Former resident falls prey to shopper scam
By BARRY HALVORSON bhalvorson@journal-spectator.com

Basing a consumer scam on hiring someone to be a "secret shopper" is not a new idea.

Former area resident Tabatha Goad, now living in Idaho, said she was victimized by a similar scam last year.

"And we're now just getting over it," she said. "It happened in October and I had to go to the bank and take out a personal loan of $2,000. I had to put up my car as collateral. And since it was right before Christmas, I had to take back a number of gifts for my kids because we couldn't afford them."

Unlike the local version that offered a number to call in a classified advertisement, Goad said she was contacted by the scammers directly.

"I'd just posted something on Monster.com before they called me," she said. "I guess they got my information from there or some other job search engine."

During that initial phone call, Goad said she'd look into the offer once she received the paperwork promised by the company, which listed itself as Zagat Survey. She said she should have been suspicious when the paperwork was sent from New York State while all of the other company contacts were from Canada, including a mailing addresses in Winnipeg and Victoria, British Columbia.

She said the plan proposed by the company was for her to receive a check, save a portion for her own expenses and pay and then go to Wal-Mart and send the rest by MoneyGram to a Canadian address.

"I had my bank check things out and they said the check they sent was real and I contacted the Better Business Bureau about the company," she said.

"And it checked out. I was told later the people apparently tapped into the real company's computer system and set things up so any calls were directed to them. I actually didn't find out there was anything wrong until I went to a credit union to set up a second account and they discovered the problem."

Things could actually have been much worse for Goad. She said she actually received three checks from the company. In addition to the one for $1,950 she cashed and sent, there was a second for $2,300 and another for $1,900 she didn't use.

Because the materials crossed state lines when they were shipped from New York to Idaho, the FBI was called in to help investigate. She said that because the operators were from Canada, the FBI told her there was actually little law enforcement could do toward despite her having saved the Money- Gram invoice and reference number.

"The FBI told me not to cash the other checks," Goad said. "When they called me back, I told them I was on to them and they immediately hung up the phone. I tried the number for them I'd used before and it never worked again after that conversation."