Another scam - anyone get one of these in the mail?

[copynpaste]

Was from a company called centuryshopperinc - came with a small sheet with their email on it - [email protected]. Already in the paper shredder. How they got my name and address is beyond me...wierd.:confused:

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y255/smszs/Picture003-2.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y255/smszs/Picture002-4.jpg

[badatusrnames]

How exactly does this scam work?

[luxor]

I'm not seeing any scamming going on here.

[im2fst4u]

Originally posted by luxor
I'm see any scamming going on here.
http://www.papamiket.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/imageshomer-simpson-228x300.jpg

Cheers! Have another one!

[KRZY403]

Originally posted by luxor
I'm see any scamming going on here.

Do you're speak any english?

[im2fst4u]

Found an ad for them on Kijiji in St. John's Here (http://stjohns.kijiji.ca/c-jobs-driver-security-Competent-Mystery-Shopper-W0QQAdIdZ116981127)

From the ad:

We humbling wish to introduce our company to you applicant ...

We are a company that conduct surveys and evaluate other companies. We get hired to go to other peoples companies and act like customers in order to know how the staffs are handling their services in relation to their customers. once have a contract to do so, you would be directed to the company or outlet, and you would be given the funds you need to do the job(either purchase things or require services), after which you would write a comment on the staffs activities and give a detailed record of your experience.

contact us for more detail.



Century Shopper Inc.
Hickory, North Carolina 28603
E-mail: [email protected]

[nonlinear]

well, the leading As in each signature are signed in exactly the same way. unless a lot of people write their As that way?? ask someone whose name begins with an A haha

[yellowsnow]

Originally posted by luxor
I'm not seeing any scamming going on here.

It's definately a scam people. Why would anyone mail $2500 to some stranger... think :facepalm:

[berbatov]

Originally posted by KRZY403
Do you're speak any english?

:D

Cash it in, see what happens

[psycoticclown]

Yeah, nobody just randomly mails $2500 to random people, but I don't see how the OP is getting scammed. Not like he has to give away some money to get that cheque or sign a contract or something. He has the cheque already, its almost like somebody just giving you $2500, sure it might be fake money, but a cheque is safer, you can just go to the bank probably and ask them if the cheque is real and if you can cash it in. Nothing wrong with doing that and it'll take 10 minutes. If it is real, thats $2500 for free, if it's fake than oh well, he was going to shred it anyways :dunno:

[5000Audi]

id take it to BMO and see if its ligit, that could be 2500 free money in your pocket!!!

[BoostinAround]

Originally posted by 5000Audi
id take it to BMO and see if its ligit, that could be 2500 free money in your pocket!!!

Havnt you won the brittish lottery yet? :P

869,000 british pounds

[TomcoPDR]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/30070044#30070044

[JordanAndrew]

Originally posted by TomcoPDR
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/30070044#30070044


:rofl: :rofl:

If someone is asking you for money to be wired, this should have triggered that you're being scammed, GTFO ASAP!

[SCHIDER23]

I got one for $5.00 bucks lol, and the cheque came with a 3 page survey sheet, they claimed it was from my recent vehicle purchase, it still sitting on my desk lol

[Canadian 2.5RS]

I work for an established and fairly well-known market research group and I know that scammers are sending big checks like this in our company's name. I don't know how the scam works but I know for a fact that the checks didn't come from us. They have even gone to the extent of finding out employees' names and adding those to the letters.

So I put a little more thought into this and i have some questions for the beyond members that work at a bank. If the scammer sends you a check from an account with no money then they will get an NSF charge. Does that charge give any information on the account that tried to collect money from the account? if so, then this is just another way to get the account info to the name and address they already have.

[copynpaste]

Originally posted by 5000Audi
id take it to BMO and see if its ligit, that could be 2500 free money in your pocket!!!

From what I was told usually banks can't tell you on the spot anyways if its legit until you deposit it. By then it'll be too late and 1) you would get in trouble for depositing a fake moner order 2) it bounces and now they take that sum of money right from your savings!chequing account.

[Kloubek]

It sure does LOOK legit.

But as has already been said - nobody you don't know gives you something for nothing.

[7thgenvic]

take it in and see what it is....looks fake. just deposit it and wait

[chkolny541]

Originally posted by 7thgenvic
take it in and see what it is....looks fake. just deposit it and wait

wont hurt, the fee is small if you deposit a bounced check so who cares

[kolumbo69]

Take it to BMO I would assume they wll beable to tell you if it's real or not

[oilerfan4lyfe]

You can call BMO and have it verified...

The address on it looks like a legit BMO location but some things look off on it...

First, there's a period after the Ontario and between the Canada instead of a comma like there is between Kitchener and Ontario.

Also, the protectograph has an extra U in "Banque" --> that's assuming it's actually protectographed - try putting your finger on the ink and see if it seems raised or if it's just typed - I'm fairly certain BMO doesn't just type it on there.

There's some things I'm not sure on...I think the vertical lines on the back should go a lot lower than they do, at least one of the signing officers should have a signing number and unless I'm messing something up, the transit of "06952" doesn't correspond to a valid BMO transit...either that or their website's transit search isn't working properly. It's definately not the transit number of the Kitchener location, though that doesn't necessarily make it fake.

If it was me, I'd call BMO and verify it or I'd take it to them and ask them to verify it before depositing...if it gets returned you get the $5-$6 fee or whatever, but you also get an item returned on your account for being counterfeit...

It's odd that they haven't asked you to send back some of the money - maybe that'll be coming within the next couple of days. I don't however, think that they'd be able to retrieve any of your account information even if it was counterfeit.

[scat19]

Scammers are still "in business" because of the stupid people that allow themselves to be scammed.

[Moezer]

Take it to the bank, they have a machine that they pass the cheque threw. To see is the ink on the cheque is light or not, there is a limit on how high the ink can be and how low it can be if its high then its a fake cheque and u can get in a lot of shit from the bank and criminal acts, or another thing u can do is take it in the bank and see if its real or not, if the address on there is the same as the one from the bank it states then they can call and see if its good or not if they sent out the cheque or not, another thing u can do is check the numbers on the bottom and compare them to another cheque if they are the same or not if there not then its fake, there is a special machine you add to a printer press that do all the numbers at the bottom of the cheque

[szw]

I'm curious to know how this scam really works. Can't find anything about it on google.

[Tik-Tok]

I know, once upon a time, you could cash a cheque at the cheque's bank for cash. Is this not still allowed?

(As in, I bank at CIBC, but I was written a cheque from BMO, I just go to BMO with valid ID, and they give me cash, my bank/account has nothing to do with it)

[Moezer]

Originally posted by Tik-Tok
I know, once upon a time, you could cash a cheque at the cheque's bank for cash. Is this not still allowed?

(As in, I bank at CIBC, but I was written a cheque from BMO, I just go to BMO with valid ID, and they give me cash, my bank/account has nothing to do with it)
some banks wont allow u to just cash in a cheque if ur not with the bank it self you have to be a member then u can cash is any cheque u want

[copynpaste]

I cant take it into the bank because I already put it through the paper shredder last night.

But ironically, I just went to check my mail 10mins ago and what do you know, they sent me another M.O. for the same amount $2500! :confused: It looks exactly the same as yesterdays.

[Wildcat]

Haven't you guys heard of this one? I remember it on the news a while back. Here's this jist of it;

You get a cheque in the mail with a letter telling you to spend the $2000 by wire transfer to test the service of the company. With a promise that the person gets to keep the easy $500 difference for their efforts. Anyways... the cheque is fake obviously, its not a BMO cheque even but it looks real. So fake cheque gets deposited, real money is sent, fake cheque gets denied and the poor sucker is out 2g. The end.

[DonJuan]

I work in banking and that draft seems to look like a real draft, BUT IT ISNT! The actual draft from the picture seems to be an exact copy of what BMO currently uses. This means that the blank draft is likely stolen and then printed on by the criminals. The protectograph is the first problem. Banks don't make spelling mistakes.

If you go to BMO with the draft they will be able to tell you that it isn't real because they would verify it first. If you took it to your own bank and deposited it (assuming you are in good standing) it would take as much as 5 business days to bank to find out that the draft is fraud.

From what I understand of this fraud, is the same as the Nigerian lottery etc. They will contact you after they send you the cheque and ask you to send money back because they sent you too much etc, etc blah blah.

Depositing fraudulent items has implication of if the funds are used before it can return as fraud. This leaves you totally liable for the resulting negative balance and freezing of your account (and whatever charges you bank decides to do). Looking stupid everytime your account is pulled up by a bank employee is another side effect.

[spikerS]

seems odd to me for 2 reasons.

The address of where the draft was issued was in Kitchener, Ontario, yet the bank stamp is in french.....

the other is, when i used to get money orders and drafts at the BMO, the bank stamps where the amount is is in black, while the cents are in red, and they stamped it again on the back, which is not the case here.

i dont think the draft is legit personally.