You probably get a scam call or email every day of your life. My first thought is, who falls for this stuff? Well this lady got A LOT of people to fall for her scam.

28-year-old Lin Qui has been arrested on several charges. Engaging in organized crime, theft, money laundering, and exploitation of the elderly. She is currently being held on a half a million dollar bond. Walmart fraud investigators told police they detected a “very large suspected fraud and money laundering case” in Collin, Dallas, Denton, and Tarrant counties.

They were alarmed that thousands of cards that were purchased from across the country were all being redeemed in North Texas – often soon after they were bought. The scam that was going on, you have probably seen it before. You have a warrant out for your arrest and you need to pay up NOW. Another scam she had going on was a fake invoice from Apple. Finally, something called a secret shopper scam. I have never heard of this last one so I had to look it up. I found an article on this one from a lawyer up in Minnesota.

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"A consumer receives in the mail a letter, often addressed personally to the consumer, from a company or individual claiming to be in the business of customer service evaluation.The position requires the consumer to secretly evaluate the various services offered at retail stores by making specific purchases at those locations. To facilitate making the purchases, the consumer also receives a check for several thousand dollars, which the individual is instructed to deposit into their bank account.

The consumer is invariably instructed to use the funds to purchase a wire transfer, usually for several thousand dollars, at Western Union, MoneyGram, or similar wire transfer service. The consumer is then instructed to send the wire transfer to a third-party, who usually resides in a foreign country. As compensation, the consumer is told to keep a portion of the funds.

Unfortunately, the consumer who received and deposited the check usually discovers that it is counterfeit only after wiring the money. The scammers by this time have most likely received the wire transfer and converted it into cash."

Once again, I don't know how anyone is stupid enough to fall for these scams, but people do it everyday. It looks like Lin Qui was definitely rolling in the dough from these scams. Plano police and Walmart investigators believe she amassed 2,000 Walmart gift cards over the course of several months that totaled around four million dollars.

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