Mystery Shopper John Terry, George Harrison, John Kehoe, Mystery Shopper scam Holts Summit , Maryland

   I received the same letter and bogus money orders as well; actually in September 11, the anniversary of 9/11.  What they are instructing you to do is hidden under the guise of a myserty shop. They are telling to to go to a bank, defraud the bank (a national security institution) with conterfeit money orders, and launder money to someone in another country. Since the money orders are United States Post Office Money orders and their are serial numbers on the money orders, the federal government is involved at this point. This isn't a "scam"- this is a very serious fraud and cyberterrorism, since you are notified by e-mail-a crime.
   If you follow the instructions, you could lose more than $2000-you could possibly be charged with money-laundering and passing counterfeit money orders, not to mention purposely defrauding a bank. Of course you could argue that you didn't know the money orders were fake, but federal agents have no sense of humor, and I'm not about to be considered a 'partner in crime.' The fact is that you still did it.
    A friend in law enforcement suggested that I take them to the sheriff, to let them know that this was going on in the area, so I took them to the sheriff. This is also to protect you and your innocence.  
   So if you receive this letter, please do you duty as a patriotic American and report this to law enforcement officials. The FBI has an entire section of Forensic Science for cyberterrorism. The arm to investigate 'cyberterrorism' with tax dollars wasn't set up on a whim. It was set up to protect US citizens. Who knows who these people are and why they are collecting this money. 

The real key to the scam is them getting a valid MoneyGram or Western Union transaction ID from you. Once they have that they can pick up the money ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD there is an office. They may use a US address but it's a fake used to build trust.

If you want to have fun with these jokers just insist on sending the money to a SPECIFIC office. If they go for it give them a fake transaction ID.

I just received another of these Mystery shopper scam packets. It had another money order in it for $960 dollars. I was suppose to go to Walmart and spend $30 and take $120 for myself and wire the $830 to some unknown area. This is there second attempt at trying to get some money. The first time my bank found them as fraud. These peolpe are relentless and they use fake money orders, which if you look at it you can tell they are fake. It is so sad that these low lifes have to resort to this type of job to get easy money.  If you get these fake money orders my suggestion is to report it to the post office and please do not try to deposit it because your bank will freeze your account and you will have to go through so much to get your own money out of your bank. If it is to good to be true it is not true. Do not fall for this scam. If we stop it they will hopefully leave us alone.

" I would like to know - how do I report this?  The money orders really do look real.  "

Of course they look real.  They are computer generated copies of real money orders. 
Don't waste your time.   These scams are based offshore and the Moneygram transfers are untraceable.   The scammers know this and law enforcement knows this.   If you think think that they're going to put together an international task force to find people all over the world who are sending fake checks to gullible Americans, you're mistaken. 

"Can someone give some advice as to where to go to turn them in so that others will
not be scammed into this and lose almost $2,000? "

Turning them in will not help others.   Just shred them.  Think of this as being like the Nigerian email scams.   The FBI isn't searching coffee shops in Nigeria for those scammers either.   

My story is similar except my contact was John Kehoe.  I received an envelope with USPS Priorty Mail postage ($4.95) from a person in Keller, TX whom I do not know.

Inside was a very similar letter.  There were 2 postal money orders for 933.50 each.  Instructions to cash them at my bank, keep $200 for my salary ad evaluate Walmart (spelled Wall-mart), purchase an item not more than $50 for my personal use and proceed to customer service at same Walmart where a Money Gram is available.  Then the letter says to send the balance of the money via Money Gram money transfer to an address in the letter which is in Chicago.

The name on the letter is John Kehoe and email is john_kehoe2@aol.com.
It ends, "Yours Faithfully," John Kehoe.


I would like to know - how do I report this?  The money orders really do look real. 

Can someone give some advice as to where to go to turn them in so that others will
not be scammed into this and lose almost $2,000? 

I was contacted by email from a George Harrison that I was selected to be a mystery shopper. I had to confirm, which I did. He contacted me and said they would send me an envelope from the United States post office with two money orders worth $980 each. I received the envelope and inside was two money orders from the United States post office.  These money orders looked legitimate. You can not tell they are fake. I deposited them into my bank not knowing if they were real or not. My bank immediately spotted they were fake and put a hold on them. I went into my bank today and reported this to the bank manager. He informed the corporate office of the bank. I reported all this information to the FBI to investigate these people. My package came from a Peter Urik out of Pennsylvania but the post office stamp came from Illinois. There are so many signs this stuff is fake. Be careful and do not cah the money orders. report this ASAP. These people are scums and they will rip you off. Lets all work together and catch them before more innocent people get caught up in this just like us. Please report it and the more reports they get they will have more leads to work with. Good luck!

Shred the money orders and then contact the sender and tell them that you never received a letter and to send another one.  If they do send another letter with money orders, repeat this process until they no longer respond.  It costs them postage and irreplacable fake money orders.

    The only thing that I find scary about this scam is that there are people who believe that someone whom they've never met, would send them nearly $2,000 in valid money orders. 

   Here's the deal.   The money orders are phony, but they are good enough to pass initial inspection at your bank.   They will come back as phony when they are presented at the bank of origin (which could take up to 10 business days).   What the scammer knows and you do not, is that the bank (by federal regulation) is obligated to make money from these deposits available to you BEFORE the money orders reach the originating bank.   Not knowing any better, you might think that the money orders cleared and you withdraw the money.     The mystery shopping is just a front.   The scammer's real payoff is when you send that untraceable Moneygram with real cash.  In the end, the scammer makes off with $1740 and you later find out that the money orders were bogus and have to pay the bank back.

  It's a pretty simple scam.   All the scammer has to do is to make you believe that any company would send you $2K without even knowing if you are a real person.  It's just not logical and has to fall under the "too good to be true" category.  

  You should just shred the checks and not have any further contact with these people.