Attleboro Woman Warns Others Of Mystery Shopper Scam
ATTLEBORO (CBS) - An Attleboro woman who wanted to become a so-called "secret" or "mystery shopper" says she was nearly ripped off, and now she's warning others.
The check Attleboro resident Valerie Coogan received was both convincing and big: nearly $4,000. But, Valerie wasn't biting.
"Nobody's going to send you a check for having done nothing. Nobody," said Coogan.
The scenario made sense, though. Valerie had done some web research on becoming a so-called "mystery shopper," which is someone who gets paid to visit stores undercover and then give the retailer feedback.
WBZ-TV's Ken MacLeod reports.
Months later, an official-looking letter arrived offering just such a job, asking her to deposit the check and then wire more than $3,000 to her "training agent."
A suspicious Valerie called and got the runaround.
"I said, 'It smells like fraud. You're having me send you money back.' And they said, 'Oh no no no! There's no fraud here. It's government-backed,'" said Coogan.
Still, Valerie didn't wire any money. Instead, she had her banker check out the check. It's worthless.
"So, the person will deposit the check and the check will come back counterfeit, and the customer's liable for it and the money's gone. It's virtually untraceable," said Laura Gignac of Rockland Trust.
Any money Valerie would have wired, she would have lost, even though the phony check and letter bear the trademark of the very legit "Save-A-Lot" food stores. The store chain has nothing to do with the case. The crooks simply copied the company logo.
But, nailing the crooks amid a maze of Minnesota addresses, Montréal area codes, Utah bank checks, and Canadian postmarks is really tough.
"I tell them, 'If it's too good to be true, it usually s,'" said Gignac.
"For me, it was getting me angry to think that these people thought that I'd be stupid enough to do it," said Coogan.
The trouble is, such scams thrive in hard times when some people are desperate enough to gobble the juicy bait.
Police said victims don't often report these scams out of embarrassment.
