Woman avoids scam by noticing the red flags

PORTLAND, Ore. - A Portland woman says scammers trolled her resume posted on Craigslist and made her believe they had a job for her.

It turned out to be one of those mystery shopper schemes.

Luckily, Lynda Fanning figured it out on her own before she lost a penny and contacted KATU News so others could be warned. She said it all seemed so legitimate except for a few red flags.

Fanning uses Craigslist for her paralegal job search and has had some luck. So she wasn't suspicious about a recent email claiming there was a job for her as a mystery shopper.

"I have a friend who does mystery shopping, and I know what mystery shoppers do. So I thought it was legit," she says. "Then they sent me another email giving a complete job description and how much I would get paid and what I needed to do."

The first red flag was how much they offered to pay her, which was $300.

"That's an awful lot for a mystery shopper," she says.

The company asked her to pick two Western Union locations.

"And then today I receive in the mail this envelope," which was red-flag No. 2. The postage on the envelope was not stamped in the United States, and the company's name was misspelled. Additionally, the return address was incomplete, missing the state and ZIP code.

Inside was the third red flag.

"As soon as I got the check (I knew) this isn't right," says Fanning. The check was for $3,900 and she was expecting $300.

She quickly Googled the bank, Lockheed Federal Credit Union, called it and found that while it was a real cashier's check it was fraudulent.

"They washed it somehow and put my name in it," Fanning says. "I'm pretty sure they wanted me to run this check through my checking account and then withdraw the money out, go to the Western Union, make two transactions as a mystery shopper and send them the money, and I would have been out $3,900."

Now she's worried other online job hunters have been targeted, too, and hopes her story stops someone else from making an easy mistake.

"That's a lot of money to be out of especially when you're unemployed," she says.

Although all the correspondence gave the offer legitimacy, she says she never talked to anyone, which was another red flag.

Fanning gave all the emails and the check to the bank so it can begin an investigation.