Some background:
Several years ago, a co-worker of mine came up to me and had a look as though she just won the lottery. She showed me a letter she received in the mail, which came with a check for nearly $4,000. The letter, which appears below, informed my colleague that she was being invited to become a mystery shopper to earn more income. The concept of mystery shopping has been around a long time, and is a legitimate job that checks up on the customer service of retail stores and other companies, though unfortunately many scam artists have resorted to promoting this job as a way to swindle unsuspecting victims. And that's where this tale continues.
The letter depicts how the job is supposed to work-- in a nutshell a legitimate-looking check is mailed to the supposed mystery shopper employee, which the employee then cashes in to buy goods at various stores, and then returns a designated amount back to the employer. In other words, the victim thinks he or she is getting free merchandise plus a salary for going out to shop (can't beat that, right?!?), but the reality is that the check will bounce, which you won't find out until after sending a large chunk of your own money back to this fake company. Follow this link to read another writeup about the so-called "Retail Tracking Market Research" company behind this letter.
The sad part is that many people have fallen victim to this scam, and if it weren't for my colleague bringing it in to ask me what I thought and subsequently heard the truth, she probably would have gotten suckered into it as well.
But the victimizing part of it aside, the letter below is, pardon the pun... priceless. It's a wonderful example of English grammar gone wrong plus shady instructions to boot. This combination, in and of itself, should tip people off to its being a phony operation, but, I guess that's not always the case. In any event, I hope you enjoy this masterpiece as much as I did. Happy shopping!
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