"It just has scam written all over it as far as i'm concerned," says Carol Abernathy. We met Commerce resident, Carol Abernathy, in our earlier segment. Carol told us she went looking, online, for a secret shopping position, only to get a letter and a check in the mail, all of it a scam. When I opened it and read it I thought they must be kidding," says Abernathy.

Carol isn't the only one to receive this secret shopper scam in the mail. Denny and Debby Friend say they too were looking to make some extra cash, but ended up with a big, fake check. "Well I actually thought it was too good to be true. It thought, you know I didn't do anything to receive that money so I actually thought it was too good to be true," says Debbie Friend. The check, the letter, it all looked legitimate says Debbie, but a visit to her bank confirmed that all of it was a scam. "It was definitely a fraud check," says Debbie Friend.

Just like Carol Abernathy's letter, there was a number to call to inquire about the companies secret shopping business. I was curious to see who would answer on the other end, so I took action, and decided to give the number a try. I left a message but our call was never returned. "There's honest people out there trying to make an honest living to get by and struggle though and stuff like this comes through and you find out it's a nuts deal and it just ticks you off," says Denny Friend.

Corporal Chuck Neiss with the Joplin Police Department says these scam artists make the deal look legitimate. "They actually get legitimate routing numbers and account numbers from legitimate businesses and put those names on the check and the businesses generally have no knowledge of this unless they've been contacted about the fraud," says Niess. And as far as tracking these people down, Corporal Neiss says you can forget about it. "They're overseas and they're just impossible to get," says Niess.

There's one thing that Carol, Denny and Debbie all have in common, they did not fall for the scam. "If it looks too good to be true, it is, I mean there's no free money there's no easy money and these things are all frauds and they're looking for ways to separate you from your money," says Niess. Carol says the fact that these scam-artists thought she would fall for the scheme, show's just how little they really know about their potential victims. "When they talk about these scams they're usually talking about scams on the elderly and I don't know which made me the maddest, the scam or the Idea that that I had fallen into that category haha," says Abernathy.