Paul James - Catagena Sales Payroll Officer SCAM Austin Texas

I've been trying to find a part-time job because it's the summer and extra cash would be great. I was on craigslist and there a posting for secret shopping. I was interested because I did secret shopping before and everything was legimate. I e-mailed them and then a week later or so they replied. The e-mail was from ismsecretshoppers@live.com from Paul James. Here is the exact e-mail:

Dear Mystery Shopper ,

Thank you for your swift e-mail response , Your information has been accepted and inputed into our database

You are going to 2 assignments in 1.

1st.
You are to shop at Wal-Mart and give a report on customer service, quality of product, and cleanliness of the establishment. I hope there is a Wal-Mart store in your area. Money will be provided for you to shop.

2nd.
You will also ascertain the ease of sending Money Gram from Wal-Mart.
You will also be paid a commission of $200 for your assignments

We are going to send you a check to you for the assignments. You are not to use any money from your pocket. I need you to send the following information below, So ill provide you with the money for the assignment and detailed instructions henceforth.


Your full names (As you want it to appear on the check)
Address(no po box) : (where you want the check delivered)
City, State and Zip code.
Home number (best time to call)
Cell number (best time to call)

Note: PLEASE ALWAYS MAKE SURE YOU ARE ALWAYS BY YOUR PHONE TO ANSWER IT AND ALSO CHECKING YOUR EMAILS REGULARLY. BECAUSE THIS JOBS NEEDS ADEQUATE COMMUNICATION.


After shopping at Wal-Mart, you will send the balance of the funds through Money Gram so as to ascertain the ease of on-line and instant transfers as against check and money orders. Adequate information will be provided as to where to send the balance as soon as the check clears.


Let me know if you can handle this. I await your reply.

Paul James



I didn't think much of it so i gave him my contact information. He calls me the next day out of nowhere and says that theres a job opening for a payroll officer. I was still sleepy at the time so I don't really remember what he said, but I do remember him saying something about Canada (it sounded like he had a canadian accent). I gave him my windowslive ID and we chatted online about the position.

The funny thing is that there was no interview or nothing. He told me to buy VersaInk Nano and VersaCheck #1000 and that I can get started right away. It cost me about $80 to buy all the supplies and he told me I would be reimbursed for it. I also had to get UPS and Fedex shipping supplies so I can mail off checks to secret shoppers. I asked how I would get paid and he said at the end of month you will get paid via Western Union. And by the way, this guy is really annoying, he calls me really early in the morning and if i dont pick up he would call again; he would also send me non-stop messages online and 'nudge' me. He would constantly ask if I went to Drop-off boxes to get the envelopes and airway bills to ship the checks off. I had really bad luck finding UPS evelopes, I spent so much gas driving to each UPS Drop Box location to find it. In the end, he ordered UPS shipping supplies and shipped it to my front door under the name of Leonard James/ Leonard MacFadean.

The address he told me to use on the shipping documents was:

Catagena Sales
1810 Cold River Dr.
Austin, TX 78753

FedEx account: 374210***
UPS account: Y9T***

I checked the address on google and yahoo maps and its NOT even a real address. This was when i started to suspect something because all the checks were for the same amount and why would i get paid via western union? When i did secret shopping before, they would send me a check straight to me. I knew something was wrong from the beginning but I was happy that I found a job. So, the 3rd day on the job, I had a really bad feeling about it so I decided to do some research online. Turns out there there are many scams like this out there. The next day, I told him to stop contacting me and that I won't do his dirty work for him. In the end, I was really disappointed, because I finally found a job and since I am a stay at home mom and also a struggling uni student, I thought 'Yes! I can finally make some money and not always depend on my husband'. That shows that you need to be careful when doing things online and don't trust people so easily.

Anonymous
Houston, Texas
U.S.A.