Scams are common in our industry and new twists on the classic check scam are developed every day. Scammers often operate by pretending to be MSPA Americas or our member companies and contact the general public by email, telephone, job boards or social media sites. They use fake names and titles to entice people to receive a check in the mail, conduct a false assignment, and then wire money or send items to a specified address. Regardless of the variations of this classic scam, the checks will bounce and the victim is left footing the full bill and the bank fees associated with it.

For those in the US, please report your experience with a scammer to the FTC here. If you're located in Canada, please contact the Canadian Anti-Fraud at 1-888-495-8501.

Though we cannot stop every scam or the people behind them, we can continue to educate the public about this issue. You may have seen a recent news story or legal filing on the matter too. We are always so appreciative of these! We will share scams with the membership as they are known to us. If you have one to share, please email mspa@hqtrs.com and we will share them here.

Member Companies: using this guide is a great way to start fighting back! Scam Response Guide

As a reminder, MSPA Americas (or any of the regions throughout the globe) do not solicit mystery shoppers. The most frequent question we receive is if MSPA is hiring and if a variety of names are employed by us. The answer is always no. Opportunities only come from MSPA Service Provider Companies and after you register with them or they find you through the MSPA Evaluator Database.

February 2020 If you receive a message stating "INTELLISHOP® is accepting applications for qualified and reliable agents for Walmart shopping survey. The assignment will pay $500 per duty. Click on the link for more information: https://bit.ly/363p4MW" please do not follow through. This is a scam and could result in you losing money. Helion Research notified us of a scam involving their company's name. Text messages and emails are being received from David Goedel, Survey Coordinator, asking for people to work for them. This is a scam and can be found on CareerBuilder as well. January 2020 Mailers are going out with opportunities from Donald Price with MSPA information on it. We do not hire mystery shoppers and do not have a Donald Price on our team. Please consider this a scam. IntelliShop let us know about another scam. A scammer is contacting people through LinkedIn to sign up to be a mystery shopper, with a link to fill out this registration form. The scammers are using real employee names but fake employee email addresses. December 2019 CSE Inc. let us know about check scam using Customer Service Experts as the MSPA. Rest assured that is a scam and if you have questions, please contact CSE directly. Alta260 Research is the victim of a scam. " I just received a call from a young lady who had $7000 stole from her and this individual that is scamming them is using our website and has reconfigured it I am sending the URL below: https://retailsresearch.com/ " WeCheck is also a victim of a scam. Two websites have been shut down already but no luck on shutting down the scammers. Please remember that no companies will send you a check prior to shopping and be sure to check the URLs of websites you visit. When it doubt, access the company through the MSPA Americas website. November 2019 If you receive a message with the subject line: NEEDED | JobsAssignment's Available from premium.job@null.net, please delete immediately. The message includes answering personal questions and is most certainly a scam. "Hello, We are a company that conducts surveys and evaluate with 'SecretShopper'. * You will be taught how to run the task and earn your income. * You will get training information and instructions via e-mail. * You must complete the task well so that your income is high (Incentive is $290) / assignments. To get more information and instructions from us, reply to this e-mail with the following data to => " premium.job@null.net " Your response would be greatly appreciated, thanks... Sincerely. Wanda C. Hill 2019 MS-Agency, LLC #MyThoughts #Scams #Workat #workfromhome #interview #healthcare #hiringevents

#Coronavirus has left millions of workers without jobs, many desperate for remote jobs that can provide a source of income without having to leave their homes.

Unfortunately, this also means that scammers are on the prowl for vulnerable people looking for work. There have always been job scams out there, but it’s going to grow as the weeks go on.

Here are a few of the most popular scams that should raise some red flags.

FAKE CHECKS You may see a job post offering “quick cash” typically in the telemarketing, sales or customer service field.

Red flag: Employer offers to send you a check to buy supplies to do the job

• When you go to deposit the check, it’ll probably clear within a day or two
• A few days after, the bank will discover the check was fake
• Your bank account will be negative, and you are now responsible for any overdraft

Protect yourself: Never use money from a check to wire funds, send gift cards or money orders to strangers.

MYSTERY SHOPPERS Retailers DO sometimes use mystery shoppers to audit their stores for customer service, cleanliness, etc. But, chances are legitimate companies are not doing this right now.

Red flag: Employers ask you to evaluate a money transfer service (such as Western Union or MoneyGram) as your first assignment.

• You receive a check and are asked to deposit it, take out the cash and wire it to a third party (spoiler alert: the third party is the scammer!)
• The check will bounce, and you will be responsible for the negative balance

To check if a mystery shopping offer is legitimate, check here!

GOVERNMENT GRANTS/LOANS Federal and state governments are working on relief packages to help workers get through this tough time. There will be a lot of new programs being stood up over the next few weeks/months, so please be careful.

Red flag: Any call, text or email that offers a government grant or loan.

• Do not give out any personal information over the phone
• Do not click on any links in emails or provide any personal information

To confirm which programs are legitimate, check official government websites + news stories.

Please be sure to report any suspected scams on Jobcase by clicking the three dots in the upper right and selecting Report. That will help our team find them quicker!

Good luck with your job search!

SCAMS! FRAUD, and More!

Dear Community,

Over the past couple of weeks I have noticed under people comments post like the one below! This is a SCAM! It is Sad that there are people out there that try to take advantage of people who are looking for work or loss their job? I have copied and pasted a copy of what it is I am talking about below this post. This is how it works! You click on the link and they ask for your personal information to mail you a check. A few days later you receive a check for $1200.00 -$2500.00, they tell you to deposit it in your personal checking account and withdraw X amount of dollars. You mail it to them Via Gift Cards, Green Dot etc... 24 - 48 hours later you are receiving a call or letter from your bank telling you the check bounced and has INF funds. You are now out the original amount of the Check! Community Please Take Notice to this SCAM! Do Not Fall Victim To This SCAM! If You Have Fallen Victim to this Scam you can Contact Your Local Authorities and Report It?

Lately you might be seeing post like this under a topic! Donna Alise Molloy Earn $600 weekly Mystery Shopper position available, click on the link below to Apply: https://www.powr.io/plugins/form-builder/view/23434479?mode=XXXX This is an example of Fraud! Please be aware of this post?

Mystery Shopping Companies Never Send People a Check to Cash and keep your payment? Nor Do They Ask You to Send any money? If you see these post AVOID Them and Report it to The Jobcase Staff! The other day I was contacted by a person telling me he would send me a check to do the same? You have to be careful if you send them your address? They Now Know Where You Live! Protect Yourself by reporting it to the Local Authorities for this reason... #scam #MyThoughts #workfromhome #hiringevents #jobsearch #application

Unfortunately, fake job listings are more common than we would hope. Here at Jobcase, we work hard to make sure that all scammer profiles are deactivated, but sometimes they do slip through the cracks.

Here are a few red flags that a job might actually be a scam.

The Company Is Hard to Find Online The first thing you should do if you feel there is something “off” about a company is Google them. Even the least tech-savvy businesses usually have some sort of basic webpage that describes their company. If there is no trace of them online, be wary.

It Sounds Too Good to be True If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. When you see a high salary, topnotch benefits and a lot of big promises (job growth, pay increase, lots of perks, etc.) - proceed with caution. Be on the look for keywords such as “earn money quick” and “a lot of salary potential.” Typically they will also require you to work for less than minimum wage for some time or place you on probation where you don’t get paid at all for a “trial period.”

Vague Job Description If the description is vague and/or contains multiple typos, chances are it was computer-generated or put together by an individual writing in a non-native language. Ask to speak with a hiring manager directly to get a better idea of the role and expectations.

No Interview If you were offered a job with no interview process, your alarm bells should be blaring. If a company is in a rush to hire you and immediately asks for “payroll” information such as bank account and social security numbers, it’s typically a scam.

Sending Money / Using a Personal Bank Account Legitimate companies won’t ask for money or ask you to pay for something upfront. Never send any money or give out personal banking information.

Please be sure to report any suspected scams by clicking the three dots in the upper right and selecting Report. That will help the JC Team find them quicker!

Good luck with your job search!

As always, be sure to reach out if you have any questions or concerns! We're here to help :)

So I just got a message from someone here on jobcase named "Lisa" inviting me for an interview for a ton of different jobs some of which I am clearly not qualified for, like IT manager. All I had to do is create a gmail account as well as a google "hangout" similar to facebook. SCAM RED ALERT !! This is a now very well known scam from people phising for your personal information to do God knows what with it. There is no job offering so don't take the bait. An employer would not need for you to create a new gmail account or a google hangout. So please be warned.

There’s this “company” called “Executive Personnel Group” that I applied for a couple days ago on Indeed. I read the job description and everything seemed legit until I started picking up on things. First off, the first email that was sent out was wayyyyy too wordy and too detailed and the words that were being used and the grammar was completely off and unprofessional. So that was my first red flag, (I still played along cause I wanted to see how long she would carry on if she was a scammer). The second red flag was when she called me and asked to speak with me, she sounded like she was Indian or maybe Arabian ... so I said “Yes, this is Jessica speaking”, so she went on further more explaining the job once AGAIN and then pretty much said “Im going to set you up a interview for Thursday Morning), what alerted me with this red flag is the fact that she didn’t ASK ME when was a good day and time, instead she set me up for a interview that worked best for her. So once again, I played along. So Wednesday gets here and she says “Jessica Im sorry but the recruiter will not be in the office Thursday, so I would like to set you up for Friday”. I say, “sure” (Thats another red flag because I have never had a recruiter or interviewer reschedule). So Thursday gets here, and guess who I get a call from? Smh so she say “Hello Jessica, The interview that we have scheduled for Friday we will have to reschedule because the recruiter will not be in the office that day either”. So I just kindly hung up and blocked the number. I have never been through anything like this and the whole time I was getting these so-called interviews I was never sent a confirmation email like most professional, legit company’s do. I think it is so SAD that these people can go all the way out of there way to seek very desperate people who are on the verge of giving up, just to get there personal information and make their life worse by stealing their identity, MONEY and any other valuable things. Pleaseeeeee be careful guys, Im begging you and if you see this company “Executive Personnel Group” anywhere .... REPORT THEM!

If you come across a company called United Health Group and or a person going by the name Rachel Lindberger they will ask you to download Google Hangouts and go through the motions of an interview, offer you a job that sounds too good to be true, it's a scam! Do not give them any personal information! They got me for over $3000 in new iPhones from Verizon. Luckily the fraud department caught it in time to cancel the order and resecure my account. Be careful out there!

Hello Jessica Mitchell, Thank you for Sharing us we all Members of JOBCASE about all these Scrammers online Claimed to be Recuiters. Once again Thanks for Sharing.

Also be aware of emails that offer you a job and they only communicate thru email. They give you a start date and do not even identify who they are. Then I received a text on my cell phone. For some reason my spam folder did not catch it

I filled out a application for a warehouse supervisor position. And about 2 or 3 days later this lady emails me. She said that she had a position for a warehouse supervisor/management position told me the hours of be working and that there was a 400 dollar sign on bonus, she asked if I was okay with that. And if it was okay and the higher ups approved she would send me a employment agreement letter. Sure enough 4 or 5 days later, I get a email congratulating me on joining the firm. And the employee agreement. Which stated 24 weeks of probationary period in which they can fire me without cause and without payment. But the start pay is 87,000 a yr. And after the 24 weeks bumps up to 116,000 a yr. Now I still have to get them a signed employee agreement by the 23rd as to weather I still want to work there. And im suppose to meet someone on the 27th to start. And I forgot to mention the location is confidential and under renovation. So she never told me where to go. And still hasn't told me where it was other then driving distance. Which could be anywhere. I'm pretty sure its a scam but i can't figure out the scam. She said id be recieving a check for my 400 sign on bonus and money to get erp software. She even stated to deposit it and let the check clear both banks. So whats the scam here? What am I missing?