‘Secret Shopper’ scam warning issued

A local citizen found a job offer on a nationally known online job site company and thought she’d give it a try. It was an opportunity to be a secret shopper for one of the world’s largest retailer.

The company sent her a money order for $994 and told her to deposit the check into her own account and withdraw cash immediately for that same amount.

Then she was instructed to go the retail store make and make a $30 purchase and keep the items. She was told to keep $150 as her commission for the assignment and to use the remaining funds for a money gram transfer evaluation. She was told specifically not to alert the cashier that she was performing a customer service evaluation or disclose who she was sending the money to. If she was asked, she was only to say it was a family member.

The information letter goes on to tell the secret shopper to respond to the email instructions with the retail store address, the money gram eight digit reference number she purchased along with the exact amount transferred.

After reading all of the instructions, she knew it was too good to be true and was actually a scam. She gave the officer the money order along with the instructions in hopes of saving someone else from falling prey.