“Mystery shopper” scam surfaces

“Mystery shopper” scam surfaces Image

First National Bank (FNB) this week urged its clients to guard against a new fraudulent method used to obtain information about people’s bank accounts.according to FNB’s forensic investigator, Ingrid Katjiukua, these accounts are used as transit for fraudulently obtained money via phishing scams.“Once customers provide them with the details, the accounts are usually used to channel funds from other accounts; illegally obtained funds through a 419 Nigerian scam or phishing. Customers are approached by a company that apparently conducts mystery shopping for a client from the Western Union for example. they allege that their client is no longer happy with the service and staff and they thus need the customer to assist them in conducting mystery shopping. the customer would get paid for the ‘mystery shopping’ assistance,” she said.according to Katjiukua, “the fraudsters will then continue to inform the client that: “Your Secret Evaluation would be to make a fund transfer from this Western Union location to a fellow Mystery Shopper in the USA, Europe, Africa, Asia or anywhere in the world. We will prescribe the country you will be sending the funds to after ward. the funds will be picked up by another mystery shopper based at the exact location which a customer reported her funds missing from.”Katjiukua also added that the fraudster will then conclude by saying that this was a very important assignment and request that the client provides full bank account details in order to receive the funds to carry out the assignment. then they end off by saying: “Upon receipt of this information, the funds will be transferred to your bank account.”The money should then allegedly be used to ‘test’ the Western Union client.”

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<a href="http://www.economist.com.na/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=23405:mystery-shopper-scam-surfaces&catid=593:general-newstag:news.google.com,2005:cluster=http://www.economist.com.na/index.php?option=com_content">“Mystery shopper” scam surfaces