Mystery Shopper Scam: My Personal Experience

I am sure that we have all at sometime or other got an email with a chance to apply to be a Mystery Shopper. I have even known those who have done this before. They actually were paid to be Mystery Shoppers. When I received an application via email to apply I figured what the heck maybe it was worth a shot. I was accepted easily and was told that I would get my assignment shortly to survey two Western Union Money Transfer Services in places of my choice in my area.

These are the letters that I was sent from the Mystery Shopper’s scam artists. Of course it would have been smart of me to pay attention to the grammar, capitalization and spelling in the letter.

You have been hired as one of our Mystery shopper/Survey Agent. For your first assignment, you will be evaluating Western Union Money Transfer Services in your neighborhood. Kindly check out for Western Union outlets/ locations you would like to evaluate, make sure the stores or outlets you choose are close to your area as much as possible. I would want you to give down a working cell phone number you can be reached at anytime. Also, I would want you to state if you have done this kind of job before and what your experience was when you did it?
( Ya think that these may be foreigners by chance?)

You will have to send the name and address of the two locations to us. Please note that you are to act Cool, Calm and Confident through out the period which you will be carrying out your survey at the Outlet in order not to arouse any suspicion.
You will write a report about the customer services, you will send your report back to us via Email, you will have to use the following pointers to prepare your report :
1) How long it took you to get services. 2)Ambiance/Outlook of the Shop/Outlet 3) Smartness of the attendant 4)Customer service professionalism 5)Reaction of personnel under pressure 6)Information that you think would be helpful 7)Your comments and impressions.
A package will be sent to you, inside the package you will find your Compensation payment and other funds you will use to carry out your surveying process. You must not use your personal money to complete any of the surveying process and there will be no reimbursement of any kind since we are providing you with all the funds you will need to carry out the survey.
An Evaluation Instruction will be given to you through email, this will tell you what to do at the Western Union location and how to expend the funds at each location. Please reply this Email ASAP and give us the name and address of the Western Union Outlet / location you will be evaluating. If you have any question, get back to me And make sure you send an email back as a response to this email ASAP.
Best Regards,
Your prompt response would be highly appreciated, replying with the Subject THIS IS ACKNOWLEDGED.

I responded to the first letter telling them that I would be available the following week. I didn’t get the following letter until after I received a Fed-X package. I didn’t pay much attention to the fact that they wanted me to send funds either. I was thinking more about the fact that I would be paid for a survey.
I came home one day and found a Fed-X package in between my two front doors. I couldn’t think for the life of me who would be sending me anything. I opened it up and found two postal money orders for $984.00 each! It was from a Kent Parker in Mount Nova Florida. I went immediately to the bank. I knew it had to be a scam. The bank manager said that the money orders looked legitimate. Do you have a web site? Does anyone owe you money? Could it be someone who is just being benevolent? I said that I hardly thought so and that I didn’t have a web site where I sold my art from.

He took the money orders to a teller who checked them out through a phone number that would verify the money orders. They were fraudulent. I knew that they had to be but couldn’t think of why I got them. There was no letter enclosed with the money orders.
The bank gave back the money orders to me and kept copies of them. When I returned home I got a text message from Mr. Mark Tyler asking me if I had received the money orders for my “first assignment.” I texted back that no I hadn’t. I would check my email to see what the assignment was. Of course it hit me what this was all about by that time.

This is the email that I received after I got the money orders to complete my assignment. By this time I realized that the money orders were supposed to be from the Mystery Shopper people. Ha! Because of all of the other things going on in my life I wasn’t paying that much attention. There is an old saying that if something seems to be too good to be true that it probably is. Even though I may appear to be an idiot by now, I really am not one. It would be hard to prove it by this though.

Dear Mystery Shopper,
Greetings to you,
From my tracking online of the Package containing the money orders for your First Assignment which you are to take care of, the package has been delivered to you. If you were not at home to receive the Package, the Package would have been dropped at your front door or kept in your Porch.
I really think that by now, you should have cashed the Money Orders and you should have sent the Money to the other mystery shopper whom you have been directed to send the money to in CALIFORNIA via Western Union Money Transfer while you carry out the survey assignment on the Western Union Outlet. But i am yet to receive the Western Union details from you so I could give it to the next mystery shopper for him to be able to receive the Money and carry out his own assignment too.
I await the Western Union details and your report on the Western Union Outlet after you have wired the Money.
Thanks for your anticipated co-operation.
Mark Tyler 561-536-3803

Hello Shana K. Dines, Sorry for the delay in getting your first assignment to you. You would be receiving the funds for your 1st survey assignment today via FedEx Courier Service, Tuesday 08/30/2011 between 9am-3pm. Please make sure you wait at home to receive the package. FedEx may ring your bell or just leave the package at your front door/Porch, so please look out for it. Here is the tracking number of the package, 874628868755. You are required to follow the instructions carefully and get back to me asap with the survey results. The FedEx package contains a total payment of $1,988 (2 pieces of $994 M/O). You are to cash the Money Orders at your bank, deduct $200 as your bonus for working with us, you will have $1,788 left. Make use of $150 for your transportation & Western Union Charges. You are required to send a total of $1,638 to another Undercover Surveyor in another location (where a customer reported her funds missing) via Western Union Money Transfer so he can carry out another survey. You are to send the money as money in minutes and the receiver should be paid in US Dollars. Here is the name of the Secret Shopper in another location which you would be sending the funds to: NAME: EARL DEAN ADDRESS: 804 PATRIOT PARKWAY CITY: PALMDALE STATE: CALIFORNIA COUNTRY: USA ZIP CODE: 93551

(Hum, I wonder why they would have put USA on the address? Certainly sounds suspicious; I don’t think that an American citizen would put USA on an address but then consider the source. )

===YOUR FIRST ASSIGNMENT=== During this assignment which requires you to have the money orders cashed at your bank before proceeding to wire the remaining funds at any local Western Union Money Transfer location in your area, You are expected to secretly perform the following survey operation: (I thought that it was supposed to be the Western Union Money Transfer locations that I had told them that I wanted to go to? More and more suspiciouser? Can’t help making fun of myself. I know that suspiciouser is not a word!) 1. How fast and Efficient is the Western Union Money Transfer Service? 2. How long does it take you to have the funds wired? 3. How Close is the Western Union Money Transfer Location to your area? 4. Is the Senders Request Form too short or Long? You are expected to have this done today and email me back your results with the following information after you have wired the funds. 1. Name and Address of Sender 2. Money Transfer Control Number(10 digits) 3. Amount Wired I will be waiting to read from you ASAP with the requested transfer details. Your pay would increase after every completed assignment. Note that, If your bank does not cash the Money Orders for you instantly, you can have it deposited into your account and wait till the next day for the Money Orders to clear into your account, then proceed to complete the assignment. If your bank can cash the Money Orders for you Instantly, you should carry out the survey assignment immediately. Yours Sincerely Mark Tyler 561-536-3803
Hello Shana K. Dines,

Sorry for the delay in getting your first assignment to you. You would be receiving the funds for your 1st survey assignment today via FedEx Courier Service, Tuesday 08/30/2011 between 9am-3pm. Please make sure you wait at home to receive the package. FedEx may ring your bell or just leave the package at your front door/Porch, so please look out for it. Here is the tracking number of the package, 874628868755. You are required to follow the instructions carefully and get back to me asap with the survey results.
The FedEx package contains a total payment of $1,988 (2 pieces of $994 M/O). You are to cash the Money Orders at your bank, deduct $200 as your bonus for working with us, you will have $1,788 left. Make use of $150 for your transportation & Western Union Charges. You are required to send a total of $1,638 to another Undercover Surveyor in another location (where a customer reported her funds missing) via Western Union Money Transfer so he can carry out another survey. You are to send the money as money in minutes and the receiver should be paid in US Dollars.
Here is the name of the Secret Shopper in another location which you would be sending the funds to:
NAME: EARL DEAN ADDRESS: 804 PATRIOT PARKWAY CITY: PALMDALE STATE: CALIFORNIA COUNTRY: USA ZIP CODE: 93551
===YOUR FIRST ASSIGNMENT=== During this assignment which requires you to have the money orders cashed at your bank before proceeding to wire the remaining funds at any local Western Union Money Transfer location in your area, You are expected to secretly perform the following survey operation:
1. How fast and Efficient is the Western Union Money Transfer Service? 2. How long does it take you to have the funds wired? 3. How Close is the Western Union Money Transfer Location to your area? 4. Is the Senders Request Form too short or Long?
You are expected to have this done today and email me back your results with the following information after you have wired the funds.
1. Name and Address of Sender 2. Money Transfer Control Number(10 digits) 3. Amount Wired
I will be waiting to read from you ASAP with the requested transfer details. Your pay would increase after every completed assignment. Note that, If your bank does not cash the Money Orders for you instantly, you can have it deposited into your account and wait till the next day for the Money Orders to clear into your account, then proceed to complete the assignment. If your bank can cash the Money Orders for you Instantly, you should carry out the survey assignment immediately. (Oh yeah I would fall for that one! I can see me flying around depositing bogus money orders all over town before I became the wiser! Not to mention the much larger counterfeit money orders and my bogus pay!)
Yours Sincerely Mark Tyler 561-536-3803

Dear Mark, The money orders that you sent me are counterfeit and I am having you turned over to the Better Business Bureau. There will be an article written about you on associated content about what scam artists you are. I will also turn over the address of the receiver of this said money with a copy of the letters that you have sent to me. You may not be caught this time but I am sure that your asses will eventually be put in jail. Remember what goes around comes around. It is disgusting that as intelligent as you must be that you haven’t used your intelligence to work at making an honest living. What a shame that you are wasting what God as given you to scam others who may be less gifted or who may be more desperate than I am.
Sincerely Shana K. Dines

I know that there may be people that think that the money orders are counterfeit but are desperate enough to think that they can get away with it and to stick the bank with it. What they may not know is that if the bank cashes the money orders for you that when it is discovered that they are counterfeit that the person who cashes them will have to pay that money back.
The generous provider of the money orders who are paying you $200 and $150 transportation and gas money are not only sticking you for the money that you send to them but will also stick you with the money that they supposedly are paying you. People who are a lot smarter than I am in money matters would have that already figured out.
At least I was not so stupid that I would have tried to cash those checks. The bank manager when I told him where the money orders came from, said that he couldn’t believe that the Mystery Shopper scam was still going on. So much for the benevolent stranger!

http://www.snopes.com/fraud/employment/shopper.asp561-536-3803

http://phoenix.about.com/od/scam1/a/mysteryshop.htm
http://moneywatch.bnet.com/saving-money/blog/devil-details/mystery-shopper-scam-alert/381/
http://www.aboutfacecorp.com/ce_bis_shop.cfm


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