Member Since: 8/13/2012
Posts: 32,832
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Mystery Shopper scamming people
Quote:
Leela Hafezi was 17 years old and had recently had a baby when she received a text message on her cell phone this summer. It said she could make $400 per week as a mystery shopper and asked her to send her postal code to an email address.
It seemed like “easy money”, Hafezi said. “Money is tight for me.” With a new baby and college to pay for, she was hoping to make some extra money. She replied to the email address.
After replying to the text message, Hafezi also got an email. “When I sent them an email, they were like, ‘Oh yes, we’re a legit business. We work with Wal-Mart and we work with the bank and the banks know about us and we’re here in Canada.’”
They asked if she was a student, what bank she used and her birthday. “I gave them that information. I gave them my address, then I got an email back saying that within a week’s time I would receive a cheque and with that would come more information.”
Hafezi was sent $2,980. Instructions: deposit the cheque in your bank. Keep $400 as payment. Then, cash the rest and spend it at various stores and send in an evaluation of their customer service.
I have to go into Wal-Mart and survey the greeting, the representation and how effective they are,” said Hafezi. “Then I have to go into the bank and do the same thing.” She was asked to deposit money into an account at BMO and evaluate that process.
“Nobody said anything to me when I brought up the whole mystery shopper thing when I was taking out my money. And no one questioned anything because of my age — I was under aged at the time, I was 17,” she said.
Then came the bad news. The cheque she had been sent was fraudulent.
Hafezi was on vacation with her family when her bank called her. “I had a panic attack,” she said. “My rent was due. I have a little one, I have things that need to be paid. Money is already tight enough as it is. The bank took the remaining money that was in my account to pay for the cheque.”
Cheques are an agreement between people, not an individual and their bank, she said, and it’s up to individuals to try to get payment if the cheque bounces.
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http://www.640toronto.com/syn/104/121560/121560
be careful sistrens
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