The bunny almost got suckered into a scam

[thegayhare]

Hi Hi all

lately I've been looking for work and yesterday something happened that seemed to good to be true.

I got a job offer in the mail.
It says I was selected to be a secret shopper, included in the letter was a check for $5000.

My first assignment was to deposit this check in my back then to make two cash transfers using western union and money gram.  I was then told to spend 100 dollars in a store. (I was given a list of stores) and fax them an evaluation of the store.

first off It struck me odd that they would send a check out before I'd agreed to anything.  Second the check was endorsed by a lousiana auto mall, Nissan and Kia dealership.  Third I checked and the company name they gave was for a concrete and machine parts manufacturer out of ohio.  Forth it seemed way to good to be true. 

So I decided to call the Better Business Bureau.  I was sure this was a scam but the promise of 500 a week was too good to pass up on the microscopic chance that it could be real.

According to the BBB, they are being innundated with calls about this.  mostly after the fact.  See the check is real but will bounce.  So your told to deposit this check, and told you have an assigment that must be carried out in the week.  It's going to take the bank a few weeks to realise the check you gave will bounce though.   so you send out $4000 dollars through western union and moneygram.  on the other end that money is picked up and from then on it's untraceable and squeky clean.  Meanwhile back on your side the orriginal check bounces, your hit with bounce fee's and overdraft fees (if you spent more then was in your account)  but you are still out the money you used to complete the assingments.  you'll wind up paying way more money then was originally promised.

Luckily for me my suspicious nature kept me from falling for the trap.  But it was damn tempting...  I was already spending the money in my head.  So I figured as a service to the other folks here in these trying economic times, I'd spread the word about this aperantly wide spread mail fraud. 

If you get one of these letters please call 1 877 876 2455
It's a number the BBB gave me for the postal department they realy want to crack down on this hard

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Oh, yay. Nigerian 419 scammers.

It's called money laundering. :-/

Pity most folks are trusting, and fall for this. All it takes is a complete lack of morals and you can make millions...

[Rakala]

Always remember, if it seems too good to be true it probably is.

[Alondro]

Meh, no way I could ever fall for something like this. 

I trust nothing that comes out of the blue.

If I didn't sign up for it, it isn't real.

[Tapewolf]

Always remember, if it seems too good to be true it probably is.

But not always.
...on that occasion I was glad to be wrong, since I walked away with about £700 worth of tape for less than a tenth of that.

But yes.  One of my work colleagues was approached by some Nigerian scamsters who offered to buy his car for a certain price.  I can't quite remember the mechanics of the scam, but from memory it was something like this:

1. Offer to buy car
2. Send advance bogus cheque drawn on an Irish bank for more than the agreed price
3. Request the difference be sent via Western Union or something
4. Cheque bounces, walk off into the sunset

Basically, he didn't believe it either but did it anyway out of morbid curiosity.  As I recall, he pinned the cheque to the wall for a bit before binning it.  They kept frantically trying to phone him for weeks.

[thegayhare]

Oh, yay. Nigerian 419 scammers.

It's called money laundering. :-/

Pity most folks are trusting, and fall for this. All it takes is a complete lack of morals and you can make millions...

Gimmie some credit hon

I don't fall for those internet ones one bit.

It's just I never actualy saw a paper form of the scam before...  so I did have to check it out

Meh, no way I could ever fall for something like this. 

I trust nothing that comes out of the blue.

If I didn't sign up for it, it isn't real.

well thats the thing I have been looking for a job for a while now and I have filled out forms to be a mystery shopper (come on it;'s a great job.  you get paid to buy stuff, and get to keep the stuff)

[superluser]

Gimmie some credit hon

I don't fall for those internet ones one bit.

It's just I never actualy saw a paper form of the scam before...  so I did have to check it out

It began as the Spanish Prisoner scam, which began well before the internet.

[Reese Tora]

If it makes you feel any ebtter, I never saw a scam snail mail before about two weeks ago, which iw as sent a pyramid scheme in the mail

The claim is that you send money to the third person on the list and place yourself at the top(and the next guy deos the same, eventually you're the third guy and you get sent money, supposedly this makes it not a pyramid scheme, yeah right. ), and send out as many letters as you can to people whose addresses you buy from an advertising agency that's almost certianly in on the plot.  so they make their money legitimately selling names and addresses (that they claim are people who previously stated interest in this scam, but I sure as heck didn't opt in or fail to opt out of anything like this being sent to me) while the people defrauded spin their wheels sending out their advertisments.

I sent/am sending this to the US postal inspectors so they can nail the creeps.

You might want to contact the US postal inspectors and get an address to send the letter to as well.

[rt]

Good you are on the ball hare, lots of non-internet scams to watch out for.

Phone scams, fake/imposter door to door charities (most don't even go door to door because of them). And as a special bonus a few years back deregulated utilities bought various forms of scare tactics and slamming techniques here.

Now excuse me while I go hide under the safe safe blanky. Mabe even a tin foil hat will help, cause it seems they are out to get you.

[gh0st]

well the worst i had is some college kid trying to pawn off his vacation expenses by trying to scam my dad. got a brochure out of a trash can it turns out and tried to use it.

[Turnsky]

"Secret shoppers" are mostly a scam thing, more often than not you're required to buy shit with your own money.