You receive a blast email informing you that you've been offered a job as a secret shopper. The email provides detailed, realistic instructions on how to conduct your secret evaluations. It even provides your first assignments: reporting on your neighborhood's Wal-Mart and Western Union. Sounds easy enough!
To get started, the
email urges you to reply and confirm your mailing address. After doing
this, you will receive in the mail an informational packet, which
contains a fake check. This check supposedly covers your $300 payment and contains money to spend on your investigations.
The instructions tell
you to deposit the check and subtract your fee. Then, use the rest
to "evaluate" Western Union by sending three $950 money orders. Of
course, a few days later, the bank will reject the check and delete the
advanced funds from your account. You'll be out the more than $2,500
that you wired to the scammers.
As this scam gains more
publicity, scammers will likely alter the exact stores and amounts
featured. However, the central scam (depositing a fake check and wiring
money before it clears) will remain the same.