Campus community to be wary of Nigerian "secret shopper" scam

By Dave Groves, staff writer

The Oakland University Police Department is advising members of the campus community to be wary of a sophisticated set of internet-based scams that recently victimized a student here on campus. At least some of these ploys specifically target people within the college student age group.

Detective Shona Collins explained that while there are countless scams circulating in cyber space, the one that claimed an OU victim originated in Idaho with the theft of roughly 900 individuals’ credit card information, all collected by the same grocery store. The OU student’s credit information was not part of that data set.

Rather, the stolen information was sold to scammers in Nigeria, as well as used for identity theft, used to make fraudulent purchases or to ask cardholders for support of seemingly legitimate charities.

The Nigerian scammers, meanwhile, used the data both for identity theft and to facilitate fake job offers made to people here in the U.S. Through internet spam and ads placed on job posting websites, they sought individuals interested in working as secret shoppers.

Applicants who sent personal information in resume packets subsequently became vulnerable to identity theft. In addition, those allegedly hired were sent money orders with which to make and rate purchases, and then asked to send any surplus funds to other secret shoppers.

The supposed surplus funds – which came from the secret shoppers’ bank accounts – were actually sent to the scammers before the victims realized that the money orders they had deposited were fraudulent.

Det. Collins said that while such scams are becoming more sophisticated and more convincing in terms of their legitimacy, there are a few tips that members of the campus community can use to protect themselves:

• Whenever there is any doubt as to whether an e-mail or website is conveying legitimate information, it is important to find out exactly where the information is coming from. With the help of a tech-savvy friend or a Google search, any web user can learn to easily locate the IP address to which questionable information is attributed. Submitting that IP address to the free American Registry for Internet Numbers website at arin.net will reveal its country of origin.

• Job seekers should never assume that because a position is listed on a popular job posting website, it has been vetted and found to be legitimate. Listings that do not include a company’s full street address, phone number or other reliable contact information should raise red flags.

• Legitimate employers will never ask employees to transfer company funds to other employees through personal bank accounts. Also, e-mail from nebulous employers that includes a series of messages originating in different states or countries should raise red flags.

• While pursuing any work opportunity, job seekers should learn as much as they can about the company to which they’re applying. In cases where a company’s headquarters and other pertinent information are difficult to find, job seekers are advised to use whatever contact information they have to ask the prospective employer who their internet service provider is and what their IP address is. Also, any street address provided by a prospective employer can be verified by the U.S. Post Office in that community.

“Before you apply for a job, you really, really need to check out the company you’re applying to,” Det. Collins said. “Any conscientious and well-prepared job applicant will be doing that anyway.”

She added that although some legwork may become complicated and even onerous, the more difficult it seems the more important it becomes to complete it. Searches that are extensively frustrating are most likely indicative of a highly suspect job opportunity not worth pursuing.

“If you become a victim of a Nigerian scam, or really any scam that’s working on an international basis, the chances of you seeing justice served are very, very slim,” Det. Collins said.