Saline residents fall victim to mystery shopping fraud scheme
![Rolling Meadows1[4].jpg](http://www.annarbor.com/assets_c/2010/08/Rolling Meadows1[4]-thumb-590x442-52111.jpg)
The Rolling Meadows Townhomes complex.
All 12 victimized residents of the Rolling Meadows Townhomes, located along Lambkins Drive on the city’s north side, told police they had their bank accounts frozen within the past week and were instructed by officials from their respective banks and credit unions to file identify theft reports due to fraudulent activity, police said.
Reports show that in each case the victims had their names, addresses, account numbers, and check routing numbers duplicated on fraudulent checks made to look like they were issued from their local credit unions or local branches of national banks.
The checks, usually for $890, were cashed earlier this month by people all over the country who responded to mystery or secret shopper ads over the Internet, reports said.
Secret, or mystery shoppers, are sometimes hired by companies to test their products or services. Investigators traced one of the cashed checks to an Illinois man who said he was solicited to be a mystery shopper on-line a few months ago. His assignment was to sample a local fast food restaurant and relay his opinions about the product and service.
He submitted the information and received two checks with instructions to wire much of it to a bank in Russia while he kept a small percentage for himself, reports said.
“He didn’t know that he was doing anything wrong,” detective Don Lupi said of the shopper. “The checks appeared legitimate, from legitimate banks and the only thing out of place was the check number, which was out of sequence. But they wouldn’t know that.”
Now both the shopper and the Saline residents are victims of different aspects of the same scheme. Lupi said he is working with management at the complex to determine who had access to residents' checking information and that further investigation is needed.
Managers at the complex left notes for residents in the 70-unit complex urging them to double check bank records and call police immediately about irregularities. It appears that residents who pay rent and association dues automatically from their accounts or online were not affected, Lupi said.
The victims are at first astonished to learn about the broader scam and about how many neighbors are dealing with the hassle of transferring funds, opening new accounts and checking credit reports.
“It’s amazing to me,” said one retiree who did not want his name used. “And I shred my documents. It’s just unfortunate that in this world today you have to live paranoid.” Lupi said typically, personal information is often sold over the Internet overseas, which makes it more difficult to track.
He reiterated the importance of keeping vital information secure and reminded people to resist the temptation of getting a quick and easy payday over the Internet.
“It’s a variation of the typical Nigerian letter scam that was popping up a few years ago, and it all boils down to sending money out of the country,” Lupi said. “Never send money to someone you don’t know.”
Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Don Lupi or Sgt. Kevin Murphy at 734-429-7911, or e-mail Lupi at dlupi@cityofsaline.org.
Art Aisner is a freelance writer for AnnArbor.com. Reach the news desk at news@annarbor.com or 734-623-2530.
For more stories about Saline visit our Saline page.
Comments
Cici
Mon, Sep 20, 2010 : 3:32 p.m.
And people think on-line banking and bill pay is terribly risk???!! Writing a check is worse...it has your bank account number. You can buy a credit card number over the Internet if you really want - TV programs have demonstrated this. I rarely ever write checks anymore....everything is billed to a credit card (I watch it)or auto-payed by my bank. If more people paid electronically there would be less paper and checks to whitewash (use a gel pen at least) or physical paper to pass on. I do wonder sometimes how any or a pretense "land-lord" can get a credit score so easily with just an applicant's SS#.
bunnyabbot
Mon, Aug 30, 2010 : 10:08 a.m.
@ypsilivn, yeah, your right, he is a victim too, I should have clarified what I meant, he seems upon reading for those that don't know about third party scemes to not be a victim, truth be told, if you are duped in anyway you are a victim. maybe 5 years ago I got a call from an out of town detective. someone had used my name, address and phone number to defraud someone elses credit card in michigan to have something shipped to florida. I would have never known had I not gotten a call. So here I was, not duped, not charged, but a third party. It can happen very easily. Must mention as well, the detective was very nice, however (shortly after I spoke to him but not before he had spoken to) the victims husband called me screaming (ranting) and called me a theif! I had to call the detective back and ask him kindly to explain to the victim my non-involvement and that calling me was not appropriet and would be considered harrasment if he did it again. So please people, if you are a victim or are duped in anyway let the cops handle it. Third party people are as freaked out by it as you.
chapmaja
Sun, Aug 29, 2010 : 11:07 p.m.
As someone who actually does mystery shopping for a portion of my living I know what the realy companies are an what is not right. I had to LMAO a couple years ago when my mother got a check for 3500 from a mystery shopping company based in California. It was a company I had done work for in the past so I knew what the checks looked like and the mailing address they sent them from. This check was from Canada and the company was in California. My mother knew it was a scam as well because she worked as a scheduler for a mystery shopping company. One thing I do is make sure I keep accurate records of the money I could be getting from each company and the money I actually get. If I get a check I am not expecting I call the company and ask. I did have this happen one time when I got a check for 100 bucks. I called the company because I wasn't expecting the payment. (I called the number I looked up in previous emails with the company, not one of the check or letter with the check). It turned out that I had not been paid for shops I had done a year prior and the company had been bought out. A review of the compnay records showed a bunch of shops had not been paid, so they sent out checks. I held onto that money for a couple months to make sure it wasn't a scam but it was legit. The point is, 1) If it seems to good to be true it most likely is 2) Make sure you know who the check is coming from and why you are getting it. 3) If something seems out of place, find a number for the company other than what may come with the check. Call the company and find out if they sent you a check. 4) Don't fall for mystery shopping ads on the internet. No mystery shopping company worth their name would ever post an ad on Craiglist or send out unsolicited emails. Those ads and emails are nothing but scams. If you want real information on mystery shopping go to the Mystery Shopping Providers Association website. This is the trade organization for mystery shopping companies.
Gorc
Sun, Aug 29, 2010 : 7:13 p.m.
@bunny about and YpsiLivin - great comments. When all is said and done, the drawing banks where the Saline folks do there banking will be the ones who suffer the financial burden. It is the drawing bank, of these counterfeit checks, responsibility to assure the signature on the front of the check is a legitimate. The bank in Illinois where fraudulent checks where deposited only had to make sure the endorsement on the back of the check match the payee and ownership of the account it went into. The bank in Illinois and the naive mystery shopper in Illinois will not be out any money (unless there is a "late return item").
YpsiLivin
Sun, Aug 29, 2010 : 4:02 p.m.
BunnyAbbott, The person in Illinois and everyone else who cashed the bogus checks are real victims, not pseudo-victims. They're the people who actually lost money by forwarding their own cash to the bank in Russia (presuming they all went in for the same scheme). These "mystery shoppers" have no ability to get their cash back. The Saline victims (who are ultimately the pseudo-victims) will get their money back as the banks reverse the fraudulent checks charged to their accounts. They are victims in one sense, but they'll be made whole. The mystery shoppers in the middle won't be. How the scammers got ahold of the checking information is another story. Since the account holders of the compromised accounts are all connected to the condominium complex, I'd guess that a computer that stored the association's automated payment information got hacked.
bunnyabbot
Sun, Aug 29, 2010 : 1:14 p.m.
this is called a third party scam or third party fraud. that is the criminal (the russia angle) uses a pseudo-victim (the illinois guy) to scam the other victim (saline people) although the illinois guy should have gotten a red flag when russia popped up often times it is not as clear cut as that. Sometimes the criminals just want to create havok by stealing card numbers and shipping items to random people, like some game of ding dong ditch.
AlphaAlpha
Sun, Aug 29, 2010 : 12:42 p.m.
Gorc - all comments correct. Likely it was someone between the inbox check collector and the check depositer; or someone who could have accessed the checks between the inbox and the bank depository, same at the bank. A small group, unless the public had access, in which case the apartment owners likely hope they have adequate E&O insurance...
Gorc
Sun, Aug 29, 2010 : 11:59 a.m.
The question of who the bad guys may never be known. It could be an employee of the association's management, or it could be an employee of the company that handles the electronic payment service (ACH debit for the monthly fees), or the electronic payment service data base was compromised by a hacker.
djm12652
Sun, Aug 29, 2010 : 11:25 a.m.
Did I miss something? How did the bad guys get their checking account information?
Sallyxyz
Sun, Aug 29, 2010 : 11:09 a.m.
What did the residents of the Saline complex do wrong? Nothing, from what I can see from this article. Is there information missing? What is the connection between the mystery shoppers (located elsewhere in the US) and the residents of this complex? The article states: "Now both the shopper and the Saline residents are victims of different aspects of the same scheme. Lupi said he is working with management at the complex to determine who had access to residents' checking information and that further investigation is needed." Further investigation is indeed needed. Is someone at the complex selling the residents' bank account information illegally to a scam outfit in Russia? I still don't see what the connection might be. Anyone who lives in a rental or condo complex pays rent or dues each month (mostly via a check) to the management. I think a lawsuit might be in order for the complex managers. The residents did nothing wrong, and going through the hassle and cost of setting up new accounts, not to mention potential compromised credit ratings, is something that they should be compensated for. I hope that AA.com follows up with a story on this and informs the public of exactly what happened, and who specifically at the complex is responsible, and hopefully arrested.
krc
Sun, Aug 29, 2010 : 10:34 a.m.
A bank in Russia!? That should have been the first clue.
LaMusica
Sun, Aug 29, 2010 : 10:12 a.m.
Ugh, yeah this is disconcerting since the residents didn't actually do anything to compromise themselves--somehow their information was hacked. But, I agree with you jcj, the Ill. man should have seen red flags all over that when it told him to send part of it to a bank in Russia...
Gorc
Sun, Aug 29, 2010 : 9:36 a.m.
@jjc155 - I do agree with you when some responds to one of these adds and they lose money, they don't get my sympathy either. Either their greed, stupidity, or both, is to blame.
Gorc
Sun, Aug 29, 2010 : 9:27 a.m.
@jjc155 - the local victims in Saline did not answer or respond to a posted internet scam. Their bank account information was compromised some where, were they had no control or knowledge of. These victims are not gullible people responding irresponsibly to internet adds. The common theme with stolen information is that they live in the same townhome complex. Somebody had access to their personal information and sold it at no fault of their own.
jjc155
Sun, Aug 29, 2010 : 9:16 a.m.
should say without being involved, jeez I'm having quite a morning, LOL
scooter dog
Sun, Aug 29, 2010 : 9:16 a.m.
If it sounds too good to be true then you need to walk away. I do not give ANY,ANY personel info to ANYBODY who calls on the phone or shows up at the door or sends me something in the mail. I also shred anything I throw away that has ANY,ANY personel info in /on it
jjc155
Sun, Aug 29, 2010 : 9:15 a.m.
disreagrd my last comment, re-read the article and the victims in Saline somehow had their account compromised with being actually involved ie: they did not respond to the ads on craiglist, etc.
jjc155
Sun, Aug 29, 2010 : 9:11 a.m.
While I feel symapthy for the victims I always come back to the same conclusion. If it seems to good to be true, welllllll it is. It not like there is no coverage of this kind of stuff, I see aleast one news article or news clip every couple of weeks on stuff like this.
Gorc
Sun, Aug 29, 2010 : 9:11 a.m.
Something else to be cautious with....if you receive one of these fraudulent checks and you ask your bank about it's authenticity, many times they can not give you an absolute yes or no. If possible you can only verify that information with the drawing bank. Banks typically place a two day float (hold) on checks that have a U.S. routing number. Sometimes the fraudulent checks have fictious routing numbers and they get stuck, revolving in the federal banks system for much more than two days. Eventually the Fed sends the check back to the bank of deposit as a "late return item". By the time the check is returned the victim has all ready wire the funds and the victim is on the hook for any negative balances it may caused in their account.
jcj
Sun, Aug 29, 2010 : 7:46 a.m.
"He submitted the information and received two checks with instructions to wire much of it to a bank in Russia while he kept a small percentage for himself, reports said" The word Russia should have put up a red flag for this Illinois man! If there were not so many gullible people I would not get so many get rich emails!
YpsiLivin
Sun, Aug 29, 2010 : 7:45 a.m.
This is what's known as an "advance-fee" scam. They're not just operated by "mystery shoppers." You can find these things on Craigslist all the time. About a month or so ago, there was a big story about a Russian phony check scam. The scam itself was a little different, but not by much. http://www.darkreading.com/database_security/security/attacks/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=226300183 Never accept checks that are written for more than the required payment. Never "refund" or "advance" cash to someone because they over-wrote a check. On CL, the normal MO is to put a deposit down on something (house, apartment, car...) and then back out of the deal right away and ask for a refund by check. Never wire money to someone you do not know personally, and especially not if the recipient is overseas. (Once the money is wired, it's gone, period.) Before depositing the first check you receive from someone for whom you have done work, verify the authenticity of the check with the bank and do not write drafts on the deposit until it has cleared. Out-of-state checks can take several days; foreign checks, postal money orders and cashiers' checks can take several WEEKS. The Post Office has an online tool you can use to verify the authenticity of a postal money order. The issuing bank would have to verify the authenticity of a cashiers' check or business check.