No one is handing out $1,950 checks. It’s a new gift card scam, Benton deputies warn

A letter promised an easy $400 to one Benton County resident for a few moments worth of work.

All the person needed to do was deposit the $1,950 check into their account, and then buy $1,500 in gift cards. They would keep the remaining $50 in the account for “future use.”

But if they’d followed the instructions, they would have lost money after sending the scammers the card numbers, Benton County sheriff’s officials said.

Instead of falling for the promises of a lucrative career as a mystery shopper, the person instead provided the letter to the Benton County Sheriff’s Office, who shared it on it’s Facebook page.

The writer claimed to represent a nationally recognized grocery store company and said the recipient was now being given a “Mystery Survey” assignment.

The letter is sent signed by Tim Bruce, who used a Google Gmail email address.

The letter asks the recipient to text their name, the amount they received, their phone number and a time frame for the evaluation. There was an additional “bonus” of $250 promised if they got the task finished within 24 hours.

Then the person was supposed to buy $100 to $200 increments of Vanilla Visa Gift cards totaling $1,500. They are then supposed to remove the scratch off area on the back and take a picture of both sides of the cards and a picture of the receipt.

Once this information is sent, the scammers would have access to the money on the cards.

Normally in these types of scams, the check that is sent along doesn’t have any money behind it costing the person $1,500.

The letter also asks people to track the cashier’s name, the store’s name and the date and time of the visit, the time it took to check out, and if the salesperson said, “Thank you,” after their purchase.

While “mystery shopping” is a legitimate career, it requires a lot more work than making a single purchase, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

A 2016 career outlook article says a successful mystery shopper will need to register with at least 100 companies. The typical assignment pays $5 and $20 a trip.