I recently saw an ad in the Brandon Sun classified ads looking for Mystery or "Secret Shoppers". The ads have been placed in papers around Manitoba and other provinces.
After visiting the website that was listed in the add (
http://www.cmarresearch.com ), I recieved a package in the mail.
The "Mystery Shopper" scam is one that I had heard about in the past, and although there are legitimate companies in this field, I proceeded with skepticism.
In the package I recieved was a letter, which was very legitimate in appearance. It was from a company called "Consumer Market Research", and it informed me that I had been selected to become one of their representatives in the Brandon region. I was invited to take part in their study called "Survey4cash", a market research project set up by the company to collect consumer information on Western Union. At this point, I realized that it was a scam.
Enclosed in the package was a very real bank draft from CIBC for $2,500.00. My instructions in the letter were to cash the bank draft, keep $200.00 for my payment for taking part in the project, and to sent $2175.00 to someone named "Macaulay Lawrence" in Toronto. There are very detailed documents involved with this scam, including complete survey questionnaire sheets, opinion report forms, and detailed, professional-looking instructions on how to be a good mystery shopper. I immediately called the RCMP and reported this company.
This ad was listed in the Brandon Sun classifieds for some time, and I wanted to alert others who, like myself, may have responded to this ad. Here is the key information:
-The phony company calls itself "Consumer Market Research". Letter appears to have professional and legitimate letterhead.
-Address and Phone number for the company are listed as being located in Edmonton, however the fax number is a Toronto number.
-Website was listed as
http://www.cmarresearch.com , however it is now down and may have changed to a different address
-Bank draft is an official CIBC document in appearance
-The ad for "mystery shoppers" was also listed in many regional newspapers
I hate to see innocent people taken advantage of by scams such as this, so please tell your friends about this. I'm sure there are many potential victims of this misreable scam in Brandon and regional parts of Manitoba.