Police Log: Craigslist "Secret Shopper" Ad Scam

Law enforcement and several state attorneys general are demanding greater scrutiny of craigslist, the popular network of online communities, alleging illegal activity – from prostitution and scams – is found on the site. One such example of a craigslist victim occurred in Belmont.

On Aug. 25 at 4:36 p.m., a distraught Somerville man came to the Belmont Police station to report that he was a victim of a confidence scheme. The man said he responded to a help wanted ad on craigslist from a firm seeking a secret shopper. The man said he was sent a check for $3,300 and told, as part of his new "job," to cash it at his local bank and send the $3,000 balance to a West Virginia address via Western Union, keeping the remaining $300 as his fee. Soon afterwards, his bank branch located in Belmont informed him that the check was no good and his account was now overdrawn by more than $3,000. The Somerville man told police he was about to cash a second $3,500 check sent to him by the same "firm." He gave police a copy of the checks and the internet address of his now factious employer.

The man appears to have been bamboozled by a variation of a scam popular in England in which a landlord is asked by a potential renter to deposit, for example, a $5,000 check for future rent but must send $3,000 immediately back to the "renter" for moving expenses. The check isn't real but the money sent to the scam artist is quite legitimate.