BES Research - Neuse Management sent me a check for $3,535 to mystery shop. I am to wire $2,990 and evaluate the place I do it at and other places too. I am to deposit the check in my bank account. McAllen Texas

Fraud
There exists a scam that uses mystery shopping as a premise for fraud, where a person is sent a bad check with a request to deposit it into their bank account, wire a portion of the money through a wire transfer company such as Western Union or MoneyGram and keep the remainder as a mystery shopping fee, and informed to mail the money immediately as the test is evaluating response time. People who wire the "remainder" discover the check is bad and lose the money they transfer and the wire transfer service fee in addition to the total amount of the check, often leaving them in debt to their banks. One scam involved fraudulent websites using a misspelled URL to advertise online and in newspapers under a legitimate company's name.

Valid mystery shopping companies will never send their clients a check to cash prior to work being completed, and their advertisements will usually include a contact person and phone number. Checks received from mystery shopping companies should only be in payment for work performed, and can always be taken to a bank to be verified. Most fraudulent cheques sent out by scam artists can be easily spotted and identified by a financial professional.

On February 3, 2009 The Internet Crime Complaint Center issued a warning on this scam. http://www.ic3.gov/media/2009/090203.aspx

Go ahead and deposit the check and send the money back. Then write back and tell us all how you like prison life. Geeeezzzzzz. This scam has been going on for so long that I'm amazed there are still idiots falling for it.

You seem to know that this is a scam. The logical step from there is not to deposit the check and cease contact with the scammers.