A scam was uncovered recently which offers a fake mystery shop assignment and delivery of a fraudulent check as “payment” before the shop.  The communication encourages the recipient to cash or deposit a fraudulent cashier’s check at their own bank before completing a shop assignment at a drug store. It says that they will receive $2795, and that they should keep $250 for shop payment and $20 for gas reimbursement.  The assignment is to purchase 5 Greendot cards. An email is sent and is then followed by delivery of the fake check and letter describing the imaginary assignment.  

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

• The scammer will send a real looking check to deposit into your bank account. These are the "funds" to use for your shop. Then, the scammers ask you to wire funds to someone else during your "shop.”  Eventually, your bank will learn that the check was not real and you will be on the hook to cover those funds. Please don't fall for that!
• Confero NEVER sends checks to mystery shoppers. 
• The scammer in this case uses the name Thomas Keane and the company email of admin@thomagallery.com.
• The scam is not associated with Confero in any way. These types of scams are common and have been running in the mystery shopping industry for years. Usually, they are “phishing” scams where algorithms are used to create email addresses and send out millions of them hoping for a hit (like some have done to target banks or the IRS). We do not share our shopper information with others. This is most likely a result of phishing when someone click's on a scammer’s banner ad on the internet (they can look real!)

Below is a copy of a portion of the fraudulent communications:

Dear Mystery Shopper,

This package contains your contains your first mystery shopping package which contains a cashier’s check which covers your allowance for your evaluation services worth $250 for this first survey. You are to cash the cashier’s check at your bank, or deposit it if necessary to cash the next morning.  When cashing the check at your bank, kindly take note of the following:

Bank name and address

Name of cashier

Smartness and professionalism of cashier

Duration for completion of services

The letter goes on to instruct the person to visit a Rite Aid or CVS, buy the cards, email the code from the cards, and report to admin@thomagallery.com.  We thank the shopper who brought this to our attention, so that we were able to warn others of this scam.  If you would like to read more about scams, please visit our website: https://www.conferoinc.com/shoppers-center/consumer-alerts/