PITTSBURGH — Target 11 Consumer Investigator Robin Taylor shows us how a Washington County woman was swindled out of nearly $5,000.
"They would email me back immediately and say, 'Wow, this is one of the best mystery shoppers we've ever had.'" Too bad it was all a lie.
It all began with an email asking "Lori" to become a mystery shopper. It sounded like a quick, easy way to make money so she said yes. Her first assignment was to wire money through Western Union, but that's what really got her into trouble.
"This is a letter about how I performed most excellently!" said Lori, who asked us not use her real name.
She thought she was working for a company called Shop 'n Check. Her job was to evaluate customer service at businesses like Western Union.
"I thought this would be something I could do to contribute to the household. You know $200 here, $150 there," said Lori.
But it was all a ruse. Lori wasn't dealing with a legitimate business. She was dealing with thieves. They sent her very real-looking money orders and instructed her to cash them and then wire the money, but here's the problem: The money orders were fakes.
"These are all counterfeit," said Lori.
By the time the bank figured it out, Lori had already wired $4,700 to the thieves. Now, she owes the bank that money.
"It's a shame. I think that everybody needs to know what's going on out there. We were taken for quite a bit of money," said Lori.
Postal inspectors showed me a stack of fake money orders adding up to three-quarters of a million dollars.
“This is amazing because these look really real," I said as I looked them over.
"In this situation they're very realistic looking," said Tammy Mayle, a postal inspector, “but they're counterfeit"
Tammy Mayle says the average person wouldn't know and that's why so many people get wrapped up in these schemes.
"They'll go, they'll deposit the check. They're under a bad assumption that if the bank gives them the money that it's free and clear," said Andrew Richards, the postal inspector’s team leader.
Postal inspectors in Pittsburgh get between 100 and 200 counterfeit checks each week. They're coming from criminal rings in places like Nigeria and now Jamaica.
"Now the boiler rooms are a couple of laptops and a handful of cellphones. And they'll pull in a couple million dollars in two, three months," said Richards.
It's easy money for the crooks, and it's difficult for the United States to prosecute.
And that's why Lori wants to makes sure other people don't fall for this type of deception.
"It's just a rip off and everybody needs to know about it because there's families out there that are struggling for their money. Times are tough," said Lori.
Once you wire the money, it's gone. What a lot of people don't realize is that when you send something by Western Union, it can be picked up anywhere in the world. You may think you're wiring money to New York, yet it's picked up by con-artists in Jamaica.