These scam artist. Don't cash the check, you will be charged back after the bank realizes thr check…read moreis bad. check out FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION Consumer Information ESPAÑOL MAIN MENU You are here Home ' Blog ' A scam story: Secret shopping and fake checks A scam story: Secret shopping and fake checks Share this page Facebook Twitter Linked-In May 16, 2018 by Emma Fletcher Division of Consumer and Business Education, FTC Scammers need a good story to get to your wallet. Once they find one that works, they use it again and again. One of their old favorites brings together fake checks and secret shopping, and we've been hearing a lot about it lately. Here's how it starts. You get a check in the mail with a job offer as a secret shopper. You deposit the check and see the funds in your account a few days later, and the bank even tells you the check has cleared. Now you're off to the store you've been asked to shopat and report back on, often a Walmart. Your first assignment is to test the in-store money transfer service, like Western Union or MoneyGram, by sending some of the money you deposited. Or you might be told to use the money to buy reloadable cards or gift cards, such as iTunes cards. You're instructed to send pictures of the cards or to give the numbers on the cards. Fast forward days or weeks to the unhappy ending. The bank finds out the check you deposited is a fake, which means you're on the hook for all that money. How does that even happen? Well, banks must make funds from deposited checks available within days, but uncovering a fake check can take weeks. By the time you try to get the money back from the money transfer service, the scammers are long gone, and they've taken all the money off the gift cards, too. (By the way, money orders and cashier's checks can be faked, too.) The moral of the story? If anyone ever asks you to deposit a check and then wire or send money in any way, you can bet it's a scam. No matter what they tell you. Want to avoid the latest rip-offs? Sign up for free scam alerts from the FTC at FTC.gov/Scams. Jobs & Making MoneyBlog Topics: Scam Tags:  Job Scams

ChiShip is a great company that is honest and their service is always on-time. I repeat ON-TIME…read more My boss asked me to find someone new and a quick Google search later I came across this company. There website was easy to navigate and very thorough. I made an appointment and paid on-line with ease. A few minutes later the company called me to thank me for placing a work order and said that all first customer get 50% off the first call. I thought "wow, I didn't see that and now I just saved 50%". We have now use them multiple times a week and can not say enough about their speed of service and professionalism. I highly recommend ChiShip.

Let me tell you! I have not to this day found a better company to work with! Customer Service -…read moreOutstanding! Staff - Outstanding! Worked with Rafael, Cindy and our driver Louie! We had food delivered from a restaurant downtown Chicago to our home in northern suburbs. Louie their delivery person was prompt in picking up the order. Cindy called to let us know that our food was on it's way and to note that a certain food item was not included. We knew of that, but talk about being detailed! When Louie arrived with our order, this gentleman could not have been any nicer! Big smile, happy with coming out that far from the city! We will be using them again in the near future. Continued success for WDI - Will Deliver It! You are doing something right! In this day and age, it is very much appreciated. Sincerely, Linda Iovino

Our business was not happy with our previous courier service (we offer drop off service for our…read moreclients) so decided to give a try based off a referral. Fast, very friendly, and competitively priced. We will continue to use them in the future.

Great customer service over the phone and in person. Package…read morehad to be picked up from a building where many delivery drivers get lost, but he did not. Speedy delivery of an imporatnt package.

These guys rock!!! I was in need of a courier service to pick up super important passport/visa…read moredocuments from the Chinese Embassy in Chicago and get them to me in Westminster, Colorado. 4 Star Courier went above and beyond to retrieve these articles and get them back to me in a safe, easy and timely manner. I highly recommend them and they deserve way beyond a 5 star review!!!

I've used Vital-Pak Courier services more than once, and they have always gone out of their way to…read morebe accommodating. I needed medicine picked up from my doctor's office and delivered to my house during the pandemic. My doctor's office has not been operating at full capacity during this time and they insisted on knowing exactly when the courier would arrive because of locked doors. Vital-Pak was very accommodating and told me the exact time they would arrive. In my experience, the best that other courier services will do is give you a 2-hour window of when they will arrive, and charge you more for it. Whereas Vital-Pak gives you better service at truly unbeatable prices. I also feel that their customer service is outstanding. It is always a pleasure dealing with them - very friendly!

We had a last minute huge job that came up and had to make 258 deliveries on a specific date with…read moreonly a 4 day lead time. Rhonda, Owner, said sure we can do that, we specialize in what others won't do - amazing! Plus she gave a us a reasonable price for delivery, which was a relief that we could fit it into the budget of the job and hire Royal Courier for the job. Matt, Operations Manager, was super accommodating and had great communication through out the whole process, especially the day of all the deliveries he contacted us with any issues and gave progress updates throughout the day. Both Rhonda and Matt were very responsive to phone calls or emails, that was so refreshing on such a stressful day. In one day Royal Courier delivered 774 pieces to 258 locations first delivery at 5:58am and last was delivered at 2:54pm - I still can't believe it could be done, but Royal Courier did this amazing feat, efficiently and professionally. 2 Bonuses: first -Rhonda and Matt a joy to work with, user friendly, very accommodating and great communicators! Second - Royal Courier has a great customer portal that you can track the shipments real time as they are delivered and updated. This is a great tool so you can check the update on your time and not have to call and wait for responses like you do with other courier services. I would absolutely recommend Royal Courier for delivery services. Jodi B.

got my shift out of a jam with supply chain interruption. Apollo went to distribution hub and back…read moreto my site location within quoted time frame. messager/driver was very nice and had done similar runs with our sister sites and delivered as promised. would highly recommend. dispatcher/manager was quick and professional. from service ticket to completion was less than 2 hours; very pleased with the service execution. Bryant Eng Location Manager RL0582

We use Apollo Messenger service and they always do a great job for us…read more The quality of service is excellent. They have some of the best rates and it's hard to find companies like Apollo that have all of the values that are needed to get the job done. I highly recommend Apollo Messenger. Rudy Rodriguez

My delivery person showed up on time..great, but not only did my co-workers comment but the other…read morepeople he walked by outside of my office complained he smelled like alcohol. It was at 10:30 am on a weekday. Not cool.

Messenger911 went above and beyond to make a difficult delivery to a McCormick Place exhibitor…read more Although delivery instructions were not complete and did not include check in point which is a separate address from final destination both driver and customer service worked diligently to figure out how and where to deliver packages. I will never call anyone else but Messenger911.

They delivered white glove service for 3 chairs I had made in Sweden. Everything was inspected and…read morewrapped. They inserted non-slip tabs on the legs and put everything in place. Very amenable. so I didn't know they were calling and they waited a half an our outside my house for half an hour.. Would definitely recommend for on-total house moving and delivery.

Hello, I'm writing…read moreto share feedback regarding our recent service, which was unfortunately a very disappointing experience. We were initially told to expect a one-hour delivery window between 3-4pm, and planned our day accordingly. Shortly before 3pm, we were informed the timing would shift to a 4pm pickup and closer to a 5pm delivery. In reality, the delivery did not occur until nearly 6pm. This caused significant disruption. Our building has a strict 5pm cutoff for deliveries, and we had to scramble to accommodate the delay. I had arranged coverage at work based on the original window and ended up losing additional time and income. The sellers also had to adjust their plans and wait around for most of the day. What was especially frustrating was being told--without acknowledgment of the inconvenience--that the only remedy offered was a $10 discount. We later learned that our job had been added at the last minute, and we were not actually scheduled, which helps explain the delays but does not excuse the lack of communication. I do want to note that the delivery team themselves were excellent--this is not a reflection on them. Given the nature of our work, we frequently require reliable moving services, including for art and mid-century pieces, and had hoped to establish a dependable relationship. Unfortunately, this experience has made that difficult. At a minimum, we would appreciate a more meaningful acknowledgment of the inconvenience caused, along with consideration of a partial refund or credit toward a future service. Without that, we would not feel comfortable using or recommending your company moving forward.