A phony mystery-shopping agency scams a local family.
"It sounded like a good thing. They sent a cashier's check for over $4,000 and said to do this, that, and something else with the check,” said Jeanine Ellingwood of Horseheads.
She got a letter in the mail claiming to be from Secret Shopper Shopping Insite, Inc. It was postmarked Vancouver, Canada. Attached was a check made out to Jeanine's husband in the amount of $4880.
Jeanine said, "We've heard of secret shopper. I'm sure everyone in America's heard of secret shopper. It's supposed to be a legitimate business."
But this one wasn't. The letter said to deposit the check, and transfer $1400 back to the company.
That's the scam -- by the time you find out their check is bogus, you're already out more than a thousand dollars, plus anything else you may have spent from the check.
Best Buy in Big Flats uses a legitimate mystery shopping agency.
"You will not get an e-mail, you will not get a letter in the mail saying to sign up for this,” said Best Buy general manager Brian MacKenzie.
That goes for any legit mystery shopping company.
We decided to call the number on the letter Jeanine got. Not only were we disconnected, a reverse phone directory look-up shows the number is from a cell phone -- another red flag.
Jeanine was lucky. Her bank put a hold on that check after realizing it was a scam.
"Like the old saying goes, if it's too good to be true, it probably is. Go with your gut feeling like I did,” she said.
Legitimate mystery shopping agencies are members of the Mystery Shopping Providers Association. Here’s the list:
- IntelliShop
- Shop'n Chek, Inc.
- Speedmark
- BestMark
- Service Excellence Group, Inc.
- DSG Associates, Inc.
- Bare Associates International
- TNS
- ath Power Consulting
- GfK Mystery Shopping
- ICC Decision Services
- Maritz
I think that's fantastic.
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