MERRILLVILLE | The only true mystery surrounding a mystery shopper scam sweeping through the region is where unwitting victims' money is ending up, the Indiana attorney general and Better Business Bureau warn.

Evelyn Fitzgerald, of Crown Point, recently opened her mail to find a check for $3,750 and a letter claiming to be from a Texas firm wanting to hire her for its mystery shopping program to test the customer friendly performance of local businesses.

Fortunately, she smelled a rat and took the check to law enforcement. But state and Better Business Bureau officials said the withering economy has many others in the region falling victim to scams that promise a payday or free goods and services but actually steal from participants.

Norm Stangland, Northwest Indiana area director of the Better Business Bureau in Merrillville, said too many have cashed such checks and then followed instructions to wire most of the cash to an out-of-state address.

"That is where people get burned. The bank later says the mystery shopper check bounced, and the bank wants its money back. People end up not making money but losing money because they wired it to an unseen face far away," Stangland said.

Bryan Corbin, a spokesman for the Indiana attorney general's office, said his office gets two or three complaints of such scams per month. And the regularity of such scams is on the rise in the region, Stangland said.

Corbin said his office will refer victims to the appropriate criminal investigators but doesn't have the resources to track down scammers, who may live outside the country. He said the consumer is responsible for the bad check.

Stangland said the checks look authentic to untrained bank tellers, who accept them initially. He said the scam is particularly cruel in the current down economy when victims may have recently lost jobs and are desperately looking for a break when the seemingly heaven-sent offer arrives by a package delivery service.

He said the scammers include instructions for the victims to deposit the checks in personal bank accounts. The victims then are told to wire transfer money to an out-of-state bank.

They then are asked to fill out a secret shopper's evaluation on the quality of the wire service as well as to visit commonly known retail businesses to make purchases while carefully noting how quick and courteous workers at the business are.

"They don't care about any of that. They just want the money," Stangland said.

He said scammers use a variety of business names, some of them mimicking legitimate mystery or secret shopper services. He said consumers should try to locate and talk to someone at the company offering to hire them to ensure the job offer is honest.