Shafer324
amarillo,#2Consumer Comment
Wed, January 02, 2013
On October 2 2011 I was searching desperately for a job, and went to Craigslist. I have basically only Customer Service skills so when i spotted an add for CSR I looked at it directly. I don't remember exactly what the add said, other than it outlined the basics of a cashier/csr and asked for my resume to be sent to the listed email.
I sent an email/cover letter with my resume attached outlining my skills and such. I got an email back explaining in extremely bad grammar, that this company Perry Smith Management was basically a Secret Shopper company. At the end he requested that I send my contact info address/city/zip and occupation and age. By this point I was a little suspicious already, mainly due to the fact that the email address that responded was not the same address I sent my resume to.
Over the course of the next few emails from this 'Perry Smith' my suspicions were confirmed. First, i was told I had the job, again in the worst grammar I've ever encountered when dealing with management, and that instead of having to fill out the necessary tax and basic employement paperwork that comes with every job, I would not have to worry about that till a later date.
Next email said my first assignment was picked and the check was on the way. My assignment, funny enough, was to secret shop a western union at a local convenience chain in my town. Funny, ironic, and this scams ultimate undoing. I had just finished almost two years of working for that very same company, and the store I was to 'secret shop' was the brand new one right next door to my house, and I knew it didn't have a western union. I also knew, through my time working with that company and having to go thru western union training, that western union has it's own personal secret shoppers.
I played along, via email, in hopes to get more concrete info. Alas, All I have is another alias. Perry Smith Management. I contacted the local police, didn't even attempt to cash the check. Tried to put in a complaint to the better business bureau, using all the various address that came on the package thru the mail, the various names and the bank account used. and the fact that I was to send this check to the very same person mentioned in the above report: Bobbi Autry of Dallas, OR.
When I informed this Perry Smith (which, by the way, he has a linkdin profile... Either it's a fake profile, or this scam artist went browsing and saw that this person seemed like a perfect business man to impersonate) that I knew the whole thing is a scam and to leave me alone, he tried to threaten my by claiming he would call the police on me.
I think i still have all the various printed off emails between me and this person and the check and it's envelope. I decided to save it in case I had found somebody that could thru what little I had help prosecute or track this person down. When i consulted the police about it, all they could tell me was that if anyone else had been duped, when they cashed the check, it would have gone thru, but then bounced after everything was said and done and the poor victim would be left having to pay that much and this con man would be two thousand dollars richer.
This unfortunately, is not only fraud, identity theft and such, but also a very simple form of money laundering using Western union.