions.
• When receiving checks from a third party you do not personally know, do as I did, call the bank and verify the account information. You'll save yourself time & emotional investment if the check is a fraud. Your bank <will> fee you for bounced or bad checks, regardless if it is your fault.
• Websites that sell directories of companies that provide mystery shoppers. Usually these are out of date, including nothing more than broken links and discontinued phone numbers. They refuse to give refunds and generally don't even bother to respond to e-mails asking for refunds.
• Sell “certification.” Companies that use mystery shoppers generally do not require certification.
• Guarantee a job as a mystery shopper. There is no such thing as a guaranteed position in any company. Think about it, would you really want to work for a company that guarantees you a job with no more information about you than your e-mail address?
• Ask a company what name will be on the return address & on the check they are sending. They should easily be able to give you this information. Any return addresses with more than one name on them, (other than company names) could be fraudulent.

If you think you have encountered a mystery shopping scam, file a complaint with your local consumer protection agency, the Better Business Bureau, your State Attorney General, or the FTC.