Full Notification

The Crystal Lake Police Department would like to caution residents that holidays scams are on the rise again. In particular, the ‘Secret Shopper’ or ‘Mystery Shopper’ scams. There have been reports from area residents being victimized by such scams over the last few weeks.

The victims received unsolicited fake e-mails from a ‘Secret Shopper’, promising employment opportunities or ways to make more money by seeking shoppers to rate their shopping experiences at certain businesses. In recent cases, the business to be rated was Western Union. The shoppers were asked to provide some personal information, via an online application, and later contacted (via telephone or e-mail) with instructions for their ‘work assignments’. The participants were sent counterfeit U.S. Postal Money Orders in amounts just under $1,000.00 via UPS or FedEx to deposit in their personal accounts. The participants were instructed to keep $200.00 for themselves (as payment for their work), and wire the remaining amounts to other pre-specified persons via Western Union. The scammer purporting to be from the ‘Secret Shopper’ Organization then requests the money transfer codes resulting from said transactions, whereby he can intercept the funds for himself from any Western Union location (local or international). The unsuspecting victims would not discover the money orders they deposited into their accounts were counterfeit until a few days later, long after they already wired money that they had withdrawn from their own accounts.

Be leery of any employment opportunities which require you to pay for the privilege of working. Further, avoid sending funds via wire to anyone you are not familiar with. It is recommended that you research the company as well as the alleged employee first, prior to performing any work assignments. This could be done sometimes as easily as entering the solicitor’s information into an internet search engine. There are websites available on the Internet, in which someone may have already documented similar scams perpetrated by the solicitor.

And as always, remember the axiom, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is”.