shopper scam,,, again

By Danielle Grant, Local News 8 Reporter
IDAHO FALLS - It's nothing new, scammers going to great lengths to swindle you out of your own hard-earned cash.
Some are blaming the rough economy and payday lenders agree, they're seeing many more fraudulent checks coming into their doors.
A local couple with a check totaling close to $5,000 found out it's all a scam.
The Check 'N Loan store says they see bad checks at least once a week.
And the check the Espinosa family received was no different. It's a classic "too good to be true" offer nearly any woman would love: getting paid to go shopping.
"What woman wouldn't want to be a mystery shopper and get free stuff," said Dianna Espinosa.
Dianna got a check in the mail for $4,984 but after reading the letter along with it, things began to look a little fishy.
"[I thought] this is awesome. This seems too good to be true. This is almost $5,000 dollars and these people don't even know who I am," she said.
Although suspicious, she took it to Check N' Loan where they called the Bank of Easton to verify money was there.
"We didn't even get two words out and the bank said, ‘Is the check for this amount of money? Then its fraud.' We didn't even have a chance to confirm the funds, they automatically knew," Melanie Rhodes, a Check ‘N Loan teller, explained.
They've seen stacks of cases just like Dianna's come in: all fraudulent.
Dianna even tried to get the company on phone with us but all we heard was a disconnected signal.
Dianna believes these scammers target the weak.
Her husband's on social-security and she's looking for a job.
"With the check looking so real, I thought maybe they'll give me a shot at this. I'll get a steady income," Dianna explained.
Spending someone else's money and getting paid for it; sounds good but probably is too good to be true.
If you do get scammed and you cash a fraudulent check, you are then responsible for it and have to pay that money back.
If you don't pay, you could face felony forgery charges and end up behind bars.
Most of these types of scammers are beyond our borders so it makes prosecuting them more difficult.
If you think you may have been scammed, make sure to always call your local police department to report what happened.