My 16 year old daughter rec'd a letter and a check today ... for $4900! She has been selected as a secret shopper. The letter had a list of places showing how much of this money she had to spent at the specific stores and in the end she should have $300 left over for her time.
Hubby was 25 years in banking. He says it IS a real check ... totally cashable. But he's been doing research on scam stuff and had already heard about this one.
It's one step above the "I'll send a truck for the cake" thing we see all the time.
Where this letter thing gets you is that two of the places she is suppose to secret-shop are wire transfer places and of course these are the biggest amounts. Hubby's research says it works this way ....
She cashes the check. She takes $2800 to the first wire transfer place and wires it back to the 'employer'. She takes $1000 and wire transfers it back to them at the 2nd place. They now have $3800 in cash. She then receives notice that the $4900 check bounced and she now owes the bank $4900.
I'm posting this because it was sent to my 16 YEAR OLD DAUGHTER !!! The envelope was hand-addressed, no return address. Alert your kids that if they get a check in the mail .... DON'T CASH IT!!
I've heard of this scam here in Canada also but I didn't know the envelopes were hand written and to a 16 yr old yet!! Good Grief!!
Yikes! I would be so happy to get that in the mail, but also very cautious...no such thing as free money!
omg, you know what I just realized? Unlike the email scams, this one is using the U.S. Post Office ... for fraud.
(Dragnet theme dum-da-DUM-dum
That is just horrible. I am so glad you hubby had the background to figure it out. I am glad this had a happy ending and you did not have to lose out all that $$$$.
i hate these people. i work in a care home, and we have to check the outgoing mail to make sure it doesnt contain any checks going to scammers like these. grrrr!!!!
xx
So if it's a real check, what would happen if it was jsut deposited into your personal account and not wired anywhere. I guess they could still just have it bounce.
Yeah, my daughter asked the same thing ... "If it's a real check, can't I just cash it?" I told her it wasn't worth all the hassle that you KNOW was going to be coming down the road!
This is horrible-imagine the empty minds that think up all this! Kids too now? sheesh!
I can't believe she got a check in the mail.
I found out yesterday that I won 2.5 million dollars in the Austrailian email lottery. All I have to do is give them my bank info for the transfer.......
So if it's a real check, what would happen if it was jsut deposited into your personal account and not wired anywhere. I guess they could still just have it bounce.
That's exactly what would happen. The check would still bounce, and the person that deposited it would have to pay back the $4,900. If the money was still in the account the bank would probably just take it out of the depositor's account (this is probably written somewhere in that depositor's agreement they gave you when you first opened the account). If it was not in the account the depositor would have to make arrangements to pay the bank back. Either way, the bank doesn't lose the money.
This exact scenario was just on Dr. Phil last week or the week before. The poor girl cashed it and on top of the 4900 bouncing she owes huge fees to her bank for the bad check. She will be paying it off for over 10 years and it has affected every part of her life. Warn your daughter to BURN IT NOW!!!!!!
This exact scenario was just on Dr. Phil last week or the week before.
oh wow, I usually can catch Dr. Phil about 3 days a week and I missed that one!
IndyDebi- the worst part was that the girl was rather street smart. She assumed at the beginning it was a scam, but checked with HER bank who told her it was okay to deposit it. what most people don't know is that your bank will deposit the check and may even tell you it clears, but it will take up to a week or more to actually be proven valid or not. the show explained that the thing to do is ask your bank to contact the bank that issued the check to ensure there are funds BEFORE letting your bank deposit it into your account.
omg, you know what I just realized? Unlike the email scams, this one is using the U.S. Post Office ... for fraud.
(Dragnet theme dum-da-DUM-dum
That's a great point. Rather than burning it, you should forward it to the USPS or FBI or whatever agency deals with mail fraud. There are huge repercussions for that, if said agency can track down the perpetrators.
I just wanted to add a note here to say it may not just be kids getting these checks, we all need to be cautious about our elderly friends and family getting caught like this.
My 94 year old mother and 83 year old stepfather are continually getting "checks" and all kinds of scam type junk mail, and just this week my stepfather attempted to deposit a $25,000 check into their bank account. Fortunately they live in a small town in East Texas and the bank told him the check was no good and wouldn't let him deposit it. In a big city, the bank would more than likely have accepted it, and then they would have had bad check fees, etc. to pay at the very least.
So if you have elderly folks to look out after, beware, they are so easily confused and swindled.
I'd never heard of this one - so elaborate!
Why don't these people put their ingenuity to good use instead of wasting it on stealing. They're probably smart enough to be successful in legitimate business, and can it really be much less work than all this trouble they're going to for this scam?
I'd never heard of this one - so elaborate!
Why don't these people put their ingenuity to good use instead of wasting it on stealing.
We say that all the time ... if they'd just use their super powers for good instead of evil!
Just an update FYI. Evidently this scam is really widespread. I got this email this morning from mysteryshops.com, a secret shopper website I used to do shopping for:
Good Morning Janice,
Scam Alert!!
Be aware that there are individuals using Corporate Research Internationals good name to perpetrate a scam on unsuspecting consumers.
Consumers are receiving fraudulent letters offering, among other things, a mystery shopping assignment to evaluate a money transfer service (click here to see an example of the letter).
These letters use Corporate Research Internationals name and website address to establish credibility with the recipients and are accompanied by a cashiers check for several thousand dollars. In the letter, shoppers are instructed to cash the check at a local bank and then wire the cash to a designated location while keeping several hundred dollars for themselves as payment for the shop.
This is a scam! The cashiers check ultimately bounces and the shopper is held liable for the funds.
If you or anyone you know has received a similar letter, please contact local law enforcement or the nearest FBI regional field office to report the scam attempt. Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!
We also ask that you inform those friends or family whom you know to engage in mystery shopping to be on the lookout for this type of fraudulent offer.
Anne Harris
Scheduling Supervisor
Corporate Research International
www.corpri.com
I doubt the click HERE link will work, but the letter is similar to what the OP said, but it does look very professionally done. I think reporting this to the Post Office or the police, if you do not have a real name of a business is called for in order to stop the scammers.
IndyDebi- yes I received one of these checks just the other day. I heard about the scam also so I knew not to cash the check. Mine is a cashiers check from Hopeton State Bank in Hopeton ,OK.-funny it was also handwritten & mailed from Canada. The one I got is for a total amount of $4965.00. They also send you a letter where to spend the cash ,bigger amounts are transfers to them. (Western Union & Money Gram ) Please all beware & don`t cash these unsafe checks.
Ironically, the postage meter stamp stamp on the envelope says "Prevent Fraud".
I took it to my local law enforcement, who said they couldnt' do anything since we hadn't cashed the check and no one had actually been "harmed" (which I understand), but he gave me the number of the state attorney general and suggested I call them.
My sister in law got one of these and fell for it. She ended up in huge trouble/debt with the bank. They cashed it and then found out it was fake. She took all of the information to the police, and they filed a report but nothing ever came from it. She still owes the money back to the bank, and the police never found anything out about the senders.
Let everyone you know, know that when you are a mystery shopper you don't make a lot of money and they don't pay up front. Being a mystery shopper is more about letting someone know your opinion. The most I have ever made as a mystery shopper was 40 bucks. Its a lot of work for very little pay. (More of a volunteer job. You will get reimbursed up to a certain amount but will never get paid in advance. The companies want to make sure they are not getting scammed by someone who will just keep the money.
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%