MONKTON RESIDENT GETS WISE TO SECRET SHOPPER SCAM

(MUNICIPALITY OF NORTH PERTH, ON) A Monkton resident attended the North Perth Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) detachment in Listowel to report that she may have been issued a fraudulent cheque.

The resident advised that she had applied for a job via an ad on Kijiji looking for “secret shoppers” in her area. She completed the on-line application and before Christmas received her first job assignment along with a $4,000 cheque from a New Hamburg company. Her assignment was to cash the cheque immediately and wire two $1,000 amounts via a common money transfer service to persons living in New York. When the resident attempted to cash the $4,000 cheque she was told that the cheque had been flagged and that a three day hold would be placed on it to confirm its validity.

Police contacted the legitimate New Hamburg company and discovered that someone had issued 40 phoney cheques for similar amounts. They had contacted Waterloo Regional Police who now had a file on this incident. The resident came to realize that her career as a secret shopper never got off the ground.

The public is reminded to be careful when looking for work via ads posted on-line. When looking for employment, use common sense and think, “Is this too good to be true?” Remember, fraud is a multi-billion dollar enterprise that will continue as long as the scammers make money. There is no magic to preventing fraud; trust your instinct not the stranger that is promising something for nothing. Anyone interested in more information on fraud can contact the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre at 1-888-495-8501 or you can check online at http://www.antifraudcentre.ca.

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