Emerald Marketing Research attention: mystery shopper is money scam New York New York

I recieved a letter from Emerald Market Research in NY,Ny.They stated they I was selected to participate in a paid consumer research program in my area. It was on a partime basis but for a few it would become a full time positon for a selected few who were able to distinguish in the course of the program.

after the training assignment my salary would be increased from 400.00wk to 600.00wk. they enclosed a check for 2,950.00. My assignment was to take $70.00 and evaluate K-mart,Wal-mart,Lowes or Home depot. The second assignment was to go to western union and transfer 2,650.00 to a training specialist in Ny. then to contact the accounts manager with reciepts and and fax the reciepts and customer evaluation form and acceptance if I wanted the position. I was supposed to keep $100.00 in training pay and keep my purchases of $70.00. they even included the service charge for the transfer.

I deposited the check. the bank said the funds wouldnt be available to me for five days but I could check. They were available the next day. I waited one more day and checked my account and the money had a hold on it. I called the no.that was given to me for conformation reciepts. A man answered, It was the man whom wrote the letter. I said I wanted to do this but funds were on hold. He told me to try another branch or try the bank tomorrow. I went into the bank and had a customer rep help me try to figure out what had happened.

he looked it up and then called account dept to see what happened they said all they could tell him is that it was being retuned. He told me new of scams like this and should report it to the police. I can't believe I almost fell for this. If I had taken the money out yesterday they would have made off with cash and I'd owe the back the whole amt. BEWARE!!!!!!!!

Dawn
Woburn, Massachusetts
U.S.A.