Consumer Alert
A scam story: Secret shopping and fake checks
Scammers need a good story to get to your wallet. Once they find one that works, they use it again and again. One of their old favorites brings together fake checks and secret shopping, and we’ve been hearing a lot about it lately.
Here’s how it starts. You get a check in the mail with a job offer as a secret shopper. You deposit the check and see the funds in your account a few days later, and the bank even tells you the check has cleared.
Now you’re off to the store you’ve been asked to shop at and report back on, often a Walmart. Your first assignment is to test the in-store money transfer service, like Western Union or MoneyGram, by sending some of the money you deposited. Or you might be told to use the money to buy reloadable cards or gift cards, such as iTunes cards. You’re instructed to send pictures of the cards or to give the numbers on the cards.
Fast forward days or weeks to the unhappy ending. The bank finds out the check you deposited is a fake, which means you’re on the hook for all that money. How does that even happen? Well, banks must make funds from deposited checks available within days, but uncovering a fake check can take weeks. By the time you try to get the money back from the money transfer service, the scammers are long gone, and they’ve taken all the money off the gift cards, too. (By the way, money orders and cashier’s checks can be faked, too.)
The moral of the story? If anyone ever asks you to deposit a check and then wire or send money in any way, you can bet it’s a scam. No matter what they tell you.
Want to avoid the latest rip-offs? Sign up for free scam alerts from the FTC at FTC.gov/Scams.
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If you told someone the numbers from the back of the gift cards, they took control of the cards and probably used the value of the cards. You could call the customer service number listed on the card, or find a customer service number online and talk to the company to ask if you could return the cards. You could contact the manager at the store where you bought the cards.
You can report this to the FTC at www.FTC.gov/Complaint. The information you give the FTC goes into a secure database that the FTC uses for investigations.
In reply to If you told someone the by FTC Staff
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If this is a scam, that check is no good.
You are resonsible for the checks you deposit. If you deposit the check and it turns out the check is bad, you have to repay the bank.
If you deposit the check and take money out to buy gift cards, and then the bank finds out the check is bad, you must repay the bank. If you already spent the money on gift cards, you have to find money somewhere else to repay the bank.
In reply to If this is a scam, that check by FTC Staff
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You are responsible for the checks you deposit. If you deposited a bad check and withdrew money, you have to repay the bank. If that's what happened to you, you could talk with someone at your bank and explain what happened. You can report a scam to the FTC at www.FTC.gov/Complaint.
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You can report that to the FTC at www.FTC.gov/Complaint. The information you give will go into a secure database that the FTC and other law enforcement agencies use for investigations.
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