Online Fraud Reported

On August 26, 2010 at 2:43 p.m., a resident reported a fraud. The victim, a 65 year old male, stated that he replied to an e-mail sent by “brucewilsonon@sify.com” to work for “Simon Survey Shoppers Inc.” as a “secret shopper”. The victim stated that all of his correspondence with the survey company was through e-mail.

The victim stated that he was instructed to begin his assignments from the survey company by depositing over $1,600.00 of “Safeway Money Grams” and then proceed to complete the assignment/job with the disclosed amount of money.

After completing one of his assignments at Walmart he was then instructed to cash the money orders sent to him by the survey company and then send funds back to the survey company through “Western Union” who was noted to be a target for an evaluation by the survey company.

A few days later the victim was notified by his bank that his account has been placed on “hold” until further notice due to the fraudulent transactions in regards to the counterfeit money orders sent to him from “Simon Survey Shoppers Inc.”.

Multiple attempts to contact a representative of “Simon Survey Shoppers Inc” were unsuccessful.

The victim has received additional instructions and $3,200.00 of additional money orders for another assignment but he has submitted the money orders with all correspondence from “Simon Survey Shoppers Inc” to police for further investigation

This case is being investigated by det. Dominick Frino.