Woman scammed after she answers job ad

It's a new twist on an old scam, you know the one where you get a letter that contains a check. You're asked to deposit it in your account and send back most of the money (usually in a Moneygram or cash through Western Union.)  The problem is the check is counterfeit and you'll end up the loser once it clears the bank.

Here's the new twist.  Gayle Carus of Savannah answered an ad in the newspaper for what she assumed was a legitimate part-time job opportunity.  "This looked good, too good," Carus tells me.

The advertisement was for a "Secret Shopper" and she got an official looking letter in the mail. (There may be legitimate companies offering this job opportunity but in this case, it was a scam.)  There letter also contained a check for $2900.  "I even said on the phone,'is this a legal check' and they said yes, no problem."

But that was a lie.  Carus cashed what she believed was a cashiers check, and sent more than $2600 in a Moneygram to Canada.  About three days later however, when she tried to use her ATM card, she was told she her account had no funds.

"The check turned out to be counterfeit and the bank took all that money back from my account," she says.  "Now my mortgage and all my bills, I have to come up with money to pay them."

Ross Howard of the Better Business Bureau says being told to send cash back is a warning sign.  "Any time you receive a check and they're asking you to send cash back, especially if they're asking you to send it Moneygram or Western Union and they're giving you an address out of the country, then this is a big red flag," Howard tells me.  "You have been hit by a con artist."