I was a victim of a mystery shopping scam. This is how it started, I received a letter in the mail from a business called Shoppers Survey Inc, enclosed was a check for the mystery shopping assignments along with training pay for the assignments once all completed. I called the company to the phone listed in the letter which I found out later was a Canadian area code. So then I was given and a assignment coordinator, they sounded very professional may I ad. The coordinator assured me this company and job opportunity was legitimate. Her name was Phyllis, she told me to go ahead and deposit or cash the check which was for $4, 998.00 and to call her back when the funds became available. So I deposited the check on Friday December 5th 2008 and on sat. December 6th the funds were available and I called Phyllis, she instructed me that I would have to complete the money gram transfer assignments first and to withdrawal the amount for the money grams ASAP and go to my local wal-mart and send the money grams to Victoria, PEI Canada. It all sounds so stupid and ridiculous now that I'm really thinking about it. Anyway I was to evaluate the customer service rep. at the money gram and fill out the evaluation sheet that was also enclosed in the envelope. I was to fax everything back once all assignments were completed. She also said to call her back with the ref. # for the money grams as soon as I was done. So I completed the first two assignments and sent two money grams one for $1, 579.00 and one for $2, 873.00 both sent to Victoria, PEI Canada. It still never dawned on me that I was being scammed. Then she said to complete the other two assignments which were a 50dollar wal-mart purchase and a 40dollar purchase from the GAP. Which I did using my debit card, then filled out the evaluation on the Customer Service Rep. from both locations. I completed all four assignments, filled out the evaluation sheets and faxed everything back to that same phone number.By Tuesday 12/9/2008 there was a hold in my account for that check in the amount of $4998.00 so I called the company back to find out what was going on with the check and spoke to another woman by the name of Kim who said her supervisor would take care of it and call my bank to get everything straightened out. That's when I started getting suspicious so I remembered the name of the bank on the check which was Grand South Bank out of Greenville, NC who told me it was fraudulent check. I've been calling the fake company back and every time I say my name they hang up on me. They are avoiding me.now I owe my bank that money back. I'm overdrawn by that exact amount for the fake check. This has become a nightmare and right before the Holidays. These people need to be stopped. I know the moneygrams were picked up in Scarborough, Ontario on 12/8/2008.
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