Couple warn of mystery shopping scam

Barry Wright and Natalie Pearce applied to be mystery shoppers after seeing an advertisement on the internet, Natalie said: "The ad asked for local mystery shoppers and we applied by filling in an on-line form."

They received a number of emails by return from George Howard of 'ukmystery shopper', saying they would be be paid 300 for an assignment which involved visiting a post office.

They were told they would be sent a bankers draft for 2,700, then they were to go to a local post office and transfer 2,400 in cash to a 'receiver' in Paris, keeping the remaining balance of 300 for themselves.

Whilst in the post office they were told to 'act as if you are sending the money to a relative or a client', and then write a report on the postal staff's appearance, approach and the cleanliness of the 'store'.

Barry said although it seemed too good to be true they were curious:

"I knew from the first email that there was something wrong, but they said they'd send a bankers draft, not just a cheque, which implied it was cleared funds, so we decided to play it through."

However, notification from Barry & Natalie's bank arrived on Christmas Eve stating that the bankers draft had bounced, and that the drawing bank had informed them it was 'suspected fraudulent/counterfeit'.

They were advised to 'contact local police for further investigation', which they did.

Four weeks after the couple informed ukmystery shopper's George Howard that the draft had bounced, they finally received a reply.

George said they had been "investigating with our bank" and they "regret what happened as the report couldn't be submitted."

In order to avoid a declined cheque again, 10,000 would allegedly be transferred directly into the couples bank account, of which 800 would be their 'salary' for both a 'new' and the last 'assignment'.

But first ukmystery shopper asked for a number of personal details including age, occupation, home address, and full bank details.

Barry said: "I said no way are we doing that! The police logged all the details, but we just want to make people aware off this as some might see the ad and think it's a way to make an easy buck - companies like that rely on peoples navety."

George Howard initially refused to answer Observer enquiries relating to Natalie and Barry's, experience, preferring to hang up, however, following a further call he said:

"The cheque bouncing was a mistake. We'd had many frauds on our bank from our sponsors so they had to cancel and decline all cheques. It is a legitimate company."