Consumers Beware – This is The Holiday Scam Season
December 20, 2009 by tisha
g Digg plugin, Author : Yong Mook Kim Website : http://www.mkyong.com/blog/digg-digg-wordpress-plugin/ -->This time of year with the pressure to indulge family and friends with extravagant gifts some people go out of their way 
to make it happen. Getting loans to buy presents is one way to do it. But be aware that the skimmers, scammers and scoundrels are out in full force.
Loan Scam
One young woman wanted to secure a loan from an online source. As she was considered a high risk, it was difficult for her to get the money from conventional sources. She went online and found a business in Baltimore that just so happened to specialize in high risk loans.
She happily completed the application complete with private Social Security numbers. She was very excited to have been approved for the loan and was told the money would be coming soon. She was then asked to make monthly payments as collateral and then the scammers topped up the account with fees.
Becoming suspicious when the money was not forthcoming, she contacted local law enforcement.
Mystery Shopper Scam
Another savvy consumer became wise when he got an invitation to become a “Mystery Shopper”. A legitimate business where companies higher a ‘secret shopper’ to pose as a customer to record how customer service and products are displayed and then report back to the corporation. Recording things like how long before you were acknowledged, how long you have to wait in line and if they check in the lower rack of the shopping buggy can be assessed.
This scam however, was no such thing. In a legitimate situation you do the analysis and then submit the review and any receipts before getting paid. This was not the case. And this sceptical person was given a check for $2,980.00 to do a $100 shop at a variety of retailers, fill out an evaluation and then mail it back. The second step in the scam was to wire $2,000 via Western Union to a New York bank to check to see if Western Union was conducting themselves in a proper fashion. This is what prompted the consumer to involve the police and shut them down.
Some Mystery Shopper scammers are even developing relationships by establishing trust through a series of smaller paid audits before asking for the larger Western Union transfer. The big hole is that once you pass on the money you are on the hook for it.
Remember that if it is “too good to be true, it usually is”.
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