Work-at-home scam features diabolical twist

It’s once again time to get out the big Northeast CONTACT megaphone and loudly announce to all Maine residents the following important message: If anyone sends you a check and wants you to deposit and wire or mail back a portion of it, it’s a scam and you are being ripped off at least to the extent of the funds you send off in the mail.

There are hundreds of different and diabolical variations of this nefarious scheme. The check you receive looks good and deposits well. It is worthless and soon you will hear from your bank wanting you to make good on the check. Since you were the last one to have custody of the check instrument, you will be scrutinized carefully as being a possible accomplice to kiting a fake check.

Many Maine residents are receiving these pretty poison checks every day. Seniors and people with disabilities are exceptionally vulnerable to these schemes, but many clever, clear-thinking and otherwise rational Mainers are being duped as well.

Every day at our agency, the caseworkers on the phone are heard raising their voices and pleading with the person on the other end. “It is a scam. The check you hold is bogus. It’s a fake. Do not deposit it or it will bounce.”

Often the person on the other end is not all that convinced and still is focused on having hit the jackpot. The pain and suffering that result from falling for this oh-so-real-looking check are immense. Sometimes it is the gullibility of our citizens that wins out; often it is the greed. Either way, honest consumers are being separated from their hard-earned money and those funds are never, ever coming back. If you wire or mail funds beyond American borders as payment for a portion of a bogus check received, the chance of any recovery of your money is exactly zero.

Here is one of thousands of new variations of an old theme with these worthless checks. Mystery shoppers are individuals paid by large and small corporations to shop anonymously to determine the value and the shopping experience. While there are some legitimate firms out there, the chance of having all of your expenses paid while shopping and dining with the rich and famous is extremely remote. When the mystery-shopper concept is pitched by the bad guys as possible employment to struggling Mainers looking for work, the ads can seem very attractive. The sky is promised, but the assignments pay little, perhaps as low as $10 to $20 each.

Additionally, your expenses will need to come out of those funds. Sometimes if you are selected for the position, you have to pay a small administrative or startup fee to the company. The new wrinkle is that the new “employee,” within a week or two, will receive materials in the mail: time sheets, codes of conduct, along with a surprise check for a thousand dollars or two.

It seems there is a new mystery-shopper work assignment enclosed that will take a couple of hours to complete and must be done in the next three days. The pay is $115 an hour for two hours’ work. Here is the catch: Cash the check, take out your earnings, and wire the balance back to the company. Yes, the check received is bogus. So when the “new employee” deposits the $1,000 check, pays himself $230, then wires the balance of $770 back to the company, he can then kiss that $770 goodbye forever. It is his responsibility to make that check good. Also, the $230 he paid himself is worthless. To complete this one-two punch of being ripped off, any money he paid to the mystery-shopper company to get enrolled is also gone forever.

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. This is good advice in any consumer-related transaction. Stop. Think it over. Talk to family and friends before moving ahead. Remember that the check you are holding in your hands, which came from out of the blue to your mailbox, no matter how pretty or official-looking, is worthless.

Tear it up, throw it in the trash or wood stove, turn on the television and enjoy a Red Sox victory. The check? Forget about it. The Red Sox are for real. The check is not.

Consumer Forum is a collaboration of the Bangor Daily News and Northeast CONTACT, Maine’s membership-funded nonprofit consumer organization. Individual and business memberships are available at modest rates. Interested and motivated prospective volunteers are always needed and welcome to apply to help with our mission. For assistance with consumer-related issues, including consumer fraud and identity theft, or for information, write: Consumer Forum, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor ME 04402-1329.