We learned today about a fake mystery shop offer for the position of personal shopper/secret shopper. These fake positions are advertised through Workable and possibly other sites as well. The scammer, who goes by the name of David Foster, invites people to interview with him through Skype and claims falsely that he works in Human Resources at Confero. Please do not follow the steps for setting up the Gmail account, sending your resume or participating in the interview, as this is a scam.Â

We want to remind everyone to please be aware of scams!Â

• The scammers often fake an email address from a legitimate mystery shopping company. Â
• Confero does not interview shoppers via Skype. Shoppers simply complete an online application with us. We don’t ask for resumes. We offer mystery shop assignments to contractors to perform brief gigs. We do not employ shoppers.
• The scammer in this case uses the name of David Foster and a fake email of hrconferoinc@gmail.com
• The scammer also falsely uses the name of an actual Confero employee, Paul Jacobi.
• The scam is not associated with Confero in any way. These scams are common and have been running in the mystery shopping industry for years. Â We do not share our shopper information with others.

Usually, these scammers end up trying to talk the victim into participating in a fake check scam which can end up bilking the victim out of hundreds or thousands of dollars.

Here is an email from the scammer that a potential victim sent us this morning:

Dear Candidate,

Your Resume submitted to Confero Inc for the Personal Shopper/ Secret Shopper Position has been reviewed and Accepted.

We have been reviewing many applicants in the last few days. Interviews will likely begin today 30th April, 2015. There are a great deal of qualifications we will use to match the right candidate for the job position of a Personal Shopper.Â

We are currently searching for Candidates who are willing to work from home and office.You are requested to complete the following steps below to conduct an Online Interview.

You are required to set up a screen name with Skype at (www.skype.com) and add up the Recruiting Officer Mr. David Foster (hrconferoinc) Report online ASAP for an interview with him.Â

For GMAIL Users-Register for a Gmail Account if you have one already, stay logged in to Google Hangout or Your Gmail Account and send a message to ; Â hrconferoinc@gmail.comOnce you have this process completed, Sign on to the Skype / Google Hangout and also Send in your screenname or if you need to reschedule also to: Â Â hrconferoinc@gmail.com

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We thank the person who brought this to our attention, so that we were able to warn others of this scam. Â If you would like to read more about scams, please visit our website: https://www.conferoinc.com/shoppers-center/consumer-alerts/