Scam Costs White City Woman Thousands

A White City woman says she was scammed out of thousands of dollars and is speaking out so others don't get duped.

Terry McDougal just moved to White City from Washington. Though retired, she works part-time jobs to make ends meet. Being new to the area, McDougal decided to go online to find a stay-at-home type job until she could find something more permanent.

She says that decision has left her in a financial mess.

"Up until the end of the month I've got what I got in my wallet," she says.

McDougal spent the day at the department of human services. She hopes they'll help her out after being scammed out of about $5,000.

"You feel violated and terrified. I am terrified, from now until the end of the month, you know, I could be out in the street panhandling."

McDougal's search for at-home employment led her to a secret shopper company. She was mailed a check that she was to cash and then use at a local store to purchase a money order. Then she was supposed to rate the company on their service.

"Was she courteous, was she helpful, did she answer all my questions," where a few of the questions on the questionnaire she filled out.

About a week after mailing the money order back to her new employers, McDougal found out the check they had sent her was a fake and her bank account was overdrawn.

"People have really ingenious ways of getting the person to accept this check, cash it, and then usually wire them back the money," says Sgt. Mike Budreau of the Medford Police Department. "Most scams rely on that premise and there's several variations on how they get people to do that, whether winning the lottery, purchasing an item on the internet, or secret shopper."

McDougal says she tried to research the Canadian based company in advance and even spoke with them on the phone before agreeing to work for them.

Sgt. Budreau says in his time at the police department he's never seen a legitimate company that would do business like this.

Budreau also says with the economy the way it is people might become more desperate and fall for scams like this. He says it's more important than ever to be careful with your money and, as always, if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.

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