Crista Ring
New member
My step mother was at a local business and filled out some type of paper work to become a legitimate local secret/mystery shopper. Well about a month or two later she received a letter in the mail with a check for $4,000. The letter stated that she had been selected to be a local secret/mystery shopper, since she had filled out papers not long before this to become one she thought nothing of it, the letter stated that they wanted NO personal information such as bank account information, social security number, etc., when she called the company she was again told the same thing, they wanted no personal information. She carefully read the letter several time and no where in it did it ask her to deposit the check in her bank, or cash the check and send money some where or wire money some where. She took the check to her bank and asked them to deposit it into her bank account since it was after 5 pm she had to wait until the next business day for the check to be verified. Her bank allowed her to withdraw $150 towards this check with the understanding that if it was indeed a fraudulent check she had to repay the money and also some other fees. The next day the bank tried to verify the check only to find out it was indeed fraudulent they called her told her the information they had found out and said they were turning the check and information over to local police for investigation. The next week her payroll check was direct deposited into her bank account however when she went to get money out of her account she was informed she was almost $2,000 overdrawn. Even without the fraudulent check her bank account should have had around $4,000 in it. Is it possible that the people that sent the check got her account information somehow and basically stole all her money? If that is the case how does she go about getting her money deposited back into her account? I know that she needs to close her current account and open a new one, and that she may need to notify the credit bureaus and the social security administration of possible identity theft. Is there anything else that she needs to do?