I hate that I have to write this post, but it has become a necessity:
- Do NOT wire ANY money as part of a mystery shopping assignment.
- If you EVER receive a large check as part of a mystery shopping assignment, DO NOT DEPOSIT IT. The check is fake. The people who sent you the check are trying to steal your money.
Over the past two months, someone has been posing as MysteryShopOnline.com, which is another website I own, and attempting to scam people out of their hard earned money — by tricking them into depositing a fake check and then wiring a portion of the money back.
This makes me incredibly frustrated and sad. Many people have lost several thousand dollars each. And the problem does is not going away, despite the fact that two such thieves were recently arrested in Canada.
The hardship and pain caused by these scams breaks my heart. Some of the hardest hit people are left completely broke and in debt. Many of them were already overwhelmed.
Because some of these thieves are posing as my company, I have received personal threats from their victims. This makes everything much more poignant for me. It makes the pain of the victims very real. But I cannot blame them — I can only try to help improve the situation.
Fortunately, their are people in law enforcement who take these scams very seriously. That is proven by the fact that 2 scammers were arrested just weeks ago.
Lets hope that more will be arrested soon.
If you have ANY information about ANY kind of scam related to mystery shopping, then please contact the authorities.
The phone number for the FBI is (202) 324-3000.
You can also file a report here: http://www.consumer.gov/sentinel/. This will put your information in a database that dozens of law enforcement agencies have access to.
Also, contact your local police department.
Here is the number for the agency that was responsible for arresting the 2 scammers a couple of weeks ago: 1-800-348-5358.