Easy Money Scam

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2012/11/14/3-on-your-side-easy-money-scam/

November 14, 2012
By Chris May

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – 3 On Your Side has a warning about an easy money scam. It starts with a job offer and an immediate pay check. It sounds great in this tough economy, but it’s not what it seems and a viewer who became a victim alerted 3 On Your Side to this con so you won’t fall for it too.

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Terri’s first assignment arrived in the mail with instructions and a $995 money order.

Her first assignment was to deposit the money order into her bank account. She was told to use $25 to make a purchase at a store and then evaluate the service. For that, she could keep $200. The amount of $770 was left over in her account.

“The remaining balance would be wire-transferred to another shopper for them to do the same type of activity,” Terri said.

Three more money orders arrived the next day in the amount of $995 each.

“You are to deduct $400 of salary from the total amount you will receive today,” said Terri as she read from the instructions that came with the money orders.

This time she was told to wire the rest, around $2500, to another mystery shopper and evaluate that wire service. Within days all four money orders were returned by her bank as counterfeit.

“Everything bounced, everything came in, I had a negative balance on my account,” Terri said.

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The scammers had used a letter head from BestMark, a legitimate business, on its correspondence with Terri.

“Best Mark would never ask you to cash or deposit a check or to transfer any funds,” BestMark’s CEO Ann Jennings told us. “This is a red flag.”

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