It's a case of fraud that I wanted to share with others so that you would not fall into the same trap as myself. Now that I look back I can not believe that I was so blind and did not see this!
I participate in a lot of surveys and studies that pay $$ and I was contacted by an individual that I thought was from one of these surveys. Now thinking back he may have been fishing on craigslist with a fake survey that he'd gotten my information from, so be wary with who you email back on Craigslist or any online outlets.
He emailed saying that he was from Synovate and that their other survey was full, but that they had another one that they were currently conducting. It was a survey for a banking institution in the UK that was interested in opening money transfer outlets in the US. All was fine, and I didn't think anything of it except that it was a bit odd that they didn't call me to find out information it was all conducted online. There was nothing fishy about it at all, and he seemed legit. They explained to me that they would send me a check and I was supposed to take out $400 from the total amount and transfer $2800 to a person. This involves cashing a check against a bank account before completing the transfer. Now I had asked him what if the check is not good and I'm responsible for the amount. He'd emailed me back that it would be fraud and that they confirm each check before the survey and that the funds are good.
After the transfer I was supposed to email them with the following information
1) Agents Location Accesibility
2) Attendant's Expediency.
3) Customer Service Delivery.
We were also to mail him as soon as we made the transfer with the following information; Reference #, Amount Sent, Name and Address Of Sender.
Now, of course since it's a "survey" you are not supposed to let the attendant know that you are making a transfer. And during the transfer they say that you are not supposed to be sending $$ to a person that you do not know... which I totally was doing under the pretense that I was conducting a survey on that person. Big mistake.
And at the end of the transaction he emails you a questionnaire form regarding our overall experience with Western Union/Money Gram which we filled out and emailed back to him.
Now unfortunately, I participated in the Western Union Transfer twice. He emailed me back after the first transaction and said that they were interested in looking at another location and to email him back on whether I'd like to participate. I participated in another Western Union location and then they emailed me to ask me if I would participate in the Money Gram survey. I can't believe that I was so gullible and naive. I'm realizing that it's a huge scam now because the first check has bounced and I'm anticipating that the other two will also. I've contacted the number on the FedEx shipment and they have no idea who the sender is. It has nothing to do with Synovate.
This guy is located in London and I've tried to email/contact him and he has not gotten back to me and I doubt that he will. He's using the name of the reputable marketing company Synovate to run this scam.
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