A SCAM ALERT FROM Sherry Bowers at the Ponca City Police Department. A local citizen found a job offer on a nationally known on line job site company and thought she’d give it
a try. It was an opportunity to be a secret shopper for one of the world’s largest retailer. They send her
a money order for $994. They told her to deposit the check into her own account and withdraw cash
immediately for that same amount.
Then she was instructed to go the retail store make and make a $30 purchase and keep the items. She
was told to keep $150 as her commission for the assignment. She was to use the remaining funds for a
money gram transfer evaluation. She was told specifically not to alert the cashier that she was
performing a customer service evaluation or disclose who she was sending the money to. If she was
asked, she was only to say it was a family member.
The information letter goes on to tell the secret shopper to respond to the email instructions with the
retail store address, the money gram eight digit reference number she purchased along with the exact
amount transferred.
After reading all of the instructions, she knew it was too good to be true and was actually a scam. She
gave the officer the money order along with the instructions in hopes of saving someone else from
falling prey.
