Craigslist Mystery Shopper scam. received check help!?

Hi,
I posted looking for employment on Craigslist. I received an email claiming they had a job offer for me, as a Mystery Shopper. I got a check this morning for over $1800, supposedly, I am supposed to deposit it into my account, take $400 as a fee & take the rest to Western Union. After reading up on here, it seems like a classic check scam. My question is..what do I do now that I actually have the check? Should I just shred itt? And is my identity safe, now that they have my personal information such as my name and address?? Where do I go from here??

Any and all advice is much appreciated!!!
Thank,
Ink

No need to worry. As long as you haven't tried to cash the check, you have done nothing wrong. Name and address information is available for hundreds of thousands of people online. Shred the check, and block their email. They may email you, threatening to sue you, contact the police, etc. or they might even email or call posing as police or FBI. It's all more lies, intended to scare you into helping them.

Thanks, Dotti for your reply. It occurred to me that it may help others if I posted info about where all this came from.
Emails were reiceved from either dnlo9.mnbf ([email protected]) or [email protected].

After I got the check, they asked me to deposit it immediately & visit Western Union within 2 hours of deposting the check. (Red flag!) I was supposed to send it to a Karla Mueller in Blaine, WA.
The return address on the USPS envelope was Skagit Valley College 2405 E. College Way Mt. Vernon, WA 98273.
The check was from JetBlue Airways corp in Long Island City, New York. (Hmm..strange how a supposed Mystery Shoppers company was sending mail from a possibly non-existent college in Washington, but the check was from an airline. That raised quite a few red flags as well!)

I'm positive the check if fraudulent in some way, so I'm wondering if I should contact the bank that supposedly issed the check, so they can be alerted there might be a problem with a possibly legit account. Any ideas? Is there anything else I can do (within reason) to alert others', or shut down a tiny portion of this scam??

Thanks!! I really appreciate the help! I have blocked those email addresses & will shred the check as soon as I determine whether or not I should contact the bank the check was issued from. (Citybank)

You could delete your details from the cheque and then scan it and post it up here for others to see. IT's 100% FAKE. It may be a good idea to tell police about it because there may be a money mule processing such payments. See Dotti's post here . viewtopic.php?f=2&t=45556
If they are such a person they deserve a prison sentence and scammers will have a more difficult job- hopefully. While criminals in Africa are unreachable, their fellow travellers and associates in UK and USA are not and there is a chance to throw the proverbial book at them

Hi, I am new to the forum, so please excuse me if I post in the incorrect place. I, too, was contacted by a Mystery Shopper. I am usually so cautious, but I just could not see how a cashier's check could be fake. The above poster is very bright. You still have the check. I did cash the check and went through with the Western Union transfers. However, after thinking everything over, I quickly called Western Union and told them that I thought that the entire thing was a fraud. By the Grace of God, Western Union told me that neither payments had been picked up. Western Union cancelled both transfers and refunded all of the money to me, including processing fees.

I did file a complaint through Western Union and they said that they would look into it. Meanwhile, I am waiting for my bank to tell me that the check is fraudulent. Should I contact them first? I took all of the money from the check and placed it into a bank account. It sits there until the bank tells me that the check is a fraud. I have all of the money to give directly back to the bank. Unfortunately, I do not have the actual check. The bank has it.

Should I contact the bank about the likely fraud? Would it help if they still had the check? I feel like such a fool because it seemed so legitimate. However, I am very thankful that I did not lose money. The USPS tracking number for the check has been traced back to Texas. The Mystery Shoppers asked me to send the payments to Texas. I am wondering if the exact area in Texas can be tracked down by the United States Postal Service.

What should I do? Should I fill out the post office complaint form? I feel so stupid, but I am thankful that the money was recovered.

It is better to contact your bank and let them know what has happened. It makes it clear that you did not intend to make a fraudulent deposit.

You definitely should fill out a mail fraud report. The mail account itself is probably compromised, and they can take action on that.

Thank you, Dotti. I will call my bank tomorrow to let them know that the Cashier's check was very likely a fraud, but I do have all of the money to return to them.

Do you believe that I would still be able to get the cashier's check? I cashed it at the bank on July 31. It certainly would help if I could send it to the USPS. I have the packaging that it came in.

Be sure you now understand that Western Union does not care if you address the money to Santa@NorthPole.
This is why scammers use Western Union, every day - no matter the name and address you specify, the scammer still gets the money, in minutes. You must have a guardian angel. You were lucky to wise up before you lost your money. Again, money you think is addressed to Texas, can be picked up at any Western Union office, anywhere, even Nigeria. If the name and address in Texas is real, it may be a previous victim of this scam.

Mumbles - it was an elaborate scam. I am usually very careful, but yes, I have a guardian angel. I contacted my bank today and talked with them. They did some research and said that there was a Mystery Shopper in Houston and Beaumont, Texas, but the last complaint filed against them was in 2002, or something like that. I know that the check originated from Texas because I followed the tracking number on the package. The bank is holding onto the check. They are waiting a little bit to see what happens with the check. They also plan to trace it back to wherever it came from. Yes, I came out fine, but I know that others haven't. I did a bit of research and I see that these scammers are preying on people who are on website looking for jobs. They figure that people will do anything to earn extra money. They are right.

I do have a bit of a question about the Western Union Scam. Western Union requires a photo id for anyone picking up money. How does the scammer do that? Western Union wanted a specific name for the person receiving the money and they said that the photo id must be a driver's license, passport, military. I am thinking that they are not just taking anything made up off of the street. Also, when I cancelled the Western Union order and went to get the money, Western Union told me that the money was not available in my area. Apparently, they still had Texas as the pickup place. I called Western Union and they changed the pickup place to my state.

After talking with my bank, they had a difficult time believing that the check was counterfeit. I told them that I do not have proof, but I have a very big suspicion. They said that they will hold onto the check and see if they can track down its origin.

The answer is quite simple. The scammer bribes or extorts the Western Union employee, so that he can pick up the money, even without any sort of identification. Employees can even change the place of pickup. This is a very common occurence in African countries.

Also, I can't believe that your own bank won't take your statement about check being bogus.

Well, I gave all of the information to the bank. I guess that is all that I can do for now. The bank kind of let me know that they really can't press any charges unless they know for a fact that the check is counterfeit. Deep in my heart, I know that it is and it will show up that way very soon. I don't know how much the bank can do to trace the check, but I know that the tracking number on the envelope came from Texas.

Nothing has been ripped up. The bank is holding onto it. I do have the postal forms and I filled them out. I'll fill out the above link, as well. Thank you for providing it.

Ok, I have all of the information including a copy of the check. Could you provide the link to me one more time? Thanks

File a fraud report with the postal inspection service at http://ehome.uspis.gov/fcsexternal/default.aspx You can also request an envelope from them and actually send them the check since you received it via US mail.