Pacific Gas & Electric Bill Scam Alert

I thought I'd let everyone know that someone possibly in India is using the Indian company Anka International's email address (ankamachines.com) to send out bogus Pacific Gas & Electric bills. I received an email today informing me I owed the company over $500! There's a couple problems with that. First, Pacific Gas & Electric is based in California and, I live in Maryland. Second, I don't own a home or rent an apartment or house at this time. In fact, at this time, I don't have to pay any utility bills at all so, this is obviously a scam. Please be watchful of this apparent scam.

Scam Emails

I've received two scam emails in the last couple days. Both were attempts to get account information which would've been used to steal money from me. One was allegedly from Bank of America and the other was from Amazon. Unfortunately, such emails are becoming more common now a days. People need to be very careful who they give their bank or credit card information out to. If you suspect the email is legitimate, instead of replying to the email, check with the company or bank directly. That way, you can safely check into the matter. If it's legitimate, the bank or company won't mind you contacting them. If it isn't, you won't have given your account information to a thief.

I still haven't forgotten when a thief or thieves got ahold of my Northwest Airlines credit card number. They charged over $500 worth of Greyhound bus tickets to it which presumably they could return and get a refund for the tickets. I noticed the fraudulent charges on my credit card bill at once and reported them to the credit card company. I had to cancel that credit card, get a new one and write a letter to the credit card company about the fraudulent charges. I got lucky in that I didn't have to pay the charges but, it did create a lot hassle. Make sure you use caution when giving credit card or bank account information out. It can save you some possible grief later.

Mystery Shopper Update

I finally decided to see if ICC Decision Services (ICCDS) is a legitimate company. They're the company I've been doing mystery shopper visits for. I contacted the supermarket chain I've visited twice to see if they use them. To my relief, they confirmed they did. It's nice to know I don't have to worry about getting taken in by a scam. Because of that, I definitely plan to do more mystery shops for them. They do offer some nice assignments though they also have some stinkers. I've turned down a number of assignments with them because they haven't offered enough compensation. I'm also limiting my travel range to 30 minutes each way. That way, I don't spend all the money I made doing the shop on gas. We'll see how it goes.

Agent Ditto

I completed another mystery shopper mission today. It was another supermarket of a major chain. The mission was the same as before. I had to visit all six departments (produce, grocery, meat/seafood, pharmacy, bakery and customer service). I had to ask an associate from each one of the departments some kind of question and grade them on how well they answered if they answered at all. Another duty was rating how well or not the cashier did his/her job when I checked out with my mandatory purchase(s). Supermarket cleanliness both inside and out was another area I had to rate the store on. Lastly, I had to spend a minimum of 35 minutes at the store. I don't know why they mandate you stay that long. I guess to make sure you give the store a good lookover. In my case, the extra time caused to notice that the store's stocking staff wasn't doing their job. I found a number of sale items that weren't on the shelves and they should've been considering the store had only been open an hour when I did my mission. Overall, I found it easier to do the evaluation and play the part of a normal shopper.

I still not sure about the company I'm doing the mystery shopper missions for. I will say again that if they are a scam, they are the most thorough one I've seen. It took a lot of work to come up with the list of questions I have to answer when I do a mystery shopper mission. They also have a very sophisticated website. Plus, I can't see where they could take you for some serious money. I imagine they could apply for a refund from the supermarket chain for the purchases I've made for them but that money is minuscule. Lastly, they are very consistent in what they have you do. I'm waiting to see what happens with my first invoice I submitted for payment. That will give me some idea how legit they are. We'll see what happens.

Mystery Shopper

I got to do my first mystery shopper assignment yesterday. I found the whole experience nerve wracking. If you surf the web, you'll see advertisements showing how you can make big bucks being a mystery shopper. The truth of the matter is if you find a legitimate company to work for, you won't get rich doing it and you probably won't be able to make a career out of it either. Money wise, I earned $20 plus $5 for the item I had to purchase. The $20 was double what I would normally receive for an assignment. For that $20, I had an extensive checklist I had to mark off on (over 35 questions). I also had to make up bogus questions for six different departments so I could see how well they treated customers. I found that part hard as I had to be something I wasn't. I was trying to play the regular customer when I was actually checking up on these folks. To add to my discomfort, I don't know if the company I was doing all this for is legitimate. There are a lot of mystery shopper scams out there. My co-worker Jaime at Medieval Times had one group try to scam her for something like $2,000. While I was never in that kind of potential danger, at worst I would've been out $7 plus gas, I still had visions of someone breaking into my apartment while I at the business I was checking on. After all, if the company was bogus and was a bunch of crooks, they would know when I'd be gone and how long I'd likely be gone. I had to spend a minimum of 35 minutes at the store I had to check on and it was a 30 minute drive each way. An hour and a half would be plenty of time to rob me of any valuables I'd left out in the apartment. Before I left, I secured the passwords to my various accounts and hid my laptop and digital camera.

The assignment itself went all right considering it was my first one. I managed to come up with some kind of question for each of the departments. I think I managed to not look too nervous. I was afraid if I looked the nervous type, the security folks might think I was a crook. If I had to explain to security person at the store what was up, I wouldn't be able to swear what I was doing was legit. I didn't want to even think of that mess. I made sure I spent the mandatory 35 minutes at the store and then took my items to the sales person who rang me up.

When I left the store, I filled out a copy of the survey I had to do so I'd be able to remember all the things I needed to answer while they were fresh in my mind. Then, I drove home and to my relief, no one had tried to break into my apartment. My work wasn't done though as once you've done an assignment, you have 12-hours to report back to your boss and do the on-line survey which presumably will be forwarded to the company paying for the mystery shopper service. That took another 20 minutes. Also, I had to do an invoice for my services which I'll have to mail out today with the receipt from the store I shopped at. If all goes well, I'll get paid $25 in about 30 days. If it turns out to be a scam which I think is unlikely (if it is a scam, it is the most elaborate one I've ever seen), I'll be out $7 of which I'll have bought some items I wanted anyway.

Before I knew exactly what I was getting into, I signed up for four more assignments. As I try to keep my word, I plan to do them though they promise to be challenging for me. I'll get to play a spy of sorts. I've always felt I would never be good a good spy. I just don't have the nerves for it. I also don't like being something I'm not. I like the thought that with me, what you see is what is actually there. There isn't anything hidden and there isn't anything devious. I consider myself something of a naive person. Time and again, I've been surprised by some of the underhanded things I've learned some people do. In regards to being naive, I don't consider that to be the best thing. It's better to be wise though if it comes to being either naive or duplicitous, I'll take naive any day. As it is, you my blog readers may get to hear of further misadventures of Agent Ditto as he continues his secret missions to uncover poor customer service, unclean stores and disastrous parking lots. Stay tuned.

Paypal/Ebay

I don't know what it is about Paypal or Ebay but it seems I get an incredible number of scam emails for these two. This blog entry is to warn people about them. The two services are very useful. I've been able to securely pay for items without having to give credit card information via Paypal. I've been able to purchase items I've wanted at considerable savings on Ebay. I also got ripped once on Ebay for $94. Make sure you know Ebay's rules on how they'll help you concerning you failing to get merchandise you were promised. You'll also want to look at the customer satisfaction rating and how many items the seller has sold on Ebay. Someone who has sold a lot of stuff on Ebay isn't likely to run off with your money. Concerning scam emails, Paypal does have a free tool called SafetyBar that you can download that will enable you to forward to them any scam emails you get. They also try to make some money off you by selling an additional spam filter. Fortunately, you don't have to order the spam filter in order to use the scam email tool. The tool is worth having if you use Paypal or Ebay.

Automatic Renewals

Recently, I had two different on-line companies automatically renew their services without me realizing it until I got the bill. That's why I'm posting this blog entry. Please double check the terms of the contract before you order. In the case of Classmates.com, you'll want to remove the automatic renewal. Once they bill you automatically, you can't get your money back with them. Fortunately, it was only $40 with Classmates.com. With TrueCredit, my mistake cost me $120! I suspect it is a very lucrative move by the companies as they can legally say they informed the customer and it helps them generate more business. I confess I don't like it as I think it is a bit scammish but I realize it is the customer's responsibility to look out for such things. So, the next time you order a membership to something or a product like credit warnings watch out for the automatic renewals. It could end up costing you more than you expected.