Scams and scam busting

Do you ever find yourself in a situation and wonder how it came to this? That kind of reflection put us in the middle of an international scam today. Let me back track a minute.

Trying to build a commission only business has been a struggle at times. Some time back, I found myself thinking about the things we sacrifice that most people take for granted: Sometimes necessities like new tires instead of the cast offs at the local tire store... some times eating out: going out only on "special occasions" that our kids spring for in place of buying meaningless gifts (or when Dad's buying).

After several years of retail and being judged by mystery shoppers, I knew that such services are legitimate. So during one of my moments of weakness and reflection, I thought, "hey, maybe I can get a free meal once in a while by being a mystery shopper." I signed up for one of those services. Never heard any more of it until today.

While I was eating breakfast with my Dad, my bride called to say she got a check for almost $5K in the mail. I thought it must be one of those "pre-bate" checks. You know a promotional "check" to make you spend thousands more on a car or something ... I told her to leave it and I would check things out when I got home.

Here's where the real fun begins ... the "cynic" in me reared his head. Some of you already know, I am the guy who looks up your e-mail forwards on Snopes.com. My Dad, who ironically is one of the most trusting people I know, taught me two lessons as child ... If something claims to be historically based, look it up, and learn to distinguish the facts, from the fiction. The second, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. So from those two lessons and an inquisitive mind, I developed my share of skepticism ... OK some of you are saying I got your share, too. Well I digress ... back to the tale.

The cover letter looked official enough. Professional logo. I Googled it ... I recommend that highly when starting your queries. I found the company the letter purported to come from is a legitimate enterprise ... based in London, UK ... in our internationalized world that was enough to convince me. I was still uneasy. Didn't want to deposit a check only to have it bounce later. (As an afterthought, I googled the address on the letter head, it is an apt in NY.)

So, off to the BBB website, then Snopes. Snopes re-inforced the idea that this could be a hoax of an expensive nature. But, the sadist reared his head. I had to beat this dead horse. I Googled the maker of the check. They're a window sales and installation company in Dallas, TX. So, now we have a company based in NY (the cover letter), using a pseudonym (the window installer) and banking in TX.

The final piece to examine, the envelope, brought even more evidence some one was trying to play me: no return address and post marked in Canada. When I searched the "zip" code on the post mark, it came up linked to a variety of postal scams dating back to 2006.

Guess I will have to find alternate ways of getting that meal with my wife I was looking for. But, I am thankful God wired me the way he did. Other wise, we could have been out several hundred or even a few thousand dollars. The next time you're tempted to send me a hard to believe forward, please do. I enjoy a good hunt!

PEACE!