I don't want to say these people are stupid, but these scams are old and I can't believe people still fall for them.  As for the mystery shopper, I work for a legitimate company, usually they ask you to purchase small priced items, fill out a questionnaire, turn in the receipts and you're paid per visit and reimbursed for the items you purchased.  They will never send you the money up front.  You don't make a lot of money since the per visit fee can be as little as $8.00 depending on the job, but if it is a store you shop at regularly you can get things you would buy anyway for free.

I am a mystery shopper for a legitimate company.  1. they never send you money up front.  Not all jobs require you to purchase anything, just visit and asked specific questions.  2.  You are required to complete a W-2.  3. You are paid per visit and reimbursed for any purchases up to a certain amount, depending on the merchant.  You will not get rich doing this because the fees are minimal and there are usually very specific requirements for each job.    

I almost fell for one of those scams a few years back.  Several years ago, when I was in the process of moving, I put an old, but working, TV set on eBay.  It was a Zenith 12" black and white portable that had Bicentennial graphics on the cabinet.  A few days into the auction, I received a message from someone in Singapore, who obviously didn't understand the terms of my auction.  He thought I was selling multiple TV sets (I was only selling one set-a 30 year old Bicentennial collectible), and he wanted me to close the auction early, send me a cashier's check for much more than the amount I wanted for the TV, and for me to wire the money back.  I smelled a scam from the beginning, since I remember reading a few days back about scams involving counterfeit cashier's checks.  I e-mailed the person back, explaining to him that I only have one TV for sale, that he does not need to send more than what the auction asked for, and that the TV would not work in Singapore, since it's a US-spec NTSC set.  He sent a nasty e-mail back.  I since changed my passwords for both eBay and PayPal, and I haven't heard from the guy since.  However, I received no bids for the TV (I was asking $30, since it is a collector's item), and I eventually donated the TV to Goodwill, since I had no room for extra items...I was moving from a 3 bedroom house to a 2 bedroom apartment, and needed to sell, donate, or dispose of a lot of stuff.

I had a similar incident while trying to rent a house on Craig's list about a year ago.  I received an email from a "student" from Kenya who would be attending Sacramento State the following month and wanted to rent the house for the year.  His sponsor company would send payment for the first 3 months immediately and he would be here soon after to complete the rental agreement, etc.  A few days later I received a cashiers check for $7200.  I had no idea why the amount was sent since in the ad I had only stated the monthly rate.  It was his "choice" to send 3 months rent. Anyway I immediately received an email saying the sponsor had mistakenly send all the money to us when the payment was to be split, rent to us and a check for transportation costs, living expense, books etc to him.  So the email frantically requested me to deposit the check and wire the difference back to him as he needed to purchase his plane ticked and get here to start school the following week.  I was instructed to email him as soon as I wired the money with the pick up instructions.  Well my wife looked at this as a blessing since we weren't having much success in renting, I looked at this as a problem since I wasn't going to wire any money back until the check cleared and I would send his money back, not mine.  Neither of us saw this as a scam until much later.

I'm not calling anyone stupid either, but the solution is quite simple: destroy the $1,200 check and have them send a new one for the correct amount.  If a legitimate buyer a) trusted me enough to and was patient enough to let me wire the money, then the same should apply to the other, safer process.

Speaking of eBay, this scam resembles the classic excuse used to try to get off the hook for purchases.  "My teenage son/daughter bid on it without my knowledge."  If that's really the case, buck up, be a parent, don't let your kids play with stuff they shouldn't -- like live checks from your own bank account.  Who does that, seriously?

Ok, Ill say it.  THESE PEOPLE ARE STUPID!  In this day and age you would have to be an idiot to cash these checks and then send the difference back.  Red lights should be flashing and alarms should be ringing.  Don't use words like "unsuspecting", "naive" or "ignorant" when we all know that "Stupid" is the only word that fits.

By the way, I sent each of you a check for the wrong amount, wondering if you could just wire me the difference.......

My son and daughter-in-law, both intelligent people, got taken on a $5,000 scam. She was working for a legitimate company (one of those companies who sell expensive knives at home shows). As part of her employment, she collected checks for merchandise that someone else sent. She received a $5,000 check, was told to keep $500, and deposit the other $4500 in the knife company's account. This was BOA and it was a BOA check so they thought it was good. She's been working for this company for several months. They used the $500 to travel from where they lived to where we lived for my 50th birthday. While they were here, they tried to use their BOA card and found out they were overdrawn. You guessed it - and I did too as soon as I heard the story - the check was fraudulent and BOA tapped them for the whole amount.

The knife company never did offer any compensation. Luckily for them, they had a 2nd check waiting for them when they got home that she'd not had time to put in the bank. I don't know what ever happened with that company (after all, she deposited the money in a BOA account) but they had to borrow the money to pay it back.

I used to get 1-2 scam emails a week about my "long lost" relative, or to help move money, or for a lottery win. Now, I get 10-20 PER DAY. It amazes me that people still think that these things are legit or that they'll get some reward for ill-gotten gain. Yeah, their identity stolen or their money taken, or both.

I know a person in Dallas that last year took 2 checks to different banks last year after we looked up the bank name on The Attorney General of the State of Texas Web site and saw the checks were drawn on invalid banks. I could not believe he is such an idiot. Then spent the money. Wells Fargo froze then forced the account closed and he had to pay it back. Just 2 weeks ago he showed me another delivered by USPS and guess what. He did it again. Mentally ill is all I can say and I'm being kind.    

Larry, he is not an idiot - he is a scammer.  He is SPENDING the money, not wiring to anybody.

He is depositing checks he knows to be fake(in different banks, so he understands perfectly) in order to get access to cash.

Than, assuming he has nothing and his credit is already ruined he is just hoping that there is nothing the bank can do to get it back.  

I was on Jury duty recently and the defendant tried to cash a phony cashiers check from England.  He tried to cash one (5 more checks were in his wallet) at the "Commerce Casino" in California.  Immediately the Casino teller was bright enough to recognize that the cashiers check was the "wrong font" then she called security and had him arrested. This was a 50 year old man that should have known better.  According the the court appointed computer specialist that traced this mans prior computer history, he had done this many times over but was never arrested.  I felt sorry for not this idiot, but for his poor 80 year old mother that lived in Newport Beach,CA.  She had to hire an attorney for her "loser son", which he moved back home with mama.  That elderly mother is paying for her idiot son.