Southern Caltrans Co., Anthony P. Johnson, Consumer Service Evaluator, Shoppers Select Trial Assignment, Beaverton Oregon

 I received a letter in the mail from Southern Caltrans Co. including a check for more than $1,900 saying that I had been chosen to participate in a paid Mystery Shoppers Program with instructions to deposit the money then request my first assignment.

I immediately became suspicious, so I began researching online and here is what I found out. First of all I could not find any information regarding the specific business name and the website that I was directed to to activate the check was extremely basic, no information regarding contact info, web designer, or anything, just a request to login with provided user id and password and complete profile information.

I continued to research online and found that the address on the letter belong's to a different company with a very similar name and similar web address. This made me even more suspicious, so I started researching for similar online reports of scams. I found that this is a common scam in which the check appears legitimate and will be deposited in the bank account. After a few days it will appear that the check has cleared and you will be asked to withdraw a set amount and perform a wire transfer using money gram or a similar service but not long after that, the check will come back as fraudulent and you will owe the bank the money that you sent via wire transfer.

Thankfully I got suspicious and did not fall for it, hopefully my report will help others from getting caught in this scam. I have also notified the business whose name, and address is being used to pass this off as a legitimate business opportunity.