Toshiba Mystery Shopper scam

Ignore all the rest of the technical jargon, it all boils down to this:

i.e after the deduction of your survey payment i.e 10% from every amount received from us via UPS to carry out all the surveys.

Which translates as: They'll send you fake checks or money orders, you cash them, do a "survey" of Western Union or other money sending facility, or in rarer cases buy goods to send, the checks/money orders will bounce, and you'll be left out of pocket and possibly in trouble.

If you look at the Toshiba web site, you won't find it listed in their vacancies:
http://www.toshiba.com/tai/careers/careers.jsp

> From: [email protected]
> Subject: SELF SHOPPING WITH $100
> Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2008 22:02:07 +0100
>
> Dear Sir/Ma,
> Toshiba Care Evaluation Survey department in our UK OFFICE have a job opening for the position of Mystery Shopper officer.Would you like to work form your home and get paid weekly? We are offering this position to all interested applicants within the US,UK,CANADA AND ALL EUROPEAN COUNTRIES.Toshiba care has a department that conduct surveys and evaluate other companies that requires our services.We get hired to go to other peoples companies and act like customers in order to know how the staffs are handling their services in relation to their customers.Once we have a contract to do,we will inform you as the MYSTERY SHOPPER and you would be directed to the company or outlet using the funds delivered to you to complete the job i.e purchasing and requiring services.
>
> You are to write a comment on the staffs activities and give a detailed record of your experience.Mystery shopping involves providing anonymous feedback to companies about the customer experience at their locations. Companies use mystery shopping programs for many reasons, but all programs involves evaluating to know if the company's standards meets the services rendered.During a typical mystery shop, a mystery shopper will make observations at a specific store, restaurant, or other type of location, while blending in like an average customer. They will then report their observations/Experience Exchanged through an email contact given to you below this email.
>
> Customer Service Evaluation Tool (CSET)………search for this and FAQ
> 1. The date and time of the pre-visit phone call
> 2. The name of the store on each side of the store visited
> 3. Number of employees in the store on entering
> 4. How long it takes before the mystery shopper is greeted
> 5. The name of the employee(s)
> 6. Whether or not the greeting is friendly
> 7. The questions asked by the shopper to find a suitable product
> 8. The types of products shown
> 9. If or how the employee attempted to close the sale
> 10. Whether the employee invited the shopper to come back to the store
> 11. Cleanliness of store and store associates
> 12. Speed of service
> 13. Compliance with company standards relating to service, store appearance, and grooming/presentation
>
> As a mystery shopper you are require to complete evaluations in a variety of outlets (e.g. high street stores, car showrooms, banks, money transfer stores and building societies etc.). You are expected to enter our clients' outlets as a customer and get information of the entire process using the aforementioned and more details and complete a report of the evaluation. The data is then reviewed and analyzed before quantitative and qualitative statistical [analysis] reports on the data are then returned to the client company that enables measurement against the previously defined criteria.
>
> Benefits of Mystery-Shopping!
> 1. Get paid to shop.
> 2. Be your own boss and keep what you buy.
> 3. Flexible hours to fit your lifestyle.
> 4. Earn within $200-$250 per hour for your opinion.
> 5. Spend more quality time with your children / family.
>
>
> It's an Ideal job for students, Stay at home moms, retirees or anyone who wants to make a little extra money. It's fun and rewarding. You are never obligated to accept an assignment. You do not need previous shopping experience.
>
> If you are interested, kindly get back to us with information required below so that we can add your mailing address to our Regional database.
>
> First name. ..................
> Last name ....................
> Address Line 1...............
> Address Line 2...............
> City........................
> State........................
> Zip/Postal code..............
> Home phone...................
> Cell phone...................
> Nationality..................
> Email ................................
>
>
> YOUR PREFFERED MODE OF COMMUNICATION IS EITHER BY PHONE OR BY EMAILso your response to this email is needed ,so that we can reconfirm your mailing address details we have in our database.We will be updating you as soon as the payment is being sent to you and you will be directed on what to do and where to evaluate during your survey i.e after the deduction of your survey payment i.e 10% from every amount received from us via UPS to carry out all the surveys.All other Instructions will be sent out to you as soon as Evaluation will commences A swift acknowledgment of the receipt of this email will be appreciated.
>
> Please send your reply using the email address below for your reply if interested to participate in this job opening i.e [email protected]
>
> Thanks for Your Total Understanding.
>
> Human Resources Manager
>
> Peter Feng
> [email protected]

Hi Benjamin I read with interest your blogg as this company does not opperate in the normal way of Mystery Shopping Companies.

I have this morning Wed 01/10/08 received a Barclays cheque for Euro 3,700. This came in a plain dl brown evelope. There was no compliment slip or letter attached, alarm bells really ringing now.

The cheque is from joint admministrators of MK Airlines Ltd Euro trading acoount and has 3 named peopleon it.

I have googled Mk Airlines and this looks on the surface as being a somewhat ligit company albeit that they are now in Addministration with KPL of Tumbridge Wells as the Addministators. The 3 named people on the cheque are listed as accountants with KPL. However the cheque is signed by another person, I Know companies only have a few employees who have the authority to sign cheques so this may not be out of place.

However what have these above companies to do with a company calling itself Toshiba Msytery Shopping. I'm continnuing my search into the legallity/illegallity of said companies and will post bloggs on my progress.

I do actually work for a couple of very Ligitimate Mystery Shopping Companies and have never been payed upfront for unammed projects or taken on to their books without an interview or checks made on my self.

Dupped

Hi dupped, and welcome

It looks like the airline secured funding to continue in June. The most likely scenario is that the cheque is fake or stolen, perhaps the best course would be to contact the administrators. Out of interest, where was the cheque mailed from?

They probably have nothing to do with the "Toshiba" company. It's standard practice for these types of scammers to use fake/stolen cheques or money orders.

Hi Benjamin

One of the first things I looked for when receiving the cheque was the Post mark on the envelope. Unfotunately however the post office must be running out of ink as it is totaly illegible.

I have contacted Barclays Bank and they inform me to take the cheque to my bank and explain the situation. My bank will then contact Barclays with out putting it through my account (thus not making me implisit in any fraud).
I will then be notified if the check is fruadulant or OK. I very much think its the former but at least I am flagging the fraud up.

Dupped

Hi Duped.

It certainly sounds like it will be a fake to me, problem is you may get provisional clearance in 5 days which makes it appear the cheque was good, it can take many weeks or even months for the cheque to be declared fraudulent, at that stage the person who deposited the cheque is responsible for it.

If you got a cheque for over 3K from a Mystery shopping company on line you dont need to wait for the bank to reject it before you know its a scam.

Trust us, the cheque is no good, if you still had it I would have suggested writing fake on it and keeping it as a souvenir and reminder

Hi Ralph

Thanks for your sugestion of writting across the cheque FAKE. But I think this would be to polite a word on it

Dupped

Thanx to this forum i was probably spared jail,i also received this same email & thought all was genuine coz it's only two weeks ago when i bought a Toshiba dvd player & signed up online for offers from Toshiba.
I got the same Barclays cheque for Euro 3700.Since i have worked in Accounts before,i carefully looked at the cheque & realised it belongs to MK Airlines so i googled them & got there contact details.I spoke to one of the administrators who told me it's a real scam which the Police know about as the cheque book from which these cheques are being issued is stolen.

Hi Airforce 1,

Glad to hear we were able to help you.

If you have any questions please ask, otherwise there is lots to be learnt by reading around in our forums

Hi Airforce 1,

Glad to hear we were able to help you.

If you have any questions please ask, otherwise there is lots to be learnt by reading around in our forums

Cheers.I was 30 minutes from going to cash the cheque,i can't imagine the embarrasment i would have felt had i been handcuffed.

When i look back i feel i was so stupid to have gotten so excited & responded to those emails coz the grammar used in them shows the people behind them are really daft.My suspicions arose immediately i opened the brown envelope,i first looked at the bad handwriting on the envelope & like someone above has said,there was no accompanying note or anything to say where the cheque had come from or where the envelope should be sent back to if undelivered so that is what prompted me to google ''Toshiba Mystery Shopper'' to see if this was a scam as it was beginning to appear & i luckily found myself here & from then i was now 80% sure it was a scam so i now called MK airlines & my fears were confirmed.
Later that same day,i found another email this time from a different company but prominent again was the same broken English so i knew it was definately the same fools so i wrote a very strong reply to them to try their tricks elsewhere & they have not replied or sent anything else since.

I wonder if the Police can be able to get finger prints on the cheque besides mine so that the fools can be traced,they probably are on the Police database already.In one email i got after i confirmed having received the cheque,the instructions said that i should have spent about £100 on ''mystery shopping'' in a TESCO store(not even a specific store as if they don't need feedback) then next i should have gone to some place with Western Union & sent £2700 to an address in Manchester,UK ( to someone who was gonna ''graduate'' from my level since i was 'a beginner'),maybe i should go to the Police so that they check out the address,i think i will do it without much hesitation.

Cheers guys.

The person who sent you the check was probably not the scammer. It was most likely someone "hired" by the scammer to print and send out checks to the real victims. That person surely knows that what s/he is doing is illegal, but the lure of money can overcome twinges of conscience a lot of times.

Unfortunately, getting law enforcement interested in going after the person can be frustrating, especially as your local police don't see any victim. You didn't cash the check, so you aren't out any money, nor is the company whose check was used.

If you're not too embarrassed to talk about it, you might contact your local newspaper or TV station to get the word out about these scams. The information needs to get out frequently in order to get through to some people.

Titania is very correct, notifying the police is not a bad thing as it helps with their crime stats but there is little chance they will investigate let alone catch the scammer.

Public awareness is our best tool and as Titania also suggested the local radio stations and newspapers are a good way to get the public educated.

Even by telling your family and friends about it will do some good and may be enough to prevent somebody else from being scammed.

Hi all

I contacted the police my self yesterday, but because the first email was from out side of the UK ie Hong Kong they do not now get involved if there are no losses incured. This being because it is allmost impossible to bring proscecutions on scams that originate from other countries.

They did say however that I should contact the administrators of the airline because the cheque had been stolen and they would probaly be in contact with the police themselfs.

I have also emailed the scamers telling them that i did not wish to be part of their scam and that I was in the process of reporting them. Like Airforce 1, I have had no further reply from them (Strange that) lol

Dupped

Hi guys,thanx for your advice & contributions to this issue,i agree,going to the Police will be a waste of time,i will write to our local paper,they are really good with such stories.

because the first email was from out side of the UK ie Hong Kong they do not now get involved

You don't need to be in Hong Kong to open a yahoo.hk account. Unfortunately the scammers are all too aware of this, obnviously the Police are not.

The adress in Manchester will have been fake, the payment can be picked up anywhere in the world. I would be interested in the name you were asked to send the money to, in case it links with any other scams.