Sophisticated Mystery Shopper modality

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Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 1:36 am

This looks very different from the regular lad letter, because:

1. It didn’t come in to any of my catcher accounts. It came in to my Real Life email inbox, and it came is as sent from the address of one of our employees, who claims to know nothing about it, but most probably provided his password in phishing sites.

2. Two messages sent to me from the same email address, just hours apart in the same day, (full headers and text of last one follows) trace back to Bucharest, Romania and Kalmar, Sweden. (Looks like various people in different European countries are systematically and simultaneously networking this).

3. It is a different story that could be very believable to many people who may not fall for the regular advance fee scam.

So, I know this is fraud. What I don’t know yet is if they want to scam me or use me to launder money, or they may even have other objectives which I haven’t been able to figure out yet. What do you guys think?

P.S. I have asked them “in what form” will I receive the money for my commissions and transfers to other Mystery Shoppers. I believe that the way they send me the money will tell me more about the scheme. I will let you know what they say when they reply.

Quote:

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Date: Wed, 2 Sep 2009 00:13:08 +0200
From: [email protected]>
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Message-ID: <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]>
Subject: Re: Mystery Shopper Position
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Shopper's Guide wants you to run surveys on a few prominent western union locations in your area(the locations are within 10 miles from your zip code, you will be filled with the exact details).
The Western Union location was reported for evaluation for the following reasons:
1) Customers have reported their money missing.
2) Slow services.
3) Unbalanced transfer charges.
4) Rudeness to customers.
5) Late opening time and Closing before time.
Your Evaluation at the first western union location would be:
1) To make a transfer of funds from this western union location to another MysteryShopper (we will provide you with the needed funds; you will never use your own money).
2) You will have to record the time you spend sending the transfer.
3) You will also provide the name of the cashier that attended to you.
4) Make a detailed report about your personal impressions as an average customer.
To complete the surveys we will send you the money to cover your $100 commission and the money you need to use at the western union location.
Upon receiving the funds, the exact instructions of the survey will be forwarded to you and the report is to be ready same day you receive the funds.
You will have to keep a comprehensive report on every activity you carry out and send it by fax to our office.
If you are interested in becoming a MysteryShopper confirm that you are ready by replying to this message with "I AGREE".

Thank you,

Trophy Videos · Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 2:55 am

It's a check scam. They send you say $2000 check, tell you to keep $200 or whatever, and wire the rest of the money to the other location, where they pick it up, anywhere in the world, actually. You get stuck with the bad check.

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 7103 Location: Yes

Recent discussion of this scam here.

Also, some posts at ScamWarners:

LINKY

LINKY

Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 4:19 pm

@SlapHappy: Yes. Bad check for good cash could be expected. But these guys now say that I have to open an account at CitiBank, where they will "wire transfer" my commissions and amounts to be sent by WU. And as far as I know, once your Bank confirms that you have the funds available in your account (same day they are transferred from the other Bank) it is almost impossible to reverse that operation, isn't it?

@JMRazor: Thanks for the info and the links. It looks as if more than one almost fell for this, and no doubt some did fall.

All I can tell so far is that these guys aren't the normal African mugus. And after my last question about form of payment they haven't replied.

P.S. Depositing any amount of money at CitiBank is scary enough by itself. The risk of this Bank going bankrupt at any moment is much higher than that of being scammed by someone else.

419Eater is my life Joined: 30 May 2009 Posts: 298

Joaquin wrote:

P.S. Depositing any amount of money at CitiBank is scary enough by itself. The risk of this Bank going bankrupt at any moment is much higher than that of being scammed by someone else.

Well, a scammer will take your money and vanish. Deposits in a failed bank are insured by the FDIC.

Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 5:48 pm

[quote="Joaquinthese guys now say that I have to open an account at CitiBank, where they will "wire transfer" my commissions and amounts to be sent by WU. And as far as I know, once your Bank confirms that you have the funds available in your account (same day they are transferred from the other Bank) it is almost impossible to reverse that operation, isn't it?

Re the bank account, it could be that once you open the account, you send them the details, they now have a valid bank account to use on other victims who will transfer money to you, the scammers in turn tell you to keep a small portion and send the remainder to them. you become a mule (although unsuspecting to some) also a criminal.

All I can tell so far is that these guys aren't the normal African mugus. And after my last question about form of payment they haven't replied.

not all scammers are african. and if they're not from africa, they are still scammers and criminals.

[/quote]

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 17 Sep 2009 Posts: 3

Hello,

I have a question about this scam... I was silly and uneducated enough to hop on this perfect opportunity, and received two payments in my Citibank account. I dealt with the first payment in an hounest way and sent it via WU to a guy in Italy. Now here comes the thing: i got a bit suspect of the email address he (micheal mcdowell) sends emails from and googled his name... lo and behold, there is this forum and many other sites mentioning this scam...
what i dont understand though, is that the money actually ended up in my account, i did make the payment and nothing happend??
What is the use for him to pay all this money to get absolutely nothing?

Can someone elaborate?

Confused

Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 6:23 pm

The money is actually in your account - - for the moment. It will take some weeks for the wheels to turn and for it to be determined that the check you deposited was 100% bogus. Then, the money is no longer in your account - but the money you sent to the scammer is gone forever.

Bruin

Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 6:33 pm

Drumsticks, you wrote:

Quote:

i did make the payment and nothing happend??

How long ago was it deposited? Even though the funds were made available, it can actually take up to 2 weeks for it to clear the issuing bank. When that bank declares the check is no good, unfortunately, it will come back to you. Not saying that's the case here, but it is one scenario.
Another one is.... the check is in fact good, but you're (unknowingly) laundering the money by cashing & sending it on to anyone.

Either way, I'd get in touch with CityBank immediately and tell them what you have discovered to avoid being considered complicit (even if you weren't at all aware of the scam). Document everything, phone calls, emails, etc. just in case.

Unfortunately, these scenarios are not at all uncommon. Evil or Very Mad

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 17 Sep 2009 Posts: 3

[quote="Catcher In The Lie"]Drumsticks, you wrote:

Quote:

Either way, I'd get in touch with CityBank immediately and tell them what you have discovered to avoid being considered complicit (even if you weren't at all aware of the scam). Document everything, phone calls, emails, etc. just in case.

Hi thanks for your responses: I did just that, contacted Citi and blocked the account. it is of no use to me other than for this assignments... the thing is, is that the deposits came from another account WITHIN citi....
Another thing i do not understand is that you are talking about checks... I did not receive a check, I received money in my account from the guy. How can that then come back to me?

Sorry for being ignorant, but this is all a bit confusing to me...

Thanks for your responses!

Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 11:33 pm

Then what Mewing_Ghecko said is probably the situation in your case:

Quote:

Re the bank account, it could be that once you open the account, you send them the details, they now have a valid bank account to use on other victims who will transfer money to you, the scammers in turn tell you to keep a small portion and send the remainder to them. you become a mule (although unsuspecting to some) also a criminal

You can read more about money mules here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_mule

Quote:

The need for money mules arises because while a criminal in a developing country can obtain the credit card numbers, bank account numbers, passwords and other financial details of a victim living in the first world via the internet through techniques such as malware and phishing, turning those details into money usable in the criminal's own country can be difficult. Many businesses will refuse to transfer money or ship goods to certain countries where there is a high likelihood that the transaction is fraudulent. The criminal therefore recruits a money mule in the victim's country who will receive money transfers and merchandise and resend them to the criminal in return for a commission.

Of course, don't touch whatever is left in the account. Just let CitiCard deal with it the way their fraud division sees fit.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 17 Sep 2009 Posts: 3

Great, well, great is not the word, but that makes sense and at least i am not worried anymore about being overdrawn by them.
I have informed the bank and they are on the case. I will try to contact them and see what the status is.

This forum btw is super and I love the work you guys are doing! I will inform my friends about this so they can prepare for when they have a weak moment like myself!

Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 5:06 am

Joaquin wrote:

This looks very different from the regular lad letter, because:

IVE BEEN GETITNG THESE EMAILS FOR THE LAST FEW MONTHS IN MY REAL EMAIL INBOX ALSO... IVE SCREWED WITH ABOUT 5-6 OF THESE MYSTERY SHOPPERS LADS THE LAST 2 MONTHS... THEYVE BEEN SENDING UPSP POSTAL MONEY ORDERS.... AND MONEY ORDERS FROM *ALBERTSONS*! TODAY, ON A *SATURDAY* GOT ONE DELIVERED FROM FED EX... WHICH WAS STRANGE, THEY USUALLY USE UPS.... ANYWAY, ALL WANT ME TO "EVALUATE A WESTERN UNION LOCAL LOCATIONS THAT HAS HAD COMPLAINTS ON THEM"..... Ive BEEN STRINGIN EM ALONG, SAYING I COULDNT DO ANYTHING WITH THEIR PAYMENTS THE DAY I GET EM BECAUSE I RETURN HOME FROM WORK TOO LATE, WHICH ALWAYS FRUSTRATES EM... hhehehehe.... THE BEST ONE WAS LAST WEEK, TOLD EM I TOOK THEIR USPS MONEY ORDERS TO THE LOCAL POST OFFICE TO CASH INSTEAD OF MY BANK, AND HAD THE POSTAL INSPECTOR CONFISTACTE EM FOR BEING FRAUDULENT MONEY ORDERS.... TOLD EM THE LOCAL SHERRIFF OFFICE, POSTAL INSPECTOR, AND FBI MAKE COPIES OF THEIR MONEY ORDERS AND LET ME KEEP THE ORIGINALS.... SOOOOO, PLEASE SEND ME YOUR ADDRESS SO I CAN SEND YOUR CLIENTS FRAUDULENT MONEY ORDERS TO THEM.... HILARIOUS.... THEY CLAIM I AM KEEPING THEIR MONEY, AND I NEVER HEAR FROM EM AGAIN

1. It didn’t come in to any of my catcher accounts. It came in to my Real Life email inbox, and it came is as sent from the address of one of our employees, who claims to know nothing about it, but most probably provided his password in phishing sites.

2. Two messages sent to me from the same email address, just hours apart in the same day, (full headers and text of last one follows) trace back to Bucharest, Romania and Kalmar, Sweden. (Looks like various people in different European countries are systematically and simultaneously networking this).

3. It is a different story that could be very believable to many people who may not fall for the regular advance fee scam.

So, I know this is fraud. What I don’t know yet is if they want to scam me or use me to launder money, or they may even have other objectives which I haven’t been able to figure out yet. What do you guys think?

P.S. I have asked them “in what form” will I receive the money for my commissions and transfers to other Mystery Shoppers. I believe that the way they send me the money will tell me more about the scheme. I will let you know what they say when they reply.

Quote:

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Date: Wed, 2 Sep 2009 00:13:08 +0200
From: [email protected]>
X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]>
Subject: Re: Mystery Shopper Position
In-Reply-To: <[email protected]>
References: <[email protected]>
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Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Shopper's Guide wants you to run surveys on a few prominent western union locations in your area(the locations are within 10 miles from your zip code, you will be filled with the exact details).
The Western Union location was reported for evaluation for the following reasons:
1) Customers have reported their money missing.
2) Slow services.
3) Unbalanced transfer charges.
4) Rudeness to customers.
5) Late opening time and Closing before time.
Your Evaluation at the first western union location would be:
1) To make a transfer of funds from this western union location to another MysteryShopper (we will provide you with the needed funds; you will never use your own money).
2) You will have to record the time you spend sending the transfer.
3) You will also provide the name of the cashier that attended to you.
4) Make a detailed report about your personal impressions as an average customer.
To complete the surveys we will send you the money to cover your $100 commission and the money you need to use at the western union location.
Upon receiving the funds, the exact instructions of the survey will be forwarded to you and the report is to be ready same day you receive the funds.
You will have to keep a comprehensive report on every activity you carry out and send it by fax to our office.
If you are interested in becoming a MysteryShopper confirm that you are ready by replying to this message with "I AGREE".

Thank you,

Sophisticated Mystery Shopper modality	View next topic View previous topic