By SooToday.com Staff
SooToday.com
Friday, November 06, 2009

SooToday.com received the following note this afternoon from faithful reader Angela Mei who, fortunately, understands that if something sounds too good to be true, it likely is.

"I was almost scammed out of $4,220," she tells SooToday.com. "I caught it before it happened and I want people to hear my story so they will become more aware of scams."

For legal reasons, SooToday.com has removed the name and contact information of the company that 'hired' Angela.

To learn how to avoid being taken in by secret-shopping schemes, please click on the U.S. govermment link at the bottom of this article.

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Mystery shopping: dream job or nightmare?

One day, I decided to job-search because I had recently graduated and it was time to make some cash (as my parents repeatedly stated).

As I was job searching online, I found an ad to become a mystery shopper.

"Oh, I’ve heard of this before," I thought to myself.

How hard can that be?

Shop and dine and get paid, what an amazing side job.

I have heard of this before because of the jobs I had previously worked at.

A mystery shopper will come in and evaluate your service, then report their findings to their employer and get paid.

They can come in on their own time and keep whatever they have purchased.

Two months passed and I finally receive an e-mail that stated:

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Hello, Angela!

Thanks for the interest to our company!

You are welcomed to be part of our team!

[Company named removed by SooToday.com] is a company that gives you the chance to help regulate and maintain quality customer service around chain stores, super markets and restaurants in your area and still maintain a regular full time job.

In fact you are paid to shop and dine free and still earn $300 weekly.

Here are the list of big chain stores and eateries we are looking to evaluate;

Please mark the ones that are available in your area for your future assignment(s):

- Sobeys Stores

- MoneyGram (can be seen in any post office around you)

- Sears

- Walmart

- IKEA house

- Mandarin

- Lou's Bar & Grill

- Pricesmart

- Superstore

- Pizza Hut

- Bostons Pizza

- Futureshop

- Best Buy

- Canadian Tires

- Montanas

Hope to hear from you as soon as possible.

Please, reconfirm your mailing/contact address with full name, AGE, cell and land line phone numbers!

Have a good day!

[Company contact information removed by SooToday.com]

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If you think these spelling mistakes are bad, you should have seen the other e-mails!

At this point, I decided to go with it.

As a recent grad, we all know we need a job as soon as possible.

I received more e-mails about how I would get paid, what stores to attend, and the evaluation sheets I needed to fill out after each visit.

Three weeks had passed and I got a cheque in the mail.

I knew it was from them, but there was a PO Box instead of an address.

This raised a few red flags.

I proceeded to open the letter and found inside a poorly written letter and a cheque for $4,220!

So, needless to say, I was shocked at the amount of money and of course made me completely skeptical of the whole situation.

The next day I checked my e-mail and read the instructions on how to use the money.

It read as follows:

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You are to deduct your first week salary of $300 + $200 for your Mystery shopping/dining expenses.

As part of your assignment, the balance of the check $3,720 you should use to evaluate the service of Money Gram.

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Did I mention the $3,720 is to be wired to Lviv, Ukraine?

Remember this area.

This is where the website was designed.

I began to take action.

I told my parents, friends, boyfriend, neighbors, coworkers, basically anyone who would listen to my story.

I wanted to see if they have seen this before and to give me some advice.

My parents gave me the best advice - call our government.

For once I listened to them and called everyone I could think of.

I called:

- Better Business Bureau
- Industry Canada
- Ministry of Government Services
- RCMP Phone Busters

I even went as far as e-mailing our Chamber of Commerce.

All of these places I called had no records on Mystery Shopping Inc.

I proceeded to call on one of my dashing young coworkers, Super Rob.

Super Rob was on it like white on rice.

He started to check out who made the web site, where the cheque was from, and eventually unveil who these mystery shoppers really are.

Super Rob found out some stunning information.

It turns out I received a stolen cheque from BASF, the chemical company.

Not only was the cheque stolen, but the template to write out the cheque was stolen too.

We also found stories online from the same person scamming others and unfortunately, they didn’t get off as easy as me.

One lady in particular ended up losing $4,700.

I instantly told the RCMP Phone Busters and reported this company fraud!

I was told to write this story by my coworkers because they too were stunned to have met a person who was involved with a scam.

I am also writing this so you can become more aware and really see how these things work.

Listen to your gut, not your bank account, because things can get a lot worse!

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Learn more about mystery-shopper scams

Secrets of mystery shopping revealed