SM Consulting

A company will advertise for people to stuff their envelopes and receive $2-5 per envelope stuffed. They claim to send you all the supplies (envelopes, brochures, etc) that you need. The company does ask for a fee to get started anywhere between $20-40. They have you post ads for their business opportunity and you are supposed to mail a flyer to the person responding.

This is the newest and seemingly most popular scam lately for crooks. They are using Mystery shopping as their "bait". Mystery shopping is a legitimate opportunity (not a get rich quick scheme). These are not Mystery Shopping companies participating in this scam.

But the way the scam works is the crooks will send you a letter that appears to be real from a real Mystery Shopping company. They will send you what appears to be a real money order or cashier's check. They then give you a list of things you are supposed to do with that cashier's check for the "Mystery shopping" company (i.e. buy certain things, go to certain restaurants, etc). Then they tell you to send the difference via "Western Union" back to them.

The money order or cashier's check is no good (even though it does look real). DO NOT CASH IT! If you cash it, then it will come back on you for the thousands of dollars you spent.

The best thing I can tell you on this scam is..if you receive one of these, either tear it up immediately or contact the FBI or local authorities.

"I am a victim of the cash checking scam and I want to give you the company name that scammed me out of $6000 plus bank fees. Contintental Evaluation Services." -J. Winters

Basically you will receive a chain letter. It will ask you to send money (usually $1 but I have seen them asking for more) to a list of people on the letter. Then you put your name on the list, resend the letter to some people and they supposedly send you $1, etc. Keep your dollar!

I have not yet found one of these to be legitimate. Some may ask for a resgistration fee (usually $20-40). Some require that you place ads in papers with an ad for some off the wall business opportunity making loads of money. They supposedly send you information on how to compile lists for them. They say they pay so many cents per so many names. This is just the doorway to more "get rich quick" schemes.