Richard Mason Synovate Groups Focus Group SCAM - Western Union Fraud -- will take your money and run Cincinnati, Ohio

I fell for the oldest trick in the book. I am a member of several legit focus groups so when I got an email saying it paid $250 to do a secret shopper type survey of course I thought it was normal. What I didn't know is that you should never ever trust someone asking you to send things through Western Union to someone you've never met.

I was sent a check for $2250 and asked to send most of it through a Western Union branch and take notes on the attendant's "smartness". That should've been my first red flag, but as I was in need of money I ignored the nagging feeling that something wasn't right. Then after I sent it, I felt sick to my stomach that I was going to owe my bank $2000 when the check bounced. But then I got an email from Richard asking me to cancel the transfer and then deposit most of the money into a bank account for G Olmeda. Fortunately instead I decided to put keep the money so when the check bounced I would be covered, which it did two days later. I don't know type of laundering fraud scheme they are trying to pull but beware!

Richard Mason is an evil, evil scam artist and will take your money and run.

I hope this will prevent others from foolishly falling for an extremely common scam like I almost did.