Complaint Review: Walmart

Everytime you receive a check in the mail do you think that it is REAL??? This is common SCAM therefore you are responsible for the overdraft not Walmart.

You unfortunatly fell for a very common scam.  You most likely answered an ad for a "Secret Shopper" and then got a check for several hundred(or thousands) of dollars.  You were then told to do 2 "evaluations".  Most likely one was at a store of your choice, the other was to verify the service with MoneyGram(or similar). 

Now, for what was no more than 1 hours worth of work they are willing to give you $200-$300....and sorry to tell you but this is how they get you.  Your greed takes over thinking you hit the Mother Lode and all common sense leaves your brain.  After all they are giving you several hundred dollars(when the average Secret Shopper makes $7-$15 per assignment). 

You throw out all logic as to why Walmart would be sending you a check that is not from Walmart.  You ignore ALL the warnings at MoneyGram they place all over their forms warning you of this exact scam.  Instead you trust the scammers who will of course tell you that everything is legitimate and even give you a good feeling by telling you to wait 2 or 3 days before you send it(all the while knowing it could be 1-2 weeeks before it comes up bad).

So I am sorry to tell you this, but the only thing you can do to help yourself is to talk to your bank and see if you can make arrangements to pay back the money.  If you explain the circumstances they may be willing to work with you.  Because as the one who depsosited the check, you are now the one responsible for the bad check to your bank.  Now, of course if this was a legitimate company you could then in turn go after the one who gave you the check.  But since every piece of idenity information they gave you is false, and not even in the US the chances of you being able to find them is about zero.  Oh, and if you haven't figured it out..Walmart has NOTHING to do with this.

Now, the real bad news.  If you fail to pay your bank back, at best they will close your account and put negative information on your credit report.  A bit worse would be that they would sue you for the back money.  A worst case scenario(that while unlikely it is possible) if for them to turn your case over to the local DA and have you charged with Check Fraud.

In short....NEVER accept a check from someone you do not personally know, regardless of the reason.  Also, NEVER send any "Extra" cash back to these people as you are guaranteed to get scammed again.

Good Luck.

Why would you think that the check is legitimate? It is very clearly fraud. 

First, go to the FTC(dot)gov website and look up this scam. It has been around for a long time. The scammers use any company name, not just Walmart, to send you a fake check to deposit into your bank account. Once the check has been deposited the scammer requires you to send funds to someone else using either Western Union or Money Gram or via a money card like iTunes.  The tips that it is a scam are 1) you received an unsolicited check and 2) you send money to a third party right after you deposit the check. 

You are on the hook for these funds with your bank. If you don't pay the bank back your account will be shut down with the bank and you will be reported to one of the agencies like EWS or ChexSystems or both which may prevent you from getting another bank account for 5 years. 

You can file a police report but I'm not sure it will help you with these scammers. The FTC.gov website may have other information for you. 

This internet scam has been around for at least 10 years and is heavily documented all over the internet. There are hundreds of warning about it here at this site alone. I continue to be amazed that people still fall for this.   The check you received was not from Walmart, by the way, it was from a scammer who "borrows" real company names to make you think it's legit.  You may be questioned by the police.  There is nothing you can do except pay the money back your bank.  You will never get the money back from the scammer you sent it to.