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In these tough economic times, many of us are looking for ways of earning extra cash. But potential employees across Wales have been left out of pocket after answering a newspaper advert which seemed to be recruiting mystery shoppers.

It sounds like a dream job – testing the customer service at shops and restaurants, but mystery shoppers serve an important role, assessing the experiences provided at a whole host of outlets. Now it seems scammers are using the job as a distraction technique to enable them to defraud unwitting victims out of thousands of pounds in a complex money transfer scam.

Back in June, boarding kennel owner Sara Millward, from Llanidloes, spotted an advert for mystery shoppers in her local paper. It sounded like a golden opportunity to supplement her income which can vary through the year depending on how busy the kennels are.

According to the ad, Sara could earn £250 - 300 a week in cash, and it wouldn't cost anything to get started. Applying for the job was easy enough. Sara emailed the address on the advert for more details, and the job started to sound really exciting. Sara says, “I thought, can I be that mystery shopper and ask questions, where I'm not going to give myself away because I'm doing it for something else? It was quite exciting.�

Her first assignment was to check out customer service at a branch of Western Union. It's a money transfer service often used by people who want to send money to friends and family abroad. Sara was sent a cheque for almost 3,000 euros, and told to pay it into her own bank account. Once the cheque had cleared, she had to withdraw all the money and keep £300 as her fee, and then send the rest of the cash via Western Union to an address in America.

Sara got into character. She says “The secret shopper head kicked in. I was taking in the ambiance of the place, the decor, customer service - I came back and put it all down and sent it through in the email, he then wrote, yes I've received it, very good, impressive report.�

Apparently pleased with her efforts, her employer e-mailed to say Sara's second assignment would start the next day. Sara received two additional cheques, which she put in her account and waited for them to clear. But within days she received some very bad news.

Her bank had picked up on the fact that the cheques were fraudulent, and the whole story began to unravel. Sara had fallen victim to a well-known scam. The fraudsters exploit the fact that when a cheque clears, the money can appear to be in your account, and you can access it. But if the bank finds a problem with the cheque, they can claim the money back from you.

Sara’s bank reclaimed over £2,000 which she had withdrawn from her bank account, which left her substantially out of pocket. It's a familiar story at Scambusters as a number of other people in Wales have also fallen victim to the Mystery Shopper scam.

Andrew Bertie of Scambusters says, “When we became aware of this scam, we contacted the national newspapers that ran the advert and had run the advert quite genuinely, and immediately those newspapers withdrew it from their circulation. If you're asked to do an assignment for £300 a time and they're paying vast sums of money, then you've got to ask yourself is that the way that normal business is conducted. If you're going to go and withdraw money because you believe it's there then you're liable for it, not the bank, and you will be out of pocket. It is a scam, there's no two ways about it, it's a scam from the outset and people, hopefully, will now be more aware.�

There are legitimate mystery shopping agencies out there, but the potential earnings from this dream job are far less than the hundreds of pounds on offer in the scam ads. X-Ray has spoken to Sara's bank, who say they did make her aware of the all the risks involved in withdrawing the cash before they'd received the money. Dyfed Powys Police are looking into Sara's case.

Western Union have offered the following advice to avoid falling victim to a similar scam:
- Only send money to people you personally know and trust
- If an offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is
- Never provide your banking information to unknown individuals or businesses
- Never send money to pay for taxes or fees on lottery or prize winnings
- Verify every emergency situation before sending money
- Never send funds from a cheque in your account until it officially clears which can take weeks
- Never send a money transfer for online purchases

Sara banks at Barclays, who provided us with the following information:

The cheque [Sara withdrew funds from] was in Euros’ and is effectively a foreign cheque received from the Ulster Bank. When clearing foreign cheques they can be applied by Collection or Negotiation.

Collection – This is a service provided whereby the Bank obtains payment for the cheque, from the drawer’s bank, before the customer is credited. A commission charge is levied and the foreign bank may take additional charges. The Bank retains a ‘right of recourse’ against the customer in the event of the cheque being dishonoured or returned after final payment. Cheques may still be returned unpaid after payment if the item subsequently found to be fraudulent.

Negotiation – A service provided whereby, subject to status, the bank gives credit to the payee of a cheque, before the Bank has received payment for the cheque from the drawer’s bank. Both commission and interest charges will be levied and the foreign bank may take additional charges. The Bank maintains liability with the customer until payment has been received. The Bank retains a ‘right of recourse’ against the customer in the event of the cheque being dishonoured or returned unpaid. Funds should not be considered final, as the cheque may subsequently be returned unpaid.

In this instance the customer asked for the cheque to be negotiated. The cheque was processed and negotiated and £2,361.77 was credited to the account in July. The funds were then withdrawn as cash. In August the account was debited with £2,496.80 as the cheque was found to be fraudulent.  The amount that debited differed to the amount credited as the exchange rate had changed. I can confirm that when a cheque is negotiated the customer will have been provided with a copy of our negotiation Terms and Conditions – as stated above.  Barclays were unaware the cheque was fraudulent, however when we failed to receive the funds from Ulster bank the account was debited in line with the Terms and Conditions agreed to.  Therefore we are unable to uphold the complaint, or the request for compensation on this occasion as no Bank error has occurred.