Tennesseans warned to avoid secret shopper scam

The state labor department is warning Tennesseans about a scam that advises consumers to cash fake checks for services as a secret shopper.
The fake check has the name and address of the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development and instructs the recipient to cash the check. The recipient is then told to use part of the cash for shopping purchases, keep a portion and then send the rest by a wire transfer to a contact in London.
The department said in a news release that it has received dozens of calls from people who received the checks, typically in the amount of $3,400 and appearing to be an unemployment benefit check.
Jeff Hentschel, a spokesman for the labor department, said so far nine people have attempted to cash the checks, but there may be hundreds more checks that have been sent.
“We really believe this is the tip of the iceberg,’’ he said.
The checks look similar to real unemployment benefit checks that the department sends out, including the same state seal, commissioner’s signature and routing code. Hentschel said because of the economic recession, the department has been sending out over 100,000 real unemployment benefit checks a week, making it an easy target to copy.
Hentschel said the department learned about the scam a couple of weeks ago when people started calling to verify the checks’ authenticity. He said the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has started looking into the scam, which he said likely has connections outside of the state and possibly outside of the United States.
The recipient is told to cash the check, make a purchase for about $100 at places like Walmart, Kmart or Best Buy and then provide an evaluation of their experience. Then they are told to evaluate Western Union and wire a portion of the money overseas to the marketing company, Hentschel said.
Sometimes the victim doesn’t know for several days that the check is not real and can incur bank charges or that they can be held liable for the entire amount.
Hentschel said the victims targeted are not necessarily unemployed, but in this economy, he said this type of scam unfortunately preys on people who need the money.