COLORADO SPRINGS — Over the years News5 has talked with people who say they’ve gotten the offer to become a secret shopper through phone calls, text, emails, and even social media messages, but in most cases it ends the same way. Once the fraudster gets your information they send a check with directions and if you follow those directions it’s a costly mistake.
”It comes in a decent envelope. They don’t catch onto the spellings and the verbiage. It sounds alright," said Joanna Hosford. "It’s got a logo on there for the store. The bank is an actual bank.”
Hosford says this secret shopper letter with a check and instructions was sent to her mother-in-law Della Martinez. She suspects this started with a random text message and the mail was a follow up. Martinez says she’s glad she was stopped from following through on it.
”They wanted me to go get cards and send them to them and call them and tell them they are coming in the mail and I’m glad I have my daughter,” said Martinez.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, if anyone ever tells you to deposit a check, withdraw money, and send it to someone, that's a scam. When the check later turns out to be fake, the bank will want the money back. also, if anyone tells you to go buy gift cards and share the pin numbers, that's a scam, too. Hosford says she understands why these schemes are effective and under reported.
”And then you realize oh, it’s not real. Oh my gosh, what did I think about doing? I think that’s where the stigma comes in, is for the embarrassment and the shame. It’s not that you got one. It’s that you thought about cashing it,” said Hosford.
Martinez says she just hopes her experience will help others avoid making expensive mistakes.
”I have a lot of friends and I know they go through a lot of things like this,” said Martinez.
This particular scam letter used the Walmart name and logo to try to add legitimacy. Walmart has said publicly it will never solicit mystery or secret shoppers through email, mail, or any other public means. If you get one of these letters you should report it to the Colorado Attorney General’s Officeso it can be investigated
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