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SALT LAKE CITY — For those looking to make a a few extra bucks getting a job as a mystery shopper, beware that many of the opportunities might be scams.
Ivan Saez and his wife got scammed out of nearly $1,000 when they decided to try mystery shopping.
"How can people do that to you?" Saez said.
While they were searching for ways to earn extra money, Saez found a listing for a mystery shopper and they were hired to evaluate the quality of a particular business: Western Union for wiring money.
His new employer sent a check for $980 for Saez to deposit into his bank account. Then, Saez was to wire $860 from his account, keep the rest, and evaluate Western Union.
At any Western Union location, signs warn consumers not to wire to anyone they don't know. They are free to ask questions. But in this case, Saez was evaluating Western Union, so he was not supposed to ask questions or divulge to Western Union that he was evaluating them. So, he made up a password and gave it to his new employer. He wired the money and prepared to write an evaluation.
Then, the new employer's check bounced. The money in the Saez account was gone — sent to the unknown person with the Western Union password. When Saez and his wife realized what happened, they tried to contact the mystery shopper employer.
"We kept calling and calling," said Brittney Saez, Ivan Saez's wife. A woman answered the phone, and when the Saezs confronted her about the bounced check, she said they weren't a real company and asked them to stop calling.
The Saezs aren't the first to fall for a mystery shopper scam. Opportunities for mystery shoppers are easy to find, but rarely legitimate.
Be suspicious of anytime you receive a check and somebody wants those funds back. That's what these scams are all about. Don't send the money back to them — that's a very red flag.
–Cathy Smoyer, Mountain America Credit Union's Chief Risk Officer
"We get calls all the time on mystery shopping opportunities," said Jane Driggs, president of the Better Busines Bureau of Utah. "Ninety-nine percent of the time, it's a scam."
Driggs said Canada is a hotbed for this type of scam. The check the Saezs received came with a Canadian postmark, and they wired the money to a Western Union in Buffalo, N.Y.
"(They) go back over the border, get the money, and head back to Canada," Driggs said. "Unfortunately, that's how they make the money."
Many of these scams hinge on something commonly thought to be as good as cash — cashier's checks. But Mountain America Credit Union's Chief Risk Officer Cathy Smoyer said that's not a sure thing anymore, by a long shot.
"They're good at it. They're good at creating these checks. They're professionals. This is their job," she said.
In many cases, the scammer will go into a bank or credit union and get a legitimate cashier's check. Then they scan it into a computer and alter it, making it payable to anyone for any amount. Smoyer said these types of fraudsters utilize the given time frames and know when a hold is placed on a check and when it will come off.
"They make sure the consumer, the victim, sends them the money (via) Western Union wire from their accounts and guarantees funds to them before that check has time to go back to their account," she said.
Smoyer gave advice for those who might find themselves in similar situations.
"Be suspicious of anytime you receive a check and somebody wants those funds back," she said. "That's what these scams are all about. Don't send the money back to them — that's a very red flag."
