What appears to be a check scam made its way to an Exline teenager. But wait said the companies director of operations, we're legitimate.

Jessica Wilkins, 19, received a three page letter and a $2,940 check from Shoppers Market Research on Monday, Dec. 29. The cover letter informs Wilkins she has been "selected to participate in a paid Consumer Research Program in your area of reference as a 'Mystery Shopper.'"

The letter offers the Exline teen part-time employment as a "Consumer Service Evaluator of the selected merchant outlets and service providers." For those who "distinguish themselves in the course of the program" the position becomes a permanent part-time job with the potential to earn up to $800 per week.

The first week of training Wilkins would be required to do two evaluations. She would first evaluate one of seven different large retailers and the second evaluation would be of Money Gram or Western Union.

"This is a hands on self training designed to equip you with the right tools necessary for you to effectively carry out your assignment as an experienced research personnel under this program," states the cover letter dated Dec. 23 and signed by Bolton Phillips, director of operations for Shoppers Market Research. "The objective of this assignment will be to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of a payment system called Money Gram."

The catch, as it were, is Wilkins was asked to deposit the $2,940 check in her bank account and then pay herself $100 per hour to go on a three-hour shopping trip spending $100 at any one of the seven listed merchants. Following a $140 service charge deduction, the remaining $2,400 was to be sent by Western Union or Money Gram to one of two different individuals living in New York.

"Also as part of your training, the merchandises you buy are yours as a bonus and the funds needed to complete the transaction assignment has been arranged and enclosed with this letter," the letter states. "For our verification of assignment completions, please call back with the Western Union Money Transfer Control Number or the Money Gram Reference Number immediately after completion."

Yet something wasn't sitting right with Wilkin's mother, Lisa, and Lora Clayworth, Fast Cash in Centerville manager, where the teen took the check to be cashed.

"She was headed to the bank with the check and I had to call her on her cell phone and say,'You know, you need to slow down and take a breathe, because I don't think this is real,'" Lisa said. "She was out the door before I had the letter and finished reading it."

Jessica's response at first was she couldn't believe her good luck.

"She said, 'Oh my God Mom, I'm going to to go do this. I've made some money.' And I was, oh Lord, Jessie."

Lisa said her daughter may have been targeted because of her online attempts to find "easy at home make a lot of money jobs."

"Young kids going to school think that they can find some good job online and do a little bit of work for a whole lot of money," Lisa said.

The check Wilkins received was drawn on J.P. Morgan Chase Bank out of Dallas, Texas. So Clayworth at Fast Cash called them to verify funds were available to cover the check.

"And this one, J. P. Morgan, is an automated system, so they tell you that it is an active and open account, but they will not tell you if there is funds in the account," Clayworth said.

Following that call, Clayworth made a second telephone call, but it went unanswered. Compounding her suspicion the check was a fraud was the misspelling of the word forty on the check.

"And they just don't do that," Clayworth said. "That is very, very, very unlikely that that is going to happen."

In Clayworth's mind everything added up to fraud, and she told Wilkins she wasn't going to cash the check.

"I told this girl, I said, 'You know what, if I cash this check and it comes back fraud, you're going to be the one they go after. You're going to be the one possibly sitting in jail if you cash this check."

Centerville Police Chief Tom Demry said he doesn't necessarily recall people calling his department with complaints about Shoppers Market Research, but he has fielded calls about other check scams.

"It may have been this company. But we get them all the time, people complain," Demry said. "They'll get them from these Nigerian scams, things like that, where they'll say, 'Here's a check for $4,000. Could you please cash it and send us back $2,500 and you keep the rest for your time.' We get a lot of those."

Demry's advice to anyone who receives a check or an offer that seems too good to be true is to ignore it.

"Basically we just tell people that it's a scam and don't cash the check," Demry said. "If it is too good to be true, it probably is," he said.

Demry said he has referred people to the Attorney Generals office in Des Moines. Otherwise, there is little his department can do to investigate a check scam.

"Usually they're from another county, where you can't go interview them," Demry said. "Do a complete investigation. And so there is really not a lot we do with them even anymore."

According to the Web site, ripoffreport.com, someone named Becky from Dayton, Ohio, filed a report in December, 2008, stating she too had received a letter and a $2,940 check in the mail from Shoppers Market Research to be a mystery shopper. She writes she believed it to be a scam.

A William from Pittsburgh, Penn., writes on the same Web site he received a letter and a $3,760 check from Shoppers Market Research in December of this year to participate in the Consumer Research Program. He was asked to transfer $3,200. He too believed it to be a scam.

A telephone call placed Tuesday afternoon to Shoppers Market Research in New York was answered by Bolton Phillips, director of operations. He insisted what they were doing was legitimate, not having one complaint in the six years they have been in business.

Phillips stressed that Wilkins was not being forced to participate or transfer a huge majority of the money to unknown individuals in another state.

"If she don't feel comfortable of doing it then she don't have to do it," Phillips said. "Nobody is being forced to do or not what to do."

Wilkin's attempt to cash the check and not deposit it in a bank account disqualified her, he said. The deposit stipulation acts as a security safeguard.

"Because if we allowed people to go and cash that check, and most of the people when they...and get the money for their own personal problems. So we told them...put the check into the bank account. If anybody spends our money, we know where our money is going to so we can get our money back," Phillips said.