Last summer my daughter was looking for a summer job in Boston when she came across an offer on the Internet that seemed too good to be true. Fortunately, my daughter knew enough to call me before she cashed a check for $2,000 they sent her. And, fortunately, having represented a client facing felony charges after dealing with the very same organization, I knew enough to tell her to rip up the check and run.
The scam artists call themselves “Secret Shopper.” While their website appears to have been taken down, I did visit it a couple of years ago while researching the case for my client.
It’s a clever scheme. They tell you that they have been hired by some major department stores to evaluate customer services. They do this secretly for maximum effectiveness. They send you a check for $2,000 which you are to cash. You then use $200 of the money to shop in any one of the stores on the list. Afterwards you fill out a survey evaluating the responsiveness of store personnel in serving you and send it back to them. In exchange for your efforts, you can keep all the merchandise you buy.
Oh and by the way, Secret Shopper tells you, they are also evaluating the services of a wire service. You are to take the remaining $1,800 and wire this money back to them. And, again, you are to fill out a survey evaluating customer service of the wire service. The representative was responsive. Yes or no. On a scale of one to ten, how likely would you be to use the wire service again? Etc.
My client was charged in Philadelphia with the felony offenses of forgery and receiving stolen property and the misdemeanor offense of passing a bad check. Forgery is defined roughly in Pennsylvania as the “uttering” of any writing with the intention to defraud or injure. Receiving stolen property is the possession of property which the defendant knew or should have known was stolen. And the offense of bad checks is the cashing of a check which the defendant knows will not be honored.
My client should have been charged with nothing more than gullibility.
Fortunately, her case never made it beyond the preliminary hearing. But this was only because the prosecutor failed to call the necessary witnesses needed to make out a prima facie case, and after multiple hearings and the submission of briefs by both sides, the judge eventually dismissed the charges without prejudice. It never should have gotten that far.
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I’m seeing quite a few of these cases. At first I found it hard to believe someone could fall for this kind of thing, but then I realized (a) how sophisticated and legit looking these scams can be, and (b) that they catch out those who are NOT sophisticated and, often, are in great need of money. Let me just say that I’d much rather be prosecuting the people responsible for these cons.
Mr. Confidential: I went through the exact same thought process. And it’s funny and also sad: My client in this particular case was young, only a couple of years older than my daughter, and she was trying so hard to make something of her life. After the case was dismissed, she asked me if the arrest would prohibit her from getting a new job she had applied for. I asked her what the job was. She said it was as a shopper for “Mystery Shopper.” Even after all of this, after felony charges and umpteen court dates until the case was dismissed, I’m sorry to say that she still didn’t get that she was being had.