I found out I was the recent victim of a scam that has been going around. If you have worked with Pinecone Research than you probably have heard about it or been part of it.   Pinecone Research is a marketing company that sends you emails with surveys to take and they pay you $3 per survey.

So when I got the email from my contact, that I trusted having worked with them for 4 years. I thought the survey was legitimate. I was to cash a check and do a Western Union Secret Shopper survey.   I didn’t really look into it or think anything of it. Like I said I worked with this company for 4 years. After I cashed the check and did the transfer, the check bounced 3 days later. I would find out a few hours later that it was a scam after contacting Pinecone Research, the BBB, and local authorities.

I am devastated, I lost a lot of money and that was the money to catch up on bills, and take my kids out to do fun things this summer.

I guess I have to chalk it up to a lesson learned. I am still actively pursuing every available option to catch these thieves.

I blame a little bit of everyone for this, specially myself for being so dumb when it came to this. I also put a little blame on Pinecone research for not doing more to stop this afterall this person is using their company name.   The only thing they have done is post a note on their site, which I don’t think has been there that long. That is not good enough for me. They never sent a email around about this.

This is one of the emails I was sent

Dear Brandy,

The check meant to cover the expenses for the survey should be delivering soon, you are required to cash the check and proceed with your first assignment.

Your Immediate Assignment:

Carry out a Secret Survey on the nearest Western Union outlet in your location by forwarding a fixed amount { $1550.00 } to a “Mystery Consumer” in another region who’s conducting the same survey at the “Recipient” end.

Recipient’s Western Union Information:

Names: ADAM IVEY
City: SUGAR LAND
State: TX
Zip Code: 77479

Amount: ($1550.00)
MTCN: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Your income is $150.00 for the survey.
You’re to deduct another $150.00 to cover the transfer charges (Money in Minutes) at the Western Union outlet.

How to rate the Western Union Outlet’s Service:

You’re to simply rate the Western Union outlet’s service by simply observing and recording the parameters below:

Outlet store Address:
Appearance of Agent:
Time taken to complete Transaction:
Service:
Friendliness:
Efficiency:
Future improvement you would like to see:

Western Union Details After Completing the Survey:

Senders Name:
Senders Address:
MTCN:
Amount Sent:

Upon completion of the survey, you are to Immediately send us an E-mail with your rating of the outlet and the 10-Digit MTCN (Money Transfer Control Number) Nos of the transaction at Western Union which would be needed by the mystery consumer to complete her survey.

Thanks in advance for your participation.

Have a great day!
Karen Scott
Email: [email protected]
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Now everything looks exactly like the emails you get with surveys

I contacted Pinecone and they said it is a scam and that it had been happening a while. First off if this has been happening and tehy know about it, why not contact the authorities? why not contact every single person doing surveys for you to let them know?

I am still trying to figure all this out. The emails were from the exact same email address I get all the surveys from everything.  Plus another thing I don’t understand I never gave my address out to anyone else. So how was the check sent to me?

I also put a little blame on my bank for not realizing sooner that the check was fake and just cashing it without putting a hold on it or anything. I tried to get my money back but they said they cashed the check on good faith that it would be paid. So in reality they really don’t protect their customers against check fraud.

So please don’t fall for this. I have a long road ahead to make this up to my family.

Please do not make hurtful comments as I know what I did was stupid enough and don’t need to be put down anymore.

Have you ever been the victim of fraud?