Not Sure bout Company?

I'm new to the forum and new to mystery shopping. I'm a little concerned with my first assignment. I was contacted via email by Ascent Research I replied and they explained what the assignment would be I replied that I was interested and gave them all my information that they asked for and the scheduler got back to me and said they sent a cashier check. The check came to day and it's a large amount very leiry bout cashing and doing what I'm suppose to do with it. Has anyone every worked for this company?
What to do?

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DO NOT cash that check. This is a well known scam. No legitimate company will send you a large check up front.

Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel

Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.

What walesmaven said ^^^.

If you read the forum, you will find lots of stories from people who found thier way here looking for information on the scam. A lot of them come here AFTER they cash the check and are out thousands, so consider yourself one of the lucky ones.

E-Mail the FTC as they are trying to help catch them. As everyone has said do not cash the check or money orders as they will bounce and you will be responsible to repay your bank.

The same thing happened to me today. I emailed the guy many times asking him for information on the company but all that was sent were two postal money orders that I was supposed to cash at my bank and go to western union to evaluate their services. Just didn't sound legit to me. Even talk to the guy on the phone. Cell phone might I add and it was 9:30 at night. Also looked the company up online and for nothing. Fraud?

Definitely fraud.

What should I do with the money orders?

If they came by mail and you have the envelope etc. you can turn them in to the Postmaster at your Post Office as a mail fraud. Otherwise you can file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission at www.ftc.gov. If you file a complaint, put all materials into a ziplock bag so they have as few extraneous fingerprints as possible on them because they may contact you for the materials. Otherwise you can tear them up and throw them in the trash.

I received a check for $4,400.00 from retaileyes. I have checked the web and this is a legit company. Is it still a fraud? I havn,t signed on yet, wanted to check this out because of this large check.

It is standard that scammers use the names of legitimate companies. There is zero doubt in my mind but that the check you received is forged and will bounce. If you have any questions, contact the real Retaileyes. They are in California and their phone number is 310 796 0080. Since their shops pay between $5 and $15 the amount you have received (and are likely to be told to keep as your fee for the jobs) is not realistic.

If you deposit the check 'just to see if it is real', it is likely to initially go through the system and then be returned as a forgery. Most banks charge a fee for depositing bad checks, just as they charge you if you write a bad check. It just is not worth the 'experiment'.

Hey, well guess what? I got the same "too good to be true" offer in the mail yesterday. I spent about 3 hours scouring the NET, Googling & investigating "RetailEyes", & "Retail Eyes" and obviously, as some of you mentioned in this Forum, there is a legit company out there with that name. This "special" letter, had a Canadian stamp & postmark and get this, it had green tape with the "Homeland Security logo" and said "opened by Homeland Security". Great, now I just hope I am not on some list with Homeland Security! This came to me without an invitation - where did they get my name? Anyway it looked so real and I wanted it to be so real-but hey, I'm 50 yrs Old! Have I learned nothing in my life? So it was all I could do to wait til 6a (9a eastern time) and called the bank named on the check. "ORNL" Federal Credit Union in Kentucky, and waited for customer service to tell me exactly what you guys here are saying of course, "Don't Deposit it, its Fraudulent!" But No matter how hard I wished it were real and it looked so real, (You should have seen the contract they sent), Its a fraud. Darn! Well back to my $9 - $25 real Mystery Shopper Jobs, its OK though, they pay real money!

Drop it all in a zip lock bag and set it aside. File a complaint with the FTC at ftc.gov. Be prepared to forward on to them the bag of materials if they request it. Hopefully they can lift some fingerprints off of it as the Canadians seem much more successful in tracking down scammers and with your envelope coming through Canada, perhaps at least one scammer can be put out of business.

This happened to me when I first started shopping. I didn't know about this forum at that time, so I was on my own. I deposited the check in my checking account and withdrew the amount of the check. I waited for it to clear before I spent any money. The teller at the bank said it looked real. Of course it bounced and the bank charged a nice fee. I explained what happened to the bank and they removed the fee. I just deposited the money back into my account. A waste of time but, I wasn't out any money. A lesson learned the hard way.

Always Shopping Western New Y0rk

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