Success!
I have been trying to follow one of the confidence games from start to finish without risk to my own bank accounts or lying to anyone. I think that we need to keep our pretexting down to a minimum. I cannot remember lies well enough to do this.
I do some local mystery shopping – the money is not great, but I can get a free fast food meal and get paid $5-$7 for it. Back to the issue – I am registered with one of the bigger mystery shopping “networks” so the following was not unreasonable.
On May 7, I came home in the early afternoon to find that DHL had left a Sorry We Missed You notice on my door. I was a bit annoyed since DHL has my signature on file, but I called to complain (UPS and FedEx never give you phone numbers with a live person). The DHL delivery guy came back an hour later – he apologized for his brain lapse. The package label [computer generated] is dated May 2. I tracked the movement of the package:
Tracking history Help
Date and Time Status Location
5/7/2007 6:05 pm Shipment delivered. East Windsor, NJ
11:27 am Delivery attempted; recipient not home East Windsor, NJ
6:56 am With delivery courier. East Windsor, NJ
5/5/2007 8:38 am Arrived at DHL facility. East Windsor, NJ
4:23 am Depart Facility Wilmington - Clinton Field, OH
2:01 am In transit. Wilmington - Clinton Field, OH
5/3/2007 3:39 am Depart Facility Wilmington - Clinton Field, OH
1:16 am
Transit through DHL facility Wilmington - Clinton Field, OH
12:33 am Shipment on Hold. Wilmington - Clinton Field, OH
5/2/2007 10:57 pm Depart Facility Toronto, Canada
10:24 pm Processed at DHL Location. Toronto, Canada
9:00 pm Picked Up by DHL.
[Note to readers: This was a beautiful table in the original.]
The package was a letter sent through Purolator, which was transferred to DHL. The package was sent from W NORTH YORK, ON M3H 1T1 Canada. The phone number listed is a fax machine. I did not check to see if this is a real address. [Aside to Legal: If you think that posting a criminal’s name and address is wrong, please go ahead and delete the details.]
Keep in mind that I do legitimate mystery shopping, so the setup did not seem too farfetched. The contents of the letter (from CompanyEvaluationService) reads:
The bottom of the letter has the logos of nine of the best-known names in merchandising. Nice touch.**** ****
Quebec, H3G 2A9
RE: MICHAEL HARRIS Position: Customer Service Evaluator
Rep ID#: C.S.E 101
CONGRATULATIONS! With reference to our earlier correspondence via email, I am pleased to inform you that you have been selected to become one of our representatives in your region.
Please be informed that there is one probationer training assignment that you are required to complete within 48 hrs. This training assignment takes about 2 hours to complete and is a PAID training. Training pay rate remains $120 per day. The aim of this training assignment is for you to familiarize yourself with the practical feel of what investigative shopping entails. Please note that enclosed is a CASHIER' S CHECK in the amount of$980 USD.
This assignment has been put together to be completed at any Wal-Mart location or Money Gram store. The objective of this assignment will be to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of a payment system called "Money Gram" which is available at any Wal-Mart store or local Money Gram agents.
You are required to cash the enclosed CASHIER'S CHECK at your local bank or check cashing facilities and take the cash, minus your fee(s) and do the following:
You will pose as a potential customer sending a Money Gram payment to *** *****, a relative of yours in ****, Ontario, Canada. The fund needed to complete this transaction assignment has been arranged and has been enclosed with this letter. For our verification of assignment completion, please call the number above and also e-mail our office at ******** to provide the Money Gram Reference Code immediately after completion. Below is the breakdown of the attached fund:
Amount Sent------------------------------------------------------$980.00
1-day Evaluation training pay ---------------------------------$ 120.00
Service Charge by Money Gram -------------------------------$ 30.00
Required fund to be sent ---------------------------------------$ 830.00
In the process of this evaluation assignment, please take note of the quality of service in order to be able to fill out a fair and unbiased opinion on the Customer Service Evaluation Tool (CSET) form enclosed with this letter. This form should be faxed back to our office after the completion of your assignment.
Also attached is a copy of the weekly time schedule request sheet, which will need to be filled out and faxed back to our office so that we may know your available hours for the upcoming week.
HAVE FUN!! HAVE FUN!! HAVE FUN!! HAVE FUN!! HAVE FUN!! HAVE FUN!!
The tone of the letter and the instructions are all consistent with the better mystery shopping companies. The attachments are a nice touch.
This morning, I went to my bank and talked to the Teller Coordinator (this used to be the Head Teller, but in the politically-correct world, someone objected to it.). The Teller Coordinator examined the cashier’s check and suspected by the feel of the document that it was not real. She called the ‘issuing’ bank in Maine and confirmed that it was not real. The person at the issuing bank knew the account number before the Teller Coordinator provided it.
I could have deposited the cashier’s check into my account – no one would have questioned it. In four to five days, it would have come back as a non-existent account. And my bank would have charged it back to me. The instructions indicated that I only had 48 hours in which to complete the transaction. I would have sent the money away several days before my bank learned that the cashier’s check was not good. Also, the Money Gram was to check on Wal-Mart or Money Gram stores – where the staff would not be as knowledgeable as the bank tellers.
The cost of this confidence game is high. This was a well-written, well-executed con. It is easy for people to fall for it. I am glad that I was able to follow this one through.
I contact the RCMP and sent them a fax with all the materials.
The following website has some interesting tools. http://www.rcmp.ca/00000/index_e.htm#reporting.