New Mystery Shopper Scam [2012]

[Karen G]

I guess most people are now aware of the Nigerian million-dollar inheritance scams. The scammers have come up with a new one now: mystery shopper jobs. Here's the first part of the email of the most recent one I got:

Dear Agent,

You have been accepted as one of our Mystery shopper/Survey Agent. You will be
evaluating Wal-Mart Stores and Western Union Services in your neighborhood,
Kindly check out for one Wal-Mart store and one Western union Agent outlet you
will like to evaluate, make sure the store and the outlet you will chose are
close to your area as much as possible, You will have to send the name and
address of the two location 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 store, in order not to arouse any suspicion. you will be shopping at
Wal-Mart stores and also make a transaction at the Western union . . .

The email goes on about how to act in the store, etc. and it is signed by Paul Nicole. Who has a name like that? They pick the fakest-sounding names! Making a wire transaction at a Western Union is big tip-off.



Here's what I found [dead link from 2012 removed]about the scam. In the letter of instructions it says the mystery shop is to be done within 48 hours so that makes the victim deposit the check into their account and wire the money to the scammer before finding out that the check is bogus. They are getting a lot more creative and spending a little more time on their scams nowadays.

 

[pacodemountainside]

Karen:

Apparently Paul and Mike have been around a while, but have updated their pitch. Must be working.

Out of curosity, I took their genuine bank check to my bank here and they would not even take for collection much less cash. Hope banks do more of this to protect the guillable.

The worse version of this is when they say since you are a contract employee we have to have your SSN for 1099 reporting!

To top that they say they will direct deposit future payments so need bank account number and routing code.

Maybe this is what frustrated time share sales people retire to doing.



To:: [email address redacted]
Subject:: MYSTERY SHOPPER FIRST ASSIGNMENT/GET IT DONE ASAP.
Date:: May 25, 2011 12::45 AM
Dear Big Al::

This e-mail is to notify you about your first assignment. The company has issued out a payment to you for your first assignment which means your weekly payment of $200 has been issued to you with some funds which you will use in executing this Assignment.

Read and make sure you understand all that is stated below to avoid any mistakes. You should receive money orders from one of our companies which is part of your assignment. The package tracking number is (EO 994 162 049 US) from USPS courier service.You can track it at http:://www.usps.com. Payment was issued to cover the assignment bills and also your weekly wages and Assignment.

Once you receive the money orders, you should take the payment to your bank and deposit the money orders and make immediate withdrawal then deduct $200 as your weekly wage including the western union charges.

The remaining balance should be used for the below assignment. Follow these instructions below.

1ST ASSIGNMENT::
You will be Evaluating Wal-mart store and Western Union outlet in your City. Cash the Money Orders at your Bank then Go ahead with Wal-mart Evaluation .The money orders you received covers all expenditures including evaluation, shopping , transport and your compensation
( salary=$200 ) for these surveys .You are to purchase Goods of your Choice for your own Use not more than $50,at any Wal-mart store close to you and also you will be using Western Union services to send the balance to another Mystery shopper to carry out his own Assignment.As a secret shopper, you should go there and study how to send money and memorize all you see at the outlet.
We want you to report back to us with the following information::

GUIDELINES
-How long it took you to get services.
-Ambiance/Outlook of the Shop/Outlet
-Smartness of the attendant
-Customer service professionalism
-Reaction of personnel under pressure
-Information that you think would be helpful
-Your comments and impressions.


Below is the expenditures breakdown::-
Money Received .... $876
Transport/Miscellaneous..$20
Salary .................$200
Wal-mart .................$50
Western Union ..............$606


As a secret shopper your job is to observe any thing useful going on in the outlet. Make sure you observe everything you see in there because you would be asked some other questions when you return. So then you would go ahead and make a western union money transfer to another mystery shopper for another assignment. We want you to deduct your weekly payment of $200 and have the remaining funds (minus the western union charges and also $50 for whatever you will be buying at Wal-mart) sent to the information below for proper preparation of our next Mystery Shopper.

TRANSFER THE REST OF THE FUNDS THROUGH WESTERN UNION TO THE BELOW INFORMATION::

RECEIVER'S NAME :: PHILIP RONALD
Address::25th Street
CITY:: MALATE
STATE:: MANILA
COUNTRY:: PHILIPPINES
ZIP CODE :: 0913

Send Money to be available in Minutes.

Also to further finalize this Assignment, you have to get back to us with the Necessary report of Wal-mart and also with the below western union transfer information for the money you sent to the other mystery shopper::

1. Senders Name and Address
2. 10 Digit Money Transfer Control Number {M.T.C.N}
3. The amount transferred after deducting western union charges.

This project shouldn't take you more than a couple of hours to execute and the time limit matters to us, with that we can also determine your efficiency and the commitment you show towards working with us. Do get back to me with the Reports and Transfer information.

Looking forward to work with you on this project .And remember to pretend to be a client who wants to Shop and send money so they won't detect you are a secret shopper.


Mike Morris

 

[Karen G]

Paco, in that link in my first post there i this contact page [dead link from 2012 redacted] to report this fraud to the US Postal Inspectors. Have you done that yet?

 

[pacodemountainside]

Paco, in that link in my first post there i this contact page [dead link from 2012 redacted] to report this fraud to the US Postal Inspectors. Have you done that yet?

No! Didn't think about at the time and tossed envelope over a year ago.

My original solicatation was an e-mail in spam folder. I responded using a pseudo e-mail and alias. I figure if enough people respond and they pay for expedited shipping it is going to get expensive.

Yes, these scammers are good. Dateline did a two hour expose on Nigeran scammer about a year ago and questions from their investigators were given excellent answers and charde was very convincing.