The other day I opened a letter addressed to me that was sent to my business address. A $1500 check falls out and I think WOW! What is this? Who is sending me money? That’s great; I can always use $1500! The check looked real. It had all the markings that it stated it should have; watermarks, red border, a stamp etc. This is getting more and more interesting, I say to myself. What is the catch? (You know, what seems too good to be true.)
I opened the letter and at the top it says”WALMART CUSTOMERS SURVEY SERVICE RELATIONS” and in tiny print it says “Best source for Secret Shopper employment”. Now that sounds interesting….secret shopper. I get to spend this money?!!! But I couldn’t help but notice there was something wrong with the grammar in the title. Now, I don’t have perfect grammar but I often see glaring mistakes. And since this was supposed to be a professional company, it stood out all the more.
I also noticed a website address www.shoppesrcanada.com I wonder, hmmmmm is that a misspelling? So I skim through the letter cut to the chase and find some columns of numbers.
Training pay and expenses…………………………………………$300.00
Your tasks are as follows: -
Wal-Mart Purchase (Any item(s) of your choice)………..$100.00
Money Gram Transaction…………………………………………..$1,030.00
Service Charge by Money Gram………………………………….$70.00
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Total Cos of all Transactions………………………………………..$1,500
Ok, I get it! This is a SCAM!!!
Just to be sure, I read the entire letter. They stated that the whole transaction is void if I don’t follow it to the letter. They also say that I must cash the check and send them the Money Gram for $1,030 within 48 hours or they will put a stop payment on the check! So it occurs to me, OF Course! I must send them the money before the bogus check bounces!
There are also many grammatical errors, but not as bad as most of the scam emails that I have received telling me about their father’s death who is a king, shah or ruler and they need the help of a trustworthy person such as me. (They have no idea who I am. It is usually addressed to Sir.) They want to transfer money out of their country and all they want is my name, checking account information, etc. and I will be paid handsomely for my participation.
Even better are the emails that I received when I was selling my car on Craigslist. They stated that they have a client that wants my car, sight unseen. They will send me a check for more than my asking price ($5000 more) but before they come to get the car they want me to send them the difference of $5000 in the form of a cashier’s check. I emailed them and asked them if they thought I was stupid and to never bother me again. As a Realtor I also get emails from scam artists that want to buy properties sight unseen. They use basically the same formula, but in much larger dollar amounts. I believe this is why I got the letter at my business address. They found me my site http://www.WendysHomes.com on the internet which has my business address on it.
I'm a sleuth and love a challenge so I took it a step further. I called the number on the letter. It was a toll free number (888) and a man answered the phone. His accent is so thick I couldn’t understand what he said when he answered. I said, “I just received a check for $1,500 and I want to know why” . He asks me for my name and address. I say “I just want to know why you sent me this check?” He tells me he needs my name and address before he can talk to me and I say “no, just answer my question first, tell me why I received this check?” He tells me he can’t talk to me unless he has my name. I say ”I will not give that information to you until I know why I got this check” He then tells me that how can he trust who I am! He can’t tell me anything until he has my name and address. I say “I DON’T KNOW WHO YOU ARE, WHY SHOULD I TRUST YOU WITH MY NAME AND ADDRESS when you won’t tell me ANYTHING?”
CLICK!!! He hangs up on me! Am I surprised? Heck no.
So, when I got home I told my husband about it and asked him to call and play along with the scheme. He called twice and gets an automated message saying that the message center is full. So I figured we will try again tomorrow.
At 9:00 AM the next morning ( Saturday) my phone rings. It is from a 905 area code. I often get calls regarding real estate from all over the country because my web site is very visible on Google. So I answered my phone professionally. “Hello, this is Wendy. He says “Did you try calling "such and such" a company last night?” Again, it was the same accent, same man and I could not understand what he was saying. I said “Just a moment please” and handed the phone to my husband, cluing him in to the fact that it was the scam artist.
It’s interesting that he was able to call me because we have a blocked number. I don’t know how they were able to call because I don’t believe you can re-dial blocked numbers. Anyway, my husband asked him why he got the check and the man wanted a name. My husband gave him a false name. The man wanted to know the check number and my husband said "You should have that number because YOU sent it to me"! They go round and round and the man refuses to tell him why the check was sent to my husband and finally the man hung up!
I researched this scam on the internet and of course found all kinds of horror stories. I also checked Snopes.com and found many examples of this scheme. http://www.snopes.com/fraud/employment/shopper.asp
If you don’t know about Snopes.com, get familiar with it. You can find information about all the scams and rumors that have been circulating for years and see if they are true or not. They usually are bogus.
By the way, I checked the website address that seemed to be misspelled and it opened up but it had absolutely no information on it. It was just a list of websites that pay per click to the owner of this scam website. So the scammer is making money this way too. It might be a good idea to contact those sites and let them know the story and that they are contributing to a thief!
My next step is to turn this information over to http://www.ic3.gov/
Unfortunately these jerks simply pick up and move, stay quiet for a few weeks and then start up again. This letter originated from Canada. Probably to avoid our Federal laws regarding mail fraud.
Please let others know about this scheme. There are so many people that have fallen for this and continue to fall for it. The elderly, young and not so savvy people are very vulnerable and must be protected. I really had to analyze the letter to finally come to the conclusion that it was in fact a scam. I felt excitement that I might be getting $1,500. If I felt that way, as savvy as I am, then other poor unfortunate souls with less knowledge and’ know how’ are going to get royally taken. I was able to dissect it, analyze it and research it because I know how. Many people, especially the elderly, don’t have the ability, or a computer to search on the web.
This scam has existed for years and the amounts vary, some as high as $4000. Can you imagine your grandmother, mother, son, daughter or a friend getting hit with this? There is no recovery. No way of getting your money back.
It always bewilders me and makes me ill to think that many people make a living destroying people by stealing their money. This was only $1,500 and that IS a lot of money. But there are scams that take all the money that people have, their retirement etc. and leave them in a very bad place.
Please do your part in spreading the word!
Thanks
Wendy Pickard
http://www.WendysHomes.com
Thousand Oaks, Ca.
