A Maryland man lost thousands of dollars to a scam after taking what he thought was a job as a mystery shopper.
Gregory Gorton, 60, of Gaithersburg, narrated audiobooks for 24 years, most recently for the blind and physically disabled through a program for the Library of Congress.
But in June he lost his job.
“I went into sort of a little bit of a tailspin and suddenly I realized I’m in the job market,” he said.
He said he’s held a job since he was 15 and described today's job market as a culture shock.
He applied for dozens of jobs. Frustrated he wasn't finding any work, he decided to try something a little unconventional: A job being a mystery shopper. When a retailer hires companies to evaluate the quality of service in their stores, they use mystery shoppers to get the information.
Local
Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia local news, events and information
“I was going through a period where I was a little bit despondent and distraught about the fact that I was not getting any work,” Gorton said.
He filled out several forms and one late night he got a bite: An email from a company that appeared to hire mystery shoppers.
“Basically what they did was they worked with money transfer programs,” he said.
They sent him checks and wanted him to send money from Gaithersburg to a place or person in California. He cashed the checks at his bank and followed the instructions.
“Three days later I got another notification in the mail, two more checks from the same company,” Gorton said.
But two or three days later he checked his account and learned was down more than $2,900.
The checks were fake, and Gorton was a victim of a mystery shopper scam.
“I always thought I was too smart to have this kind of thing happen to me,” he said.
He said his bank told him he was responsible, having cashed the checks.
Three days after NBC4 Responds reached out to Gorton’s bank, he got a call.
“They said we’re not going to charge you any of this at all. We’re going to forgive this entire 2,000-whatever amount of money,” he said.
Most banks won't refund money to victims of scams like this, but Gorton’s bank put the money back into his account because he has been a customer for 30 years.
