Don’t you hate junk mail? I do! It seems that you always get it—that and bills—and rarely get anything worthwhile. I have been waiting for a check to arrive from something I did online, and so when I picked up the mail yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised to see one envelope that, when I held it just so, appeared to have a check inside. Strangely, though, it didn’t have a return address, just my name printed on the front. If I hadn’t seen the check through the paper, I would have thought it was a letter from a friend, perhaps, or a credit card offer.

So I hurried inside and opened the envelope. To my infinite surprise, the check wasn’t the one I had been expecting at all! I had been expecting something in the neighborhood of $12, and here I was holding in my hand a check for nearly $5,000!

I started turning the check over to see if it was real, and looking for words like, "If you cash this check, you are agreeing to _______", but it appeared real and didn’t have anything strange on it. So I began to read the letter. It informed me that my job search for mystery shopping (which I probably filled out by accident) had been found and I had been hired as a mystery shopper. I was to start by going to MoneyGram and sending $4,450 to a Jennifer [my last name] in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, as if she were my relative. Then I was to fill out the info on the back and send it in by fax. Following this, I would be approved to use $100 of the amount sent me to shop at one of several popular stores, and when it was all said and done, I would have $300 left over.

Now, right away a red flag went off in my mind. You see, I am a former mystery shopper. (I mystery shopping to pay off my credit card after my baby was born.) I know how mystery shopping works. You sign up with a company, they match you to a job or you pick from a list of possibilities. Once your assignment is confirmed, you have to do the assignment before they will send you payment (which usually arrives in anywhere from 15 to 45 days). Sometimes your expenses can be reimbursed, but not always. The only time I got money beforehand was a check I was supposed to cash at a bank to mystery shop the bank, and the check had to be from that bank. The check was for $16 and some odd cents.

So I did the smart thing: I called the bank listed on the check to see if the account was even in existence. When the automated system assured me that it was, I then called the bank and told a representative about it. Then this morning I looked up the company on the check and informed them that someone is printing checks with their account number and name and using them in a scam.

What would happen if I cashed the check is that the check would probably cash (if I did it fast enough), and I would send the bulk of it by MoneyGram to someone in Canada who would make a fake ID to go pick it up. I would have the remainder, but they would have effectively stolen money from a real company and included me in the larceny. I’m not about to get in trouble with that. And if the company were to track down the casher of the check, I could be liable for the full $4,995, while the unknown person in Canada who picked up my money would get off scott free.

In the interest of making the world a better place, I would like to list a number of signs that I saw that convinced me that this company was not legitimate and that the offer was a scam. Some are obvious, while others not so obvious and require a bit of investigation. Almost any one of them would signal a scam.

• Money sent before I agreed to shop

• Amount extremely large

• No way to guarantee that I would not keep the money for myself

• Money being sent out of country

• Name of company on letter and on check different

• Large payment for service

• Recipient is referred to as an employee

• Could not find name of company on the Internet

• Company listed on check is not in any way related to mystery shopping

• Assignments too random and too generalized

• Money sent to fake individual using my last name

• Address of company non-existent

• Number for company is cell phone in Canada

Money Sent First

Legitimate mystery shopping companies NEVER send money first, unless it is required for you to complete the shop. If I were to shop MoneyGram, for instance, they might ask me to use my money and then reimburse me. If I were to cash a check at a bank, I might be sent a check from that bank (as once happened to me), but the amount would be very low. Any company that pays you before you have agreed to work with them should be suspect.

Amount Extremely Large

When I was to mystery shop a bank by cashing a check, I was sent a check for $16 something made out to me from what appeared to be a personal account (the check was hand written). I was paid for the shop at a later date. $4,995 is a huge a mount of money. If I understand it right, any check $5,000 and up will get flagged by the bank, so by keeping the amount just under $5,000, the scammer is hoping to not get noticed.

No Guarantee From Me

There is no way for the scammer to guarantee that I won’t cash the check and keep the money for myself. Of course, since it’s not their money to begin with, they don’t care. But they tried to make a pretense by putting some legal sounding hogwash on the back about ethics and honesty, like "Imbursement of Company funds will not be tolerated."

Money Sent Out of Country

The money was being sent out of country, making it harder to track. Sure, it’s not Nigeria, but for all we know, the person on the other end could be a Nigerian in Canada!

Company Names Don’t Match

The company name on the letter and the name company listed on the check were different. This means the scammer is stealing from a legitimate company.

Large Payment for Service

The most I ever got for a mystery shop was about $30, I think, and that was because they were desperate to get the shop done and I was the only one available, and they increased the pay to outweigh the inconvenience for me to drive half and hour one way to do the shop. The average I got paid per shop was about $10. So $300 for just two assignments was way too much.

Recipient Considered Employee

Every mystery shopping company that I ever worked for or considered working for said that I would be an independent contractor. If I earned more than $600 in a year from them, they would send me a 1099; but that was it. They were very specific to indicate that I was NOT an employee. However, the fine print on the back of the Sterling Consumer Surveys letter said things like, "We expect every employee to read and understand. . .", "Every employee is expected to develop a sense of commitment. . .", "Any employee who violates the standards in this Code [of ethics] may be subject do disciplinary action. . .", "Our success depends upon each employee operating within legal guidelines. . .", etc. They even warn that mismanagement/imbursement of funds will result in termination of employment and legal action. This is a big red flag. If you are an employee, they would have to take out takes, or at the very least have you fill out a W-4.

Company Name Non-existent

I googled the name "Sterling Consumer Surveys" and found not one link to such a company. Surely they would have a website if they were legitimate, or at least a listing in the yellow or white pages. Nope. Not there. I couldn’t find them on the Better Business Bureau, either. I sent the BBB a letter asking them to investigate.

Letter and Check Names Don’t Match

While I won’t tell you the name of the company on the check, I will say that it is a major steel processing plant, with its own website and all. I am sure they have nothing to do with the scam. And the words sterling, consumer, and surveys are not found anywhere in their company name. This is another big red flag. The address on the check and the address on the letter are also in different states.

Assignment Too Random

When a mystery shopping company assigns you to do a shop, you are told to go to a specific location during a specific time period. The exact day is sometimes given, or even a span of hours during which the shop must be completed. They wouldn’t tell you to just go to MoneyGram or to Wal-Mart or to Sears. They would say, The MoneyGram store located inside Wal-mart at this location, or the Sears at this address, etc. Also, the sheet I was supposed to fill out and send in was too generic. It consisted of 1 page of questions. Most mystery shops have several pages worth of evaluations and a ton of questions. For example, when I mystery shopped my local grocery store, the evaluation form referred to the employees as "partners", a term that particular company uses instead of associate or employee.

Money Sent to Fake Name

To be able to pick up wired money, one must present an ID. If I am sending money to a fake individual, then they must acquire a fake ID to pick it up. If I were truly mystery shopping MoneyGram, I would be sending the money to a real person (probably an employee of the mystery shopping company), and I might be given a scenario as to who this person was (my aunt, my married sister, etc). The scammer said in the letter that I was to "pose as a potential customer sending money to a relative of yours JENNIFER (YOUR LAST NAME) in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada." This is not how mystery shopping companies work.

Address of Company Non-Existent

When I typed in the address on the letterhead into the reverse look-up in whitepages.com, I got 0 matching results. Looking on Google maps, I see that it is located near a parking garage and several businesses. A letter sent to this address would probably be returned.

Telephone Number Is a Cell Phone

When I reverse looked up the number, it would not tell me who was listed, but it indicated that the number was a cell phone. This is not a company. It’s a person posing as a company.

In summary, Sterling Consumer Surveys is a scam, through and through. My past experience with mystery shopping helped me to pinpoint many areas that the average person would have overlooked; and if the points I have made will help you to avoid being scammed now and in the future, then the purpose of this article has been fulfilled.