I received a text message saying I've been selected to be a mystery shopper.All I have to do is wait for payment in mail because I never use my own money.A couple days later I received a money order in the amount of $1,000 and instructions to deposit/withdraw from my bank and go to an Apple store and tell them I want $700 Apple gift card,and I am to keep the other $300 for payment.I then am suppose to let "Lincoln Franklin" company know how the employees treated me & let them know if they knew exactly how to ring up the card for me.Has anyone ever had this kind of experience? Of course I didn't do it yet because I want to make sure it's not a scam.I don't want to get into any trouble.oh by the way I wasn't going to use my real bank account just in case they are trying to get my bank information.I was going to start an account at a different bank with their money order(which looks a little strange)to see if was legit.Thank you,Gma

It sounds like a scam. If someone offers you a large sum of money and needs your bank account its a scam.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/29/2019 04:39PM by walesmaven.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/29/2019 04:41PM by walesmaven.

SCAM ! Do not deposit that check anywhere! In about 2 weeks, after you have been told by your bank that the funds are available to you, they will discover that it is a fraud. By that time you will havd spent part of it doing what you are told is a shop. When the fraud is discovered YOU will be responsible for the entire amount, by law AND the bank may cancel your account (s) AND report you on a list of people who try to cash fraudulent checks/money orders!!!

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/29/2019 04:40PM by walesmaven.

@Gma wrote:

I received a text message saying I've been selected to be a mystery shopper.All I have to do is wait for payment in mail because I never use my own money.A couple days later I received a money order in the amount of $1,000 and instructions to deposit/withdraw from my bank and go to an Apple store and tell them I want $700 Apple gift card,and I am to keep the other $300 for payment.I then am suppose to let "Lincoln Franklin" company know how the employees treated me & let them know if they knew exactly how to ring up the card for me.Has anyone ever had this kind of experience? Of course I didn't do it yet because I want to make sure it's not a scam.I don't want to get into any trouble.oh by the way I wasn't going to use my real bank account just in case they are trying to get my bank information.I was going to start an account at a different bank with their money order(which looks a little strange)to see if was legit.Thank you,Gma

Gma. think really hard about this. How long do you think it will take to buy a $700 Apple gift card? Ten minutes? Fifteen minutes? How much money do you usually make an hour? Why would a total stranger contact you out of the blue and offer to pay you $300 for about 10-15 minutes work? Why would they choose you for a very high-paying job over many other people who may be looking for a job? Since they haven't collected your SS #, how could they legally pay you?

This is a scammer who is sending out communications to anybody and everybody. They don't care about your qualifications because this is not a real job assignment. They don't want your SS# because you won't get paid and won't owe any taxes, they are going to scam you out of $700 and then not pay you the $300 fee. And they are not after your bank info - they want to make a quick $700. If you were to deposit the money in your account and purchase the Apple gift card, they would immediately empty the gift card and then your bank would call because the money order would be no good and they would charge it back against your account. The bank might also close your account. If you open a new account to deposit the bad money order, the same thing would happen. Then the bank takes $1,000 from you to cover the bad money order ...... and the $700 Apple gift card you bought is gone and there is no $300 fee. This is a common scam. Don't be taken in because making that much money for so little work sounds so exciting.

Exactly what roflwofl said.

It's great that you did some research before depositing that check. It really shocks me that people fall for this scam, even when the scammers use real MSC names. If you could really make $300+ for less than a half hour of work, everyone would do it. There is one shopper that I know of that has claimed to have got a shop that pays $300 for less than an hour of work. All the power if that is actually accurate, but I can guarantee that it is not the norm, and I'd definitely want to have a relationship with that MSC before I ever took a shop that claims to pay that much.

Your normal shops will pay between reimbursement only, to about $100 on average. Those $100 shops take well over 15 minutes to do.

Edited to also say that it is extremely rare that a mystery shop company will send you any money before you complete the shop. They pay and reimburse you later 99.9% of the time.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/29/2019 06:34PM by KSSPete.

You will not be scammed because you were smart enough to come here and find out this is in fact an attempt to steal your money!

This scam has been in the news often. It is definitely a scam.

Can you send me the email of the scammer for investigation?

Yes, it's a scam.
It's been around for 60 or 70 years.

Can you send me the email address of the scammer?