Walmart Inc/Ashley Butler (Director of Operations) Secret Shopper Scam... They're at it again! Bentonville Arkansas
I received a letter today in the mail from "Walmart Inc". I am always filling out applications and responding to ads so I didn't really think anything suspicious about receiving the check with the instructions to be a secret shopper. I did research on the account number, routing number, bank name etc. All checked out as being legit. Then I noticed the "MADRID, SPAIN" and "CORREOS" stamped on the front of the envelope. Weird that "Walmart Inc" would send me a check postmarked from Madrid when the address on the check was 702 8th Street Bentonville, Arkansas 72716. So I googled the address, and sure enough... ripoffreport popped up with scams exactly like the one I was about to take part in.
I have been a victim of this in the past so I am usually very leary of checks I get in the mail. Let me tell you people, these checks look ABSOLUTELY REAL!! They have the heat stamps on the back, the water marks, micro prints the whole bag. So here I am, filling out another scam report so someone else doesn't fall victim to this scam. Sadly, many will because if I had never googled the address on the check I never would have stumbled upon this website. The last scam I read about that was like this was in 2013 so fair warning they are at it again! I'm in Tennessee so at least I know that it's here. Thanks for reading and be sure to spread the word!
2 Updates & Rebuttals
No need to be so rude
#3Author of original report
Tue, May 17, 2016
I didn't go through with the complete process so I don't know if they asked me to send money to someone. I stopped before I reached that point on their website because I did my homework first. There is no need for you to be rude and insinuate that I lack common sense. If I didn't have any common sense I would have gone through with the whole thing. But I can assure you anytime I catch wind of a new scam I will post it on here to educate the people that find this page. Take your insinuations and rudeness elsewhere. Thank you.
Robert
Irvine,California,
USA
Common Sense...
#3Consumer Comment
Mon, May 16, 2016
I am really posting this not to help others, but to direct this specifically at you. Because sadly many people won't use common sense when it comes to things like this, but in a lot of cases it won't matter and here is why.
Your very first statement was that because you fill out so many applications that you didn't see anything suspicous about receiving a check in the mail. This is a HUGE red flag that no matter what you try to convey you are ripe for being a victim of another scam. Because had you run into a new scammer who is just "starting out", or changed their scam just a bit there would have been nothing reported and you would have cashed the check, sent them the money, and been another victim. Because by your own words the check looks legit.
You need to look at the overall picture. Anytime you receive a check from somone you don't know personally and they want you to cash it and send them money back. It does not matter if you find a report of this scam happening, it does not matter how convincing they are, it does not matter what reason they give you, it does not matter how legit the check looks. The only thing guaranteed is that it is a scam and the best thing you can do is throw the check away and forget about it.
As an off-chute realize that you don't have a long lost relative in Africa and you didn't win the Internet Lottery. You also aren't going to get a good deal on speakers or leather jackets sold out of the back of cars in parking lots.