Concerned Small Business
Rancho Cucamonga,#2Author of original report
Thu, March 15, 2012
Thanks, Larry, for confirming my suspicions about this email being a scam. I learned a few years ago the hard way that transactions involving Western Union are most likely scams. Since the email I got said I would be mystery shopping places like Target and Western Union, your explanation makes perfect sense.
Thank you again for your confimation.
Larry
Phoenix,#3Consumer Comment
Thu, March 15, 2012
You are right that this is a scam. You are wrong about what the scam is.
What they will do is mail you a check for about $2900. The check will look legitimate and will be drawn on the account of a real business (but the name of the business will not be the name of your "employer's" business). They will tell you to deposit the check into your checking account, keep some of it for yourself, then start mystery shopping by purchasing some trinkets at Target and then wire about $2500 to your "employer" because you are mystery shopping Western Union.
After the money has been wired your bank will inform you that the check you deposited into your account was written on a closed account. Your bank will demand that you return the money you took out and they will not be nice about it at all. You will have no way of recovering the money you sent by Western Union or even finding out where it went. You could even find yourself at the center of a criminal investigation.
You did the right thing by refusing to bite the bait.